North Forty News: “Watershed Health (Part 1)”
Why Ask if Your Watershed is Healthy?
What is a watershed? A watershed is a land area defined by the main river or stream that drains it. Stretching west to east, from the mountains to the plains, the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre Watershed encompasses about 400,000 acres. This is the last remaining watershed on Colorado’s northern Front Range, where flying parallel along the Colorado-Wyoming border and going west from Interstate 25 to the continental divide would reveal a bird’s eye of a large, connected landscape, where rolling grasslands grade into rugged shrublands on sandstone and limestone mesas and buttes, and then rise up into dense forests at higher elevations. Winding tributaries of the North Fork water this landscape, creating green ribbons of lush streamsides and wetlands. Thanks to the efforts of individuals and organizations, 110,000 acres of public lands are connected to over 100,000 acres of conserved private lands, making this watershed unique.
Why care if your watershed is healthy? We all benefit, directly and or indirectly, from healthy watersheds. Watersheds provide us with opportunities to walk, hike, ride, watch wildlife, hunt, fish, enjoy solitude, eat local food, and drink a local brew. Farmers, ranchers, loggers, and small and large business owners rely on healthy watersheds to produce the goods and services for our quality of life as we work and play.
How do you know if a watershed is healthy? Some wildlife is more sensitive to human activities than others. Coyotes, American robin, black-billed magpie, red fox, and white-tail deer are often found close to humans. Some species can become so comfortable they can become a nuisance, like fox squirrels and black bears. Others, like bobcats, river otters, greenback cutthroat trout, and yellow-breasted chat, are more sensitive, and hence more secretive, less often seen and heard near people. When the full complement of native species occurs in abundance a watershed is considered healthy.
