How Can ! Make A Difference?
Top Ten Watershed Tips
1. Conserve water every day—take shorter showers, fix leaks, and turn off the water while brushing your
teeth.
2. Don't pour toxic household chemicals down the drain—take them to a local hazardous waste collection
center instead.
3. Use hardy plants in your yard that require little or no watering, fertilizers, or pesticides.
4. Test your soil before applying fertilizer—it might not need it!
5. Recycle yard waste in a compost pile and leave grass clippings on the lawn.
6. Use surfaces like wood, brick, and gravel for decks, patios, and walkways. They allow rain to soak
in, not run off.
7. Never pour used oil or antifreeze into the storm drain or the street. Recycle them at your local service station.
8. Pick up after your dog and dispose of the waste in the toilet or the trash.
9. Drive less—walk or bike instead.
10. Adopt Your Watershed! Learnmoreatwww.epa.gov/adopt.
Tools to Help You Adopt Your Watershed
Youth & Student Watershed Programs
Adopt-A-Watershed www.adopt-a-watershed.org
Awesome Aquifer Club www.groundwater.org
Educating Young People About Water
www.uwex.edu/erc/eypaw
Make Your Own Watershed Kit
Contact JT&A at 703-631 -8810
Making Ripples: How to Organize a School
Water Festival www.groundwater.org
Protecting Our Watersheds www.green.org
Project WET (Water Education for
Teachers) www.montana.edu/wwwwet
River of Words Poetry and Art Contest
www.nverofwords.org
Schoolyard Habitat Program of the National
Wildlife Federation
www.nwf.org/schoolyardhabitats
Wetland Education
www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/education
Girl Scouts' Water Drop Patch Project
www.epa.gov/adopt/patch
USGS Water Science for Schools
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu
Tools for Watershed Partnerships
Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for
Watershed Protection www.epa.gov/owow/
watershed/wacademy/fund.html
Know Your Watershed Tool Kit
www.ctic.purdue.edu/catalog/watershedmanagement.html
Starting Up: A Handbook for New River
and Watershed Organizations
Contact the River Network at 1 -800-423-6747
The Clean Water Act: An Owner's Manual
Contact the River Network at 1 -800-423-6747
EPA's Watershed Academy
www. epa. gov/watertrain
EPA's River Corridor and Wetland
Restoration Web Site
www. epa. gov/o wo w/wetlands/restore
EPA's Watershed Information Network
www. epa. gov/win
Center for Watershed Protection
www.cwp.org
Izaak Walton League of America's Save Our
Stream Program www.iwla.org/sos
A Message from the Administrator
Christine Todd Whitman
I believe water is the biggest
environmental issue we face in the
21!t Century in terms of both quality
and quantity. In the 30 years since
its passage, the Clean Water Act has
dramatically increased the number of
waterways that are once again safe
for fishing and swimming. Despite
this great progress in reducing water
pollution, many of the nation's waters still do not meet
water quality goals. I challenge you to join with me
to finish the business of restoring and protecting our
nation's waters for present and future generations.
National Monitoring Day
tober 18, 2002, volunteer
Storing programs, water quality
__,_.icies, students, and the public
to test waters across the nation in
r.i *^/\. i A • r.i /^i
Water Act. Everyone will test for temperature,
pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity and enter
their results into a national database. Data will be
publicly available at www.yearofcleanwater.org.
National Water Monitoring Day will also feature
educational events, water festivals, and wide-
spread press coverage.
This is not a complete mention of available resources, and mention
of these products does not constitute endorsement by EPA.
For a more extensive list of resources, visit the Watershed Information
Network at www.epa.gov/win;view the Office of Water publications
list at http://yosemite.epa.gov/water/owrccatalog.nsf;
or call the Water Resource Center at 1 -800-832-7828.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water (450 IT)
EPA840-F-02-001 • April 2002
In celebration of the 30th anniversary
x^ of the Clean Water Act, EPA presents
'RCrt*-
Adopt Your
Watershed!
* 2002 *
THE YEAR OF
CLEAN WATER
www.epa.
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^Precipitation
What is a watershed?
No matter
where you live, you live in a watershed. A
watershed is the land area that drains to a single
body of water such as a stream, lake, wetland, or
underground aquifer. Watersheds come in many
different sizes:
a few acres
might drain
into a small
stream or
wetland; a few
large rivers might
drain into an estuary
where fresh water and
salt water mix. The
actions of people who live
in a watershed affect the
health of the waters that drain through it.
Whenever rain falls or snow melts, chemicals,
fertilizers, sediment, and other pollutants from the
land are washed into lakes, streams, wetlands, and
rivers. To achieve healthy watersheds, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs
the help of citizens like you!
e call the earth the water planet
:ause water covers 70 percent of its
aurface. Americans depend on clean
_ drink, to irrigate crops, and to run
industries. Water resources provide opportunities
such as fishing and swimming, and wetlands
provide protection from floods. Rivers, lakes,
estuaries, and wetlands also provide critical
habitat for wildlife. Estuaries serve as birthplace
1 nursery for most saltwater fish and she1" ' "
Watershed
Boundary
Hillside
What is the Adopt Your Watershed
Campaign?
To encourage stewardship of the nation's water
resources, EPA challenges citizens and organiza-
tions to join the Agency and those who are working
to protect and restore our nation's valuable rivers,
streams, wetlands, lakes, ground water, and estuaries.
What do we mean by adoption?
"Adoption" means any citizen-based
effort—large or small—to restore or
protect a watershed, river, lake, wet-
land, or estuary. Examples of adop-
tion activities include:
• \6kmteeringanonitoiwater
quality
• Sterdingtamdrains
• Organizing stream cleanups
• Planting trees along eroding streambanks
• Hosting a water festival
• Working with local government agencies and
others that make water quality decisions
How can I find out what groups are
active in my community?
Go to www.epa.gov/adopt to view EPA's on-line
national catalog of organizations involved in pro-
tecting their local water bodies. This on-line
resource showcases opportunities to get involved in
activities in your community, such as monitoring,
cleanups, and restoration projects. With more
II groups currently registered for
the Adopt Your Watershed database
can now update their information
online at http://yosemite.epa.gov/water/
adopt.nsf/update. It's important that the
information in the database is accurate, so
we strongly encourage all groups to update
their records! You can also e-mail changes to:
group_adopt@epa.gov.
The Adopt Your Watershed web site also has a
form for groups interested in receiving a
Certificate of Appreciation for their efforts.
than 700 active volunteer monitoring groups,
12,000 classroooms, and more than 3,000 water-
shed alliances working nationwide, there are many
opportunities to join an organized effort in your
community.
If you don't have Internet access, call EPA's Water
Resource Center at 1 -800-832-7828 and ask for
information on watershed groups in your county.
Join Our National Catalog of
Watershed Partnerships!
Do you represent an organization that should
be listed? Here's how you can be included in
our catalog of watershed partnerships to network
with others and receive periodic updates. Go to
www.epa.gov/adopt and click on "Join Now." Or
send the following application to:
Adopt Your Watershed
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW (450IT)
Washington, DC 20460
e-mail: group_adopt@epa.gov
fax:202-566-1326
Group/School Name
Organization Contact
Address
City
State
ZIP
County
Tribal Nation
Internet Address_
E-mail
Telephone
Fax
Number of Volunteers (approximate)
If your group is a local chapter of a regional or national organization,
what is its name?
Organization type: Select the one that most closely describes the group.
Watershed Alliance/Watershed Council
Volunteer Monitoring
Youth Education Project/Program
Restoration/Conservation Project
Other: (Please specify)
Watershed or water body name:
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