Managing Our Watershed For Water's Sake.

Our watershed is quite complex! I loved learning about it several years ago, and I really enjoyed teaching my students about its complexity. It's crazy to think how many people rely on it, the vast areas it stretches out to sustain, and the affects a tiny human can have upon it. It's crucial that we keep it sustainable and truly research our impact we have upon it-both near and far. Idaho is a very rural state and it relies on the farmers to help support it, as a whole. Those farmers rely on the watershed to sustain their crops. From there...it must sustain the rest of the state. In the valley, we focus on water as a luxury (from watering our gardens, to playing in the back yard or city park fountains), but we have to first look to the overarching idea of how to best use our watershed before we consider the personal enjoyment it brings us all. This year, especially, I'm amazed at the dam engineers that helped us to sustain our water in order to not flood and also help water Idaho all summer long.