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Watersheds
The quality of our lakes is dependent on the health of
their watersheds. Nothing has a more profound effect on our lakes than
the decisions we make on how we use the land that surrounds them. Logging,
farming, livestock grazing, and urban development occurring in a watershed
can affect a lake’s
water quality. Poor land use even several miles away can end up harming
fish and wildlife habitat in a lake.
What is a watershed?
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| A map of all Wisconsin's watersheds. |
When it rains or snow melts, water flows over (and
into) the land and makes its way through gullies, streams, and groundwater
into our lakes and rivers. A watershed is the area of land where all surface
water draining off the land and all the groundwater moving underneath the
land drain into common waterways within the boundaries of the watershed
(lakes, rivers, wetlands, groundwater).
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| Major drainage patterns in Wisconsin.
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All lands and waterways are within a watershed. Watersheds
(and the waters that flow through them) are also connected to each other;
smaller watersheds drain into larger watersheds. The map to the right
shows where all of Wisconsin's water (small watersheds draining into larger
ones) eventually flows.
There are three major drainage patterns in Wisconsin.
Areas shaded brown drain to Lake Superior, areas shaded purple drain to
Lake Michigan, and areas shaded yellow drain to the Mississippi River.
How do watersheds affect lakes?
Lakes, rivers, wetlands, and groundwater are interconnected.
Depending on the type of lake, groundwater
and rivers may be the water source for lakes. Many wetlands border lakes
and rivers. The waters that fill all of these water sources flow through
the same watershed.
If water cannot soak into the ground (because the land
is covered by hard surfaces such as roads) or runoff waters is polluted
(with sediments, salts, nutrients such as phosphorus, and other contaminants)
this can directly affect how much water is flowing into a lake and lake
water quality.
Developing land within a
watershed can have consequences on the health of our lakes. Replacing
agricultural, forests,land wetlands, with houses, roads, and other hard
surfaces water cannot penetrate through reduces the amount of water soaking
into groundwater and increases polluted runoff.
Forests and wetlands play a significant role in slowing down and filtering
runoff and are important fish and wildlife habitat. The links below explore
how groundwater, forests, and wetlands are important to lakes.
Groundwater Connection
Forest Connection
Wetland connection
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