WHAT IS A WATERSHED?
The Grand Lake Watershed Alliance Foundation was formed to address the water quality issues in the Grand Lake Watershed. So, what is a watershed? A watershed is simply an area of land that water flows across or through on its way to a common stream, river, or lake. A watershed can be very large, draining thousands of square miles to a major river or lake or the ocean, or very small, such as a 20-acre watershed that drains to a pond. A small watershed that nests inside of a larger watershed is sometimes referred to as a subwatershed. A watershed that is drained by a river and all its tributaries is often called a river basin.
(numbers represent sub-watersheds within a watershed)
The Grand Lake Watershed contains many small watersheds, numerous large watersheds, several reservoirs and three river basins (Neosho, Spring and Elk rivers).
Experts have names for the various areas within a watershed. Watersheds can be categorized by management zones – the waterbody, riparian, and upland zones. Waterbody is a term that includes any stream, river, pond, lake, estuary or ocean. The riparian zone is defined as the non-cultivated, vegetated area between the waterbody edge and the upland area. Riparian means “of the river” and the riparian zone is intimately connected with the waterbody. The upland area usually is defined as the land above a high water mark.
The places where surface waters first begin flowing are called headwaters. Some experts like to categorize the hydrography or water bodies within a watershed by a classification system referred to as stream order. For example, when a stream first begins, it is called a first order stream. When two first-order streams join, the water below the junction is called second order streams, etc. In this classification system, the next higher order stream is formed when two of the immediately lower order streams have joined.
