I love kayaking the Chautauqua Lake Outlet, which is the start of the Chadakoin River and part of the Mississippi River watershed. Photo by Jen Maguder

Recently I attended a Land Trust Alliance conference in Minneapolis, Minn. The main focus of the conference was on land conservation. Since I do a lot of public outreach and environmental education for the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, I tried to seek out seminars on those subjects at the conference. As a result, I went to many excellent presentations, where the recurring theme was word choice for educational messages.

If you are reading this article, you’ve certainly seen the word “watershed” before.  Have you ever asked yourself if you know what a watershed is? Lately I’ve been asking friends and family out of curiosity and have found (unsurprisingly) that the word “watershed” isn’t part of everyone’s vocabulary.  I’m not pointing a finger at those readers who can’t define a watershed but am instead using this opportunity to explain it for everyone who reads this column.

A watershed is “an area of land upon which all the water that falls flows toward the same location.” Every bit of land that gets rain or snow is in a watershed.  Even the vastest, driest deserts are in watersheds. So therefore, if you are on earth right now, you are in a watershed!

The Chautauqua Lake watershed is a small watershed within the larger Mississippi River watershed, where all the water flows toward the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Erie is in a different watershed from Chautauqua Lake, even though the shores of the two lakes are only separated by about 8 miles at their closest point. Rain falling in Mayville, N.Y., will swell the creeks or enter storm drains, making its way toward Chautauqua Lake. Once this rain water flows out into the Lake, it will join the slow, hardly perceptible drift of the lake water toward the southeast end.  These water molecules may someday reach the Chautauqua Lake Outlet, and Jamestown, N.Y., via the Chadakoin River. In Falconer, N.Y., the Chadakoin will join Cassadaga Creek. Shortly afterward, Cassadaga Creek will meet Conewango Creek and cross the Pennsylvania border. The rain that fell in Mayville made incredible progress, didn’t it? However, this is just the beginning of its journey. In Warren, PA, Conewango Creek meets the Allegheny River, which will take the water to meet the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, PA, forming the Ohio River. From there, the water will take an ambling course westward, eventually joining the Mississippi River on the Kentucky – Illinois border. One day, the rain water that fell from a cloud above Mayville, N.Y., could make it down to New Orleans, La., and then into the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic Ocean.

Interestingly, water that falls in Barcelona, N.Y., on the Lake Erie shore won’t ever visit the cities of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville or New Orleans. Instead, water that falls in the Lake Erie watershed will make its way over Niagara Falls and into Lake Ontario, where it will begin its calm drift toward Massena, N.Y., on the St. Lawrence River, visiting Montreal and Quebec City before meeting the Atlantic Ocean near the Province of Newfoundland in eastern Canada.

Some water that falls from the sky is quickly evaporated, becoming clouds that will rain somewhere else. Yet, some water that falls on our properties here in Chautauqua County might one day provide drinking water to a family in Memphis, Tenn., or Trois-Riveres, Quebec.

Now that everyone knows more about watersheds, I want to remind you that everyone lives in a watershed! Unless you catch and use all the water that lands on your property in the form of rain or snow, water from your property joins other water from your watershed as it flows across the earth. This is why what we do on our property matters. Using chemicals to treat your lawn or allowing pet waste to be washed away can have an effect miles away from your home. Polluting the creek in your yard is not confined to your property but affects everyone downstream. You can learn how to help protect our watershed and others at chautauquawatershed.org.

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy is a local not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving and enhancing the water quality, scenic beauty and ecological health of the lakes, streams, wetlands and watersheds of the Chautauqua region.  For more information, call 664-2166 or visit www.chautauquawatershed.org or www.facebook.com/chautauquawatershed.