This is one of the best simple yet well drawn diagrams of a watershed I have found. Complements of Canadaigua Lake Watershed Council.
As everybody knows, our political boundaries are drawn according to political originations where those originations may or may not include geomorphological/environmental considerations. In many cases those boundaries are drawn based on the explicit power struggles that existed or still exist between bi- or multilateral states (e.g. the “natural” political borders of old-world countries such as Europe of the presently contested border between India and Pakistan). Or, they are mutually agreed upon with little struggle from higher powers, for example the dividing up of smaller state-level entities by national-level people (e.g. the creation of a rectangular Wyoming by the United States government*) or the dividing up of nation-states by other nation-states (e.g. the division of the Middle East by colonial/European powers). These boundaries may simply be a straight line through the desert or a straight line parallel to a line of latitude or longitude, or they may be dictated by the natural geological conditions and features such as mountain ridges, streams, or of course the natural bounding of the land by the water.
However, in all these cases it is the people that have divided the land according to their abilities, only partially conforming to the constraints of the natural formations. Beneath these political boundaries, however, it is through an explicit recognition of our necessity of reliance on watershed issues that brings people together or tears them apart (depending on who you ask and the watershed at hand) and that at the very least forces dedicated people to confront the issues of environmental stewardship for the common benefit of the populace. It is in this context that the greatness of watershed management councils such as the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council must be not only recognized but hailed and revered as the keepers of the very Earth we live on. It is the seemingly ordinary folks who work tirelessly to protect and enhance the quality of the environment in which we live, defying political divisions, who are the true heroes of our time. They are extraordinary, those who are “protecting the lifeblood of our region.”
The thing we must always keep in mind about our environment, however, is that its processes occur in a multidimensional universe over scales that are much different from the scales that we deal with on a day-to-day basis. It is for this reason that issues such as global warming don’t really mean much to most people, or rather they don’t mean enough to actually cause people to change their actions in order to protect that which they are destroying. The environmental system in which we live is fundamentally tied to all scales of the universe, from the subatomic particle level (how much does the typical person consider the consequences of their actions or the effects of the surrounding environment on their own health at the subatomic particle level? I certainly don’t…er, well, yes I do) to the universe level (affecting the tide levels, the rotation of the earth about the sun, the various energies constantly raining down upon our earth).
Their must therefore necessarily be watershed councils at multiple levels, and their are. However, the problem still remains that the vast majority of people simply cannot relate their actions to the environmental changes that take place at the larger spatial and temporal dimensions. The differential is simply too small. It is thus of fundamental, critical importance that 1) we all recognize that collectively we must do something (through education, etc.), 2) that we must elect a body who will do something and empower that body to do it, 3) accept that we must abide by the law if it set down in such a way as to accomplish the will of the educated public, and 4) each take the personal responsibility to change our own behaviours in a way that is consistent with what we know, based on our knowledge, to be the right thing to do, including (which takes us back to steps 1 & 2) further educating ourselves and electing responsibly. I humbly acknowledge that although people should “do the right thing” they will not unless they have the guidance as to what the right thing is and are made to abide by what that right thing is through enforcement of laws and encouragement of adhering to the morality instilled by established and, in many cases, new religions and spiritual frameworks.
*note: the Wyoming Territory came into existence by act of Congress on July 25, 1868, according to the State of Wyoming – General Facts about Wyoming.
