The WOJB Watershed Experience
Under a grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program (WCMP) WOJB is producing a series of educational and informative news features about state, local, tribal and non-profit groups working on a variety of projects to restore, protect and improve the coastal watersheds of Lakes Superior and Michigan. You'll be able to listen to "A Watershed Experience" here, read the stories, see pictures and video. In addition, you will be able to download the stories for later listening, broadcast or publication. For your first "Watershed Experience" click here for poet, essayist and author Gary Snyder's description of watersheds.
For information about the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program go to www.coastal.wisconsin.gov
"A watershed is a marvelous thing to consider: this process of rain falling, streams flowing, and oceans evaporating causes every molecule of water on earth to make the compete trip once every two million years. The surface is carved into watersheds --- a kind of familial branching, a chart of relationships, and a definition of place. The watershed is the first and last nation whose boundaries, though subtly shifting, are unarguable. Races of birds, subspecies of trees, and types of hats or rain gear often go by the watershed. For the watershed, cities and dams are ephemeral and of no more account than a boulder that falls in the river or a landslide that temporarily alters the channel. The water will always be there, and it will always find its way down....It may be amused by such diversions. But we who live interms of centuries rather than millions of years must hold the watershed and its communities together, so our children might enjoy the clear water and fresh life of this landscape we have chosen.
All public land ownership is ultimately written in sand...the only "jurisdiction" that will last in the world of nature is the watershed..."
Gary Snyder from A Place in Space; Ethics, Aesthetics and Watersheds. Counterpoint, New York, NY.
Used by permission of the author.
Coming soon to A Watershed Experience: Ephemeral Ponds on the Lake Michigan Watershed, Riding on the Ice Across the Chequamegon Bay and The Lake Superior Bi-National Forum Hears The Voices of the People.
