Watersheds & Land (TX Aquatic Science)

Watersheds & Land
Texas Aquatic Science

Understand the fragile relationship between land and watersheds across Texas

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We will...

• Everything on land eventually affects your water

• This can directly affect the health of our watersheds

• Where does our water go when it leaves your house? How does it affect you?

Land Use and Your Water

Open Ended

List a type of pollution from your home/land that can affect the water:

• Fertilizers

• Herbicides

• Pesticides

• Sewage

• Livestock

• Chemicals (oil, gasoline, household stuff)

• Vehicle leaks

• Non-liquid items that collect & breakdown over time

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Land Pollutants

• Pollution that comes from one source
  and is easily identified

• Someone's busted sewage line

Point Source Pollution

• Can be from several sources; harder to pinpoint source

• fertilizers from neighborhoods, livestock, vehicle traffic

Nonpoint Source Pollution

Open Ended

What do you think is the BIGGEST pollutant in Texas?

• Actually, DIRT is the biggest pollutant, but not in the way that you think

• Sedimentation (dirt that breaks off and is carried into the water) is the biggest culprit

• Sediment is actually "soil" that gets mixed into our water

• Sediment can be rock, gravel, sand, mud, clay, etc. Any size, shape, form of "dirt" or "rock"

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Lil' Dirt Don't Hurt...

• Erosion, by definition, is the wearing away and movement of solid material like soil, mud, rock, etc.

• Can be caused by any natural or man-made force

• Can you think of any local areas dealing with erosion?

Erosion

Open Ended

Describe as many causes of erosion that you notice in our area:

• Sometimes, you can't do much to stop erosion (as you saw in the videos)

• Some things can help, such as not cutting down a lot of trees, removing grasslands, poor farming practices

• Planting native trees and grasses, building retaining walls, and practicing good farming, ranching, and landscaping can help

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Erosion Issues

• Texas has 11 major natural regions

• It is important to know your region and understand how to best manage your land and water resources

• Habitat, wildlife, cities, etc all affect our natural regions and our water resources

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Natural Regions of Texas

Open Ended

Which natural region are we located in? How does it affect us compared to the rest of the state?