A watershed is an area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet such as the outflow of a reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel. The word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with drainage basin or catchment. Ridges and hills that separate two watersheds are called the drainage divide. The watershed consists of surface water--lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands--and all the underlying ground water. Larger watersheds contain many smaller watersheds. It all depends on the outflow point; all of the land that drains water to the outflow point is the watershed for that outflow location. Watersheds are important because the streamflow and the water quality of a river are affected by things, human-induced or not, happening in the land area "above" the river-outflow point.
So now that we know what watersheds are, the next question inevitably becomes...
Why do I care?
Watersheds sustain life, in more ways than one. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than $450 billion in foods, fiber, manufactured goods and tourism depend on clean, healthy watersheds. That is why proper watershed protection is necessary to you and your community. The health of a watershed is directly related to the amount of anthropologic and natural pollutants that occur within the watershed footprint. To put it in "cacher" terms, how are you going to find that awesome scuba cache if a powerplant is putting toxic waste in the water 10 miles upstream?!
Speaking of upstream (and downstream) did you know that watersheds are kind of like Russian Nesting Dolls?
(Yes, these type of Russian Nesting Dolls)
By the definition, a watershed could be as small as a footprint or large enough to encompass all the land that drains water into rivers that drain into Chesapeake Bay, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean. What this inevitably means is that some watersheds are inside of others... like a Russian Nesting Doll! The Hood Canal Watershed is part of the larger area of landmass that makes up the Puget Sound Watershed. Similarly the Hood Canal Watershed contains the smaller Skokomish Watershed! This watershed incorporates land from Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap and Mason counties.
The Hood Canal Watershed drains into the Hood Canal, a fjord formed during the Late Pleistocene era approximately 13,000 years ago when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreated. While it retreated it carved through the land creating both the canal and the larger Puget Sound. As a direct result of this glacial retreat, the current watershed developed as water drained from higher eleveations into the canal, sound and eventually the pacific ocean.
Now for the part you've all been patiently waiting for...
*Cue dramatic music*
HOW TO LOG THIS CACHE:
Answer the following questions. The answers can be found both in this description (yes you actually have to read the description) and at the sign at GZ. Shoot me a message and log your smiley. If your answers are wrong I'll email you and we can discuss how you got them wrong... and then I'll let you log your smiley anyway (the learning process is more about having a discussion than about being right after all!)
1) What are the ridges and hills that seperate two watersheds called?
2) Once the water reaches the Hood Canal from the surrounding landmasses, it slows due to shallow underwater ledges or "sills." Up to how long can it take for the waters to exchange with the greater Puget Sound?
3) Which ice sheet formed the Hood Canal?
4) Name one river in the Hood Canal watershed which feeds into the canal.
5) How many miles of shoreline are in the watershed?
Shoot me a message in the geocaching messaging system and log your earth cache! I hope you learned something and had fun doing it! Keep caching and visit my other Earthcaches!
GC5TFRE: The Ross Sea Earth Cache
GC62H9E: The DC Bioretention Cells
GC6X15G: Honeycombing at Laguna Beach
GC6QZEK: Lava Dams of the Grand Canyon Earthcache
Congratulations to Pyrraxis for the First to Find!
Information for this geocache was collected from USGS (United States Geological Society), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and the WWRIA (Washington Water Resource Inventory Areas).