What watershed do you live in?

Everyone lives in a watershed. You and everyone in your watershed are part of a watershed community. The animals, birds, and fish are, too. You influence what happens in your watershed, good or bad, by how you treat the natural resources - the soil, water, air, plants, and animals. What happens in your small watershed also affects the larger watershed downstream.

Ohio's Drainage Basins

Ohio has two primary drainage basins. Lake Erie in the north, and the Ohio River in the South. There is an imaginary line that goes through 17 different counties that is called the "Basin Divide".

Can you find which side of the Basin Divide you live on, using the map below?

Principal Watersheds

Ohio is then  further  divided into smaller watersheds, of which there are many principal watersheds.  Principal watersheds are watersheds that are important to the water quality of Ohio and the United States, and are divided up into manageable sizes so that agencies such as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), and more, can allocate resources to the necessary locations. Union County contains four of the principal watersheds of Ohio. The Darby Creek Watershed, Bokes Creek Watershed, and the Mill Creek Watershed. There are other watersheds than these in Union County, but for management purposes, these four watersheds are of high importance. Click on the links below to learn more about these watersheds:

Darby Creek Watershed*

Bokes Creek Watershed

Mill Creek Watershed

Upper Scioto River Watershed**

*- Darby Creek Watershed information is hosted on an external site, and many of the names and contact information are out of date. Work is being done to migrate the information to Union SWCD's own website. 
**- Upper Scioto River Watershed information was hosted by Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District, and has since been taken down. The link shows the page as it was in 2006, by using the "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Please note that some names and contact information may be out of date. Work is being done to migrate the information to Union SWCD's own website.

More Information:

U.S. Geological Survey: Science in Your Watershed

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: "Surf Your Watershed"