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Water Quality and Conservation Issues in the Bear Creek Watershed. December 2009.
The Bear Creek Watershed Virtual Tours were created with funds provided by the Bear Creek Watershed Education Partners through a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board with additional funding from Oregon Trout’s Healthy Waters Institute.
Craig Harper, Rogue Valley Council of Governments
Medford Water Commission
Global Freshwater vs. Saltwater
2.5% = Freshwater
Of that 2.5% portion of Earth’s total water:
Data from The Freshwater Trust
Glaciers & Permafrost: 68.9%
Streams, Lakes & Rivers: 0.3%
What do watersheds do?
What do watersheds do for people?
What do watersheds do for animals?
How do you use water?
Photo by Brandon Goldman
High functioning watersheds have ways to take care of the bad stuff: contaminants, excess water, soil movement into streams….
People, fish, and wildlife are healthier in a well functioning watershed.People can sometimes do things which impact the function of the watershed.
What are some things people do which affect the watershed?
Do those acts help or hurt the way the watershed can work?
HOW CLEAN IS IT?
Many streams do not meet water quality standards
for temperature, bacteria, sediment, and nutrients,
all of which can mean the stream is not healthy for fish
or safe for swimming.
What have we done
to change the natural systems?
Storm drains in the Bear Creek watershed drain directly to streams. Nothing cleans the water running in the gutter or ditches.Stormwater does not get treated.Do not put anything in the storm drain that should not be in a stream.
Runoff is excess water that washes
pollutants into local streams.
Where will this muddy water end up?
Wash cars on lawn or gravel where the soapy water will soak into the ground to be filtered and decompose. When soapy water from vehicle washing goes to the street it ends up in the stream. Soapy water won’t hurt the lawn, but it will hurt the stream.
If water becomes polluted while traveling over the land to get to a fish’s stream, then the fish’s habitat becomes polluted.
Healthy native fish in the Bear Creek watershed need clean, cold water. People can help keep it that way.
Are there ways to conserve?
Use a nozzle on garden hoses that automatically turn off when not in use.
Turn off the water when brushing teeth.
Take shorter showers.
Water must sustain us all.
It is a limited resource.
Students planting to restore Jackson Creek.