Appendix 3. What’s Your Watershed Address?

Most people are accustomed to thinking of their address as the street they live on, or the town they reside in, or maybe even the county. However, we all have a watershed address as well. We might identify with a very large watershed, such as the entire Passaic River watershed which covers over 900 square miles in northern New Jersey and southern New York, or we can identify with a smaller watershed such as the Great Swamp watershed, which covers only 55 square miles. But even within the Great Swamp watershed there are a number of sub-watersheds. This activity will introduce your students to the concept of a watershed address, and help them figure out what their own watershed address is.

Materials:

• Copies of the enclosed black and white map of the Great Swamp watershed and its sub-watersheds.
• A current road or municipal map for comparison and landmarks.

Procedure:

• Using the black and white map enclosed, ask each student to identify which sub-watershed he or she lives in: the Black, Loantaka, Great, Primrose or Passaic. You may need to provide a road or municipal map to assist them with this.
• Once they have identified the watershed address for their homes, have students determine whether they cross watershed boundaries to attend school, religious services or to go shopping and other activities.
• Finally, ask students to observe land uses upstream of their homes that might be impacting the water quality and quantity closer to their homes.

Copyright 2000. Great Swamp Watershed Association.