Watershed Connections

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					Watershed Connections
        an activity book for kids
    who care about Virginia’s waters

Virginia Association of Soil & Water Conservation Districts
       - a partnership to conserve natural resources -
           Virginia Association
            of Soil & Water
              Conservation Districts

7293 Hanover Green Dr., Suite B101
Mechanicsville, VA 23111
Phone (804) 559-0324 Fax (804) 559-0324
            Watershed Connections
An activity book for kids who care about Virginia’s waters

           by Dawn C. Shank, Watershed Education Manager
     Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
                 7293 Hanover Green Dr., Suite B101
                      Mechanicsville, VA 23111
    (804) 559-0324 fax (804) 559-0325 email:

                         cover by Devon Smith
            illustrations by Dawn Shank, Stephen Feltner,
        kids drawings (1991) by Jenny Tressler, Will Burgess,
    Karen Randall, Jimmy Gray, Patrick Feucht, Michelle Ringley,
                  Megan Previs and Hannah Simmons
                        Watershed Connections
                                               Table of Contents







What you can do to help keep Virginia’s waterways healthy .................................... 10






                            What is a watershed?

                                                        It’s the land that water flows
                                                               across or under on its
                                                                    way to a stream,
                                                                     river or lake.

Not all watersheds are the same. A watershed can be in the mountains or where the
land is nearly flat.
Cities, farms and forests may be in a watershed.
How we use the land in a watershed affects the water that flows through it.
We all live in a watershed — even plants and animals. So it’s important
to protect our waterways.

Unscramble these words to find out some of the reasons we
need clean water. (The answers are on page 21.)

girdnkin          ___________________________________
m n i s w m i g ___________________________________
nifsgih           ___________________________________
fgiramn           ___________________________________
t r e a c o i n r e ___________________________________
d p r o u n c g i s o g o d ____________________ ___________
Make a watershed model
Aluminum foil
Shallow rectangular pan
Food coloring or colored powdered drink mix
Spray bottle or paper cup with holes punched in bottom

1. Tear off a piece of foil to fit inside the pan. Crumble another piece of foil to make dips and gulleys
to represent streams and rivers.
2. At one end of the foil, make a larger basin or pocket. This will be a bay or ocean and will collect
water that runs off from the tributaries.
3. Put blocks or rocks in the corners of one side of the pan to make mountains and shape the foil over
the blocks.
4. Pile soil up at the upper end of your watershed near the mountains on top of the raised sections of
foil. You can make the mountain end higher by putting a book under the pan to prop it up. The
cracks and dips represent bodies of water.
5. Squeeze a few drops of food coloring in the soil to represent a source of pollution.
6. Make it “rain” over the mountains with a spray bottle or paper cups with holes punched in the
7. Watch how the water runs off
of the land, into the tributaries
and then to the bay or ocean,
carrying the pollution
with it.

                                            Larger watersheds are made up of many smaller sub-waterheds.

Adapted from Chesapeake Bay Estuary Program’s, “What’s a Watershed,” U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s Chesapeake Bay
Watershed Activity Guide, Bay BC’s and Watershed Watchers, Lord Fairfax SWCD’s curriculum for 4th graders

What’s your watershed address?
        You know your street address.
        Do you know your
        watershed address?

                                                         _____ _________
                                                                _____        _
   To figure out your watershed address,                _____         _____ _________
                                                               _____        _          __
think about where you live. Find a map             Write             _____ _________ _
                                                         your n            _____      _
of your county and figure out exactly where                     ame &           _____ __
                                                                      home           ___
you live.                                                                  ad dress
                                                                                      on thi
   When it rains on the roof of your house or apart-                                           s lette
ment, where does the water go? Is there a creek, stream, lake or
river near your house that the water flows to?

1) The name of the closest body of water is the first part of your watershed address.
Write the name of that waterway on the second line on envelope below.

                                                                              You may have to do some
                                                                              detective work if you have
            your name                                                         storm drains on your street.
                                                                              Where does the water go
            2)                                                                from the storm drain?
                                                                              Look at a map and see if you
                                                                   h   ed
            3)                                                 ers            can trace its path.
                                                       My     ess
                                                        a ddr

  You may live in an area where the water seeps into underground caves and streams.
This land is called karst. If you live in a karst area, the rain from your roof may flow straight to the

2) Where does the water go from there? Trace the river or creek to the next body of water on the map.
That’s the next part of your address. Write the name of the waterway on the next line.

3) Keep following the path the water would take until you get to a bay, ocean or lake. This is the last
part of your watershed address. Write the name of the waterway on the last line.

Now you know your watershed address!
                                                                               Chi e Cha
                                                                                   c       p
                                                                              Jam kahom lin
                                                       Paden Vargo           Che s Riv iny Ri
                                                       Fountain Creek            sap      e     ver
                                                                                      eak r
                                                       Chowan River                      e B
                                                       Albemarle Sound
                                                       Atlantic Ocean                                         5
Virginia’s watersheds
There are nine major watersheds in Virginia. Some flow to the Chesapeake Bay. Some go directly into the
Atlantic Ocean. Others flow to the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. Some rivers in Virginia even flow to
the Mississippi and then the Gulf of Mexico!
    1) Shenandoah - Potomac
    2) Rappahannock
    3) York
    4) James                                                             1
    5) Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay
      & Coastal rivers                                              2
    6) Chowan
    7) Roanoke
    8) New                                                                   3
    9) Tennessee-Big Sandy             4

                                 8                                                              5
                                                     7                           6

Color in the watershed where you live.
Do you have a friend or relative who lives in another watershed?

Put a check by the rivers that you have visited on the list below.
Tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay
  Potomac - Shenandoah River   Occoquan River
    Rappahannock -       Rapidan River            Robinson River
    York-    North Anna River         Pamunkey River          Mattaponi River
    James - Jackson River    Cowpasture River                Maury River             Appomattox River
          Rivanna River   Chickahominy River
Eastern Shore & Coastal Rivers -
  Back Bay Elizabeth River North Landing River                Lynnhaven River
Tributaries of the Albemarle Sound
  Chowan - Nottoway River      Meherrin River      Blackwater River
  Roanoke - Smith River     Dan River       Hyco River     Bannister River
       Staunton River   John Kerr Reservoir     Lake Gaston      Smith Mountain Lake
Tributaries of the - Mississippi River - Gulf of Mexico
   Tennessee - Big Sandy Rivers- Holston River  Clinch River                     Powell River
    New River -     Claytor Lake
River facts
Potomac - Shenandoah - The Potomac and Shenandoah watershed covers about 5,700 miles.
One third of the Potomac River watershed is in Virginia, but none of the river flows through the
state. A lot of people live in the Potomac watershed. The Occoquan River is an important source of
water for the people who live in the watershed.
   Shenandoah is a native American word meaning “daughter of the stars.” The Shenandoah River
joins the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. There are lots of farms in the watershed, which
is famous for apples, chickens and turkeys. Limestone caves and unusual rock formations like
Natural Chimneys and Luray Caverns are special places to visit in the watershed. Famous Americans
like George Washington, Patrick Henry and James Monroe lived in the watershed during colonial

Rappahannock - The Rappahannock River begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Chester
Gap in Warren County and flows 212 miles to the Chesapeake Bay. The watershed in northeastern
Virginia is one of the fastest growing areas of the state. Fishing, farming and tourism are important.
Much of the watershed is forest and cropland. More than 25,000 people depend on the river for
drinking water.

York - The York River is only 34 miles long and is influenced by tides from the Chesapeake Bay.
Most of the watershed is forest, cropland and pasture. Paper manufacturing is also important. The
Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers join at West Point to form the York. Yorktown, at the mouth of the
river, was the site of a famous battle during the Revolutionary War. During WWII the American
fleet was anchored in the harbor.

James - The James River watershed is Virginia’s largest and covers about 1/4 of the state, more
than 10 thousand square miles. Nearly a third of the population lives in the watershed. From its
beginning in Botetourt County, it flows 340 miles to the Chesapeake Bay. Richmond, the state
capitol is located on the James River. Newport News is one of the world’s largest shipyards and
nearby Hampton Roads is one of the nation’s busiest ports and the site of the world’s largest naval
base. The James was important to the settlement of America where the first English colony in the
New World was located at Jamestown. The first Thanksgiving in America was celebrated at Berke-
ley Plantation on the James River in 1619.

Coastal Rivers - Many Virginians live in this Tidewater area, which is only a few feet above sea level.
Many of the rivers and streams in the watershed are short and bordered by marshes. Commercial shell
fishing, fishing, shipping, farming, brick and fertilizer manufacturing and tourism are important industries in the
watershed. The counties on the Eastern Shore produce lots of different crops in the sandy soil. There is also
lots of poultry raised on the Eastern Shore. Farmers use more groundwater for watering crops on the
Eastern Shore than for all of Virginia’s other counties

Chowan - The Chowan River watershed is mostly rural.
Most of the watershed is in Virginia, but the river itself forms on
the Virginia - North Carolina border and flows into the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The Blackwater
River, one of the tributaries of the Chowan flows through farmland where tobacco, peanuts and soybeans
are raised. Another tributary, the Nottoway River is bordered by wooded swamps where lots of fish and
wildlife live. Lake Drummond, one of Virginia’s two natural lakes is located in the center of the Great Dismal
Swamp in the watershed.

Roanoke River - The Roanoke River watershed covers about 15 percent of Virginia’s land area.
Farming, generating electricity, furniture production and transportation are important in the water-
shed. There are four man-made reservoirs in the watershed: Smith Mountain Lake, Leesville Lake,
Buggs Island Lake and Lake Gaston. These lake were built to control flooding, for power plants and
also provide lots of recreation. Between Leesville and Buggs Island, the Roanoke River is called the
Staunton River. Fishermen agree that the watershed has lots of great places to fish.

New River - It sounds funny, but the New River is one of the world’s oldest rivers. It flows north
for about 320 miles and finally empties into the Mississippi River. Most of the watershed is moun-
tains, forest, cropland and pasture. The river helps generate power at Claytor Lake Dam. Mountain
Lake, one of the two natural lakes in Virginia is found in the watershed. The New River is a great
place to go canoeing or rafting.

Tennessee-Big Sandy River - Neither the Tennessee nor the Big Sandy flow directly through
the state, but its many tributaries are in the southwest corner of the state. Coal, lumber and tourism
are the major industries in the mostly rural watershed.
   The Clinch, Powell and Holston rivers are important tributaries of the Tennessee-Big Sandy
watershed. Pollution has been a serious problem in the watershed for many years. In the early 1970s
the North Fork Holston was named one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. Problems go
back as far as 1760 when commercial salt mines operated at Saltville. There was a chemical spill in
1924 and a spill of sulfuric acid in the Clinch River in 1970. A lot of work is being done to help
clean up the rivers.

Clinch & Powell Rivers - The Clinch River and Powell Rivers have more than 100 kinds of
freshwater fish and mussels - some of them are on the endangered species list. The Breaks section of
Russell Fork is known as the “Grand Canyon of the East” and is part of Breaks Interstate Park on the
Kentucky-Virginia border.

Holston River - The Holston River has three main branches-the North, Middle and South Forks.
The river flows in valleys between steep mountain ridges. Mt. Rogers, the state’s highest mountain is
in the watershed.

Water is one of our most important natural resources.
We need clean water to keep us alive.

There are two kinds of water pollution — point source and
nonpoint source.

  It’s usually easy to figure out where point source pollution comes from. If you
see a pipe emptying into the water, that’s a point source.
                                You can point to where it’s coming from.

  Much of the pollution that enters our waterways comes from places you can’t easily
identify— that’s nonpoint source pollution. It’s hard to tell where it’s coming from.
Rain washes loose soil off construction sites, bare spots in the yard or plowed fields.
Rain washes oil and litter off of parking lots and roads into streams. Extra fertilizer on
lawns, golf courses and farm fields wash into our waterways. Exhaust from chimneys
and cars goes into the air and comes down with the rain. These are examples of
nonpoint source pollution.

Which is point source and which is nonpoint source?
Place a P in the box if the source of pollution is a point source and an N in the box if
the pollution is a nonpoint source. (Answers on page 21.)
    discharge from a pipe entering a river
    fertilizer from people’s yards
    an overflow at a sewage treatment plant
     rainwater running off a parking lot after a storm
     loose soil from a construction site
     smoke in the air from a power plant
     animal manure from a pasture
     used motor oil from a car whose owner empties it directly into a storm drain
     soil eroding from a streambank
     an old gasoline storage tank leaking gasoline into the groundwater                      9
What you can do to help keep your waterway healthy
There are lots of things kids can do to prevent water pollution.

Don’t litter. If you visit a river or go to the beach, don’t throw trash in the water. Creatures live
there. How would you like it if people dumped garbage in your house?

If you know someone who changes the oil in their car, make sure they don’t
dump it on the ground or pour it down a storm drain.
Tell them to recycle it at a gas station.
One quart of motor oil can pollute
up to two million gallons of water.

Adopt a stream or river.
  Your family or class can learn how to do water quality monitoring. Pick a place that’s
easy and safe to get to. You can do tests on the water using chemical kits or by catching
and counting macroinvertebrates a couple times a year. Groups like the Izaak Walton
League of America or the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay                                 damselfly
can teach you how.                                                                       nymph


Clean up the river bank.
   Get a group of friends and an adult or two, take along some trash bags and clean up trash along the
river bank or beach. Many groups have organized clean-ups from boats and canoes. Sometimes
there’s even a party afterwards to celebrate what a great job everyone did! Look in the newspaper,
especially in the spring and fall for special clean-up events.

                                                     Keep a journal of what you see and if
                                                     anything is changing. You might want to record
                                                      what the water looks or smells like, what kinds
                                                      of animals, birds or fish you see or if new
                                                       houses are being built close by. Has it rained
                                                        a lot lately? Is it summer or winter? How
                                                         does that affect the river?

                              Find out what kinds of plants help
                              hold the soil in place and plant
                              them on the streambank or in
                              other places to stop erosion.

Clean up after your pet.

     Bury animal waste in the leaves so it won’t wash down the street and end up in the river.

Find out where your water comes from and where it goes.
  Do you get your water from a well? Does your water come from a reservoir? Does it come from a
water treatment plant? Whose job is it to make sure your water is O.K. to drink?
My water comes from __________________________________________________________.
It is _______________________________________’s job to make sure my water is safe to drink.

                                                     When I flush at home, the water goes to a
      When you flush the toilet,
      does the waste water go to
                                                     When we flush at school, the water goes to a
      a septic tank or through a
      sewer system?

 Toilets use 3-6 gallons of water with each flush. If your family agrees, at home flush less often ...
after 2 or 3 uses or when there is solid waste. Never use the toilet as a trash can to flush away things
like gum wrappers, paper towels or your dead goldfish. Flushing some things down the toilet can
ruin your septic system.
Save water.
  Take a short shower, not a bath.
You’ll use less water. Get out before
your Mom yells at you. Running a
shower uses five gallons of water
per minute. A bath takes about 35
  If you really hate to take baths,
use water conservation as an            Take a short shower, not a bath.
excuse not to take a bath if you
really don’t need one!

                                              Turn off the water while you’re
                                              brushing your teeth.
                                              If you leave the water running while brushing
                                              your teeth, as much as 2 gallons of water can
                                              go down the drain.

       Help grown-ups fix the drippy
       faucets in the house.

  America has more faucets and toilets
than any other country. Washing dishes by
hand takes about five gallons of water.
Running an automatic dishwasher uses about
30 gallons.

We use land in many different ways.
Different land uses can sometimes cause water pollution.

Here are some ways we use land. On the chart below, fill in what kinds of problems you think might
come from each land use and what could be done to help.

Land Use                            Potential problem                    Solution
Construction - building


Roads, streets & parking lots

Golf courses


People & animals



You’ll find some possible answers on pages 15-17.

Construction - Whenever something is being built, the soil is
disturbed in some way -- whether it’s to build a new house or a shop-
ping mall. The loose soil or sediments wash into streams. It clouds
the water, chokes fish and other animals, blocks sunlight that aquatic
animals need to grow and makes it harder to clean up our drinking
water. Erosion and sediment control laws require builders to put up
silt fences, stake hay bales and put in strucutures to slow down run off
and keep loose soil out of streams and rivers.

Farming - Plowing to plant crops disturbs soil. Many farmers now use conservation tillage
                              instead of the old way to plow to keep soil in place. Seeds are drilled
                              into the soil and come up through the stubble of the old crops. Planting
                              rows across the slope of the land (instead of up and down the hill as the
                              illustration shows) helps keep soil from washing into the stream. Putting
                              grass on areas that erode easily is another way farmers help protect
                                 Fertilizers and pesticides that aren’t used by the crops or pasture can
                              also run off into waterways. By putting them on fields at the right time
and in the right amounts, farmers can reduce what might run off. Farmers can check their fields to
see if they need to spray for bugs instead of spraying automatically. They can also use other bugs
that are the pests’ natural enemies to destroy them. This is called Integrated Pest Management.
  If you know a farmer, find out about other Best Management Practices he or she uses to save
soil and protect water.

Roads, streets and parking lots
  Have you ever looked at a parking lot after it rained and seen little rainbows on the pavement?
What is that? Cars leak oil and antifreeze on to the pavement. People litter in the parking lot. Have
you ever noticed all the cigarette butts on the side of the road at a stoplight? What about the sand and
chemicals that go on roads when it snows. When it rains, where does all that stuff go? That’s right,
down the street, into a ditch, storm drain and then into your river!
Which moves faster — water running off of a grassy area, a
wooded area or a parking lot? Why?

  People who build parking lots and roads have to think about
how the water is going to run off these
surfaces. Look at the parking lot at your
school or at a mall. Do you see anything
that’s there just to slow down the water?
Are there any ponds nearby to catch the
water from the parking lot? These structures
and ponds may have been put on purpose to protect
your river.
                              If you took all the fertilizer used on people’s lawns and golf courses it
                           would add up to much more than what farmers use on all their fields
                           combined! It’s nice to see pretty green grass. But, lots of home owners
                           think if a little fertilizer is good, then a lot would be better. It’s not.
                              The nutrients that grass, trees and flowers don’t use runs off into
                           waterways or seeps into the groundwater. Taking a soil sample and
                           knowing what the lawn needs is a good idea. Instead of raking up grass
                           clippings after mowing the grass, leave them on the lawn where they can
                           recycle themselves as fertilizer.
                              Use native plants and wildflowers to landscape the yard. You won’t
                                                          have to mow them and birds and butterflies
                                                          love them.
                                                             Decks and brick-on-sand patios make great
                                                          places to have fun outdoors and let water go
                                                          through to soak into the soil.

We use trees for lots of things — paper, furniture, and wood to build houses. Even chewing gum and
some plastics are made from trees. We can plant trees and grow them to use for these things. It takes
a lot longer to grow a tree than it does a tomato. Trees are a renewable resources.
   Trees provide shade. Birds and animals use them for homes and shelter.
When trees are harvested, loggers are careful to
do things to protect our waterways. They
put in Best Management Practices
just like farmers and builders.
Roads made to get the trees out of
the woods and onto trucks are where
problems can occur. Loggers can put
in water bars to keep rain from wash-
ing down a road. They plant grass on the roads after
all the trees have been cut and removed.
   Foresters and farmers work to protect riparian
zones or areas between the stream bank and where
forests or fields begin. Riparian areas can filter water
on its way to the stream.

                                           Which is point source and which is
                                           nonpoint source pollution? page
                                           p discharge from a factory pipe entering a river
                                           p fertilizer from people’s yards
Reasons we need clean water                p an overflow at a sewage treatment plant
page 2
                                           p rainwater running off a parking lot after a storm
Swimming                                   p loose soil from a construction site
Fishing                                    p smoke in the air from a power plant
Farming                                    p animal manure from a pasture
Recreation                                 p used motor oil from a car whose owner empties it
Producing goods                            directly into a storm drain
                                           p soil eroding from a streambank
                                           p an old gasoline storage tank leaking gasoline into
                                           the groundwater

                                           Watershed Connection
Natural Resources Jeopardy                 Crossword Puzzle, page
Water Words
$10 - What is water?
$20 - What is a shower?
$30 - What are hydrogen and oxygen?
$40 - What are wells?
$50 - What is precipitation?
Pay Dirt
$10 - What is erosion?
$20 - What is topsoil?
$30 - What is an earthworm?
$40 - What is the percolation rate?
$50 - What is sediment?
Pollution & solutions
$10 - What is conservation?
$20 - What can be recycled?
$30 - What is nonpoint source pollution?
$40 - Who are the largest contributors to water
$50 - What is composting?
$10 - What are wetlands?
$20 - What is a tributary?
$30 - What are motor vehicles?
$40 - What is your watershed address?
$50 - What is the Chesapeake Bay?                                                                 21
People and animals.
   Every living thing on Earth is mostly water. An is 70          percent water. A is        about 65
percent water . . . and so are you! A typical person uses about 70 gallons of water a day.
Factories use more water than any other material. It’s important to conserve water and take care of it.
There are lots of things you can do mentioned in this book.
List some of the ways you have used water today. How many gallons do you think you used?
1) _______________________________________________________________________
2) _______________________________________________________________________
3) _______________________________________________________________________
4) _______________________________________________________________________
5) _______________________________________________________________________

Natural Resources Jeopardy
(Answers on page 21.)

                                                                     pollution &
 $      water words               pay dirt (soils)

    Americans use more       Planting trees or plants and      Wise use of our natural        Filter areas that provide
$10 than 300 billion gallons using silt fences on contruc-     resources.                     habitat for waterfowl
    of this a day.           tion sites help prevent this.                                    and help prevent
      Inside the home, an      It takes 100 to 1,000 years to Aluminum cans, glass,           A stream of river that
      average of 50 gallons                                   plastic and motor oil.          contributes its water to
$ 2 0 of water is used for one make one inch of this.                                         another stream, river or
      of these.                                                                               body of water.
                               Squiggly creatures that play Pollution from non-specific       Exhaust from this source
      Water is made up of      an important part in mixing, places. It’s hard to “point”      is a major cause of air
$ 3 0 these two elements.      breaking up and aerating soil. where it comes from.            pollution and acid rain.

    Jack & Jill and almost     The rate at which water                                          The name of the
    40 million others rely     passes or “perks” through the Industry, sewage and               watershed you live in
$40                            soil.                         agriculture                        plus where it goes from
    on these for their
    drinking water.                                                                             there.
                               Bits of sand, soil, pebbles and Start a pile of grass clippings, The Potomac,
$ 5 0 Snow, rain and sleet     other materials that wash into leaves and vegetable waste        Rappahannock, York
      are forms of this.       rivers, lakes and oceans.                                        and James Rivers all
                                                               and you’ll be doing this.
                                                                                                flow into this.

           Watershed Connection Crossword Puzzle

Across                                                      Down
 1. Virginia river that inspired a song                      2. Negative word
 7. our everday actions can cause this                       3. “Give a hoot, _____ pollute.”
 9. processing water through waste water treatment           4. conjunction
    plants makes it fit for humans or ________.              5. one quart of this poured down a storm
14. creatures that live in healthy rivers                        drain can pollute up to tow million gallons
16. to measure the health of a stream                            of water
18. the land that water flows across or under on its         6. important practices to protect our natural resources
    way to a larger stream, river or lake                    7. a body of water (Drummond, Gaston, & Claytor, &
20. a fish that lives in cold mountain streams and               Smith Mountain for example)
    usually indicates very good water quality               10. opposite of far
21. opposite of out                                         11. filter strip of grass or strees along a stream or river
22. a type of fish, two varieties of this species are the        bank to keep sediment, pesticides or nutrients out of
    large and smallmouth                                         the water
28. We need to protect our ________ resources.              13. small waterway which flows into a river
29. Before you jump in, it’s good to know if the water is   15. We ______ try to conserve water by taking short
    clean or __________                                          showers and repairing leaky faucets.
30. abbreviation of Izaak Walton League’s popular           19. flowing body of water that is made up of small
    stream monitoring method designed to                         tributaries draining into it
    “Save Our Streams”                                      23. when we should care about water quality
                                                            24. sediment form a construction ____ can be controlled
                                                                 by using selt fences and other erosion control devices.
                                                            25. a challenge
                                                            26. a major river in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay watershed
                                                            27. one of the oldest rivers in North America: its name
                                                            implies just the opposite
Resources for more watershed & water quality activities
Project Aquatic WILD - contact the Virginia Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries, 4010 W. Broad
St., Richmond, VA, 23230-1104, (804) 367-1000, email:
Project WET - contact the Dept. of Environmental Quality, 629 E. Main St., Richmond, VA P.O.
Box 10009, email:
Project Learning Tree - contact the Virginia Dept. of Forestry, P.O. Box 3758, Fontaine Research
Park, 900 natural Resources Dr., Charlottesville, VA 22903, (804) 977-6555
Virginia Watersheds Manual - contact the Virginia Museum of Natural History, Douglas Ave.,
Martinsville, VA, (540) 666-8600
Give Water a Hand - University of Wisconsin Extension, CALS, Environmental Resources Center,
Agriculture Hall, Room 216, 1450 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706, (800) WATER20;
Adopt-a-Watershed - (high school level curriculum) contact Kim Hummel, Middle Fork Holston
Watershed Coordinator, (540) 783-7355
Watershed Watchers, Greenway Guardian & River Rangers curricula- Lord Fairfax SWCD, 130
Carriebrooke Dr., Stephens City, VA 22655-6000, (540) 868-1130
Tommy Trout: Fish Detective, National Assoc. of Soil & Water Conservation Districts, P.O.Box
855, League City, TX 77574-0855, 1-800-825-5547, ext. 32
Environmental Education Activity Finder on the web-
finder.html, contact Angela Higgs, (804) 261-5984
Hands On Save Our Streams: Science Project Guide for Students, Izaak Walton League of
America Save Our Streams Program, 707 Conservation Lane, Gaithersburg, MD 20878-2983, (800)
Earthwater Stencils (source for stormdrain stencils), 4425 140th Ave. SW, Rochester, WA 98579-
9703, (360) 956-3774; email:
Enviroscape model (also posters and publications) - Terrene Institute, 4 Herbert St., Alexandria,
VA 22305, (703) 548-5473, web:
Virginia Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Centers & 4-H project activity books, contact your local
Virginia Cooperative Extension office under your county government listing
Ag in the Classroom, Virginia Farm Bureau, P.O. Box 27552, Richmond, VA 27552,
(804) 784-1374

Really cool hands-on websites:
Save Our Streams practice site -
4-H Entomology site with bugs, trees, shrubs and wildflowers -
Water quality -

Best Management Practices - activities that help prevent water pollution, such as buffers, conserva-
tion tillage, silt fences, etc.
conservation - wise use and protection of our natural resources
erosion - wearing down or washing away of soil and land surface by the action of wind, water or ice
ground water - water found in spaces between soil particles underground
karst - an area where the water seeps into underground caves and streams.
natural resources - found in nature --soil, minerals, forests, water, fish, wildlife
nonpoint source pollution - wide-spreak overland runoff containing pollutants that doesn’t come
from one specific source trace, such as rain washes loose soil off construction sites, bare spots in the
yard or plowed fields. Rain washes oil and litter off of parking lots and roads into streams.
nutrient - something that provides food for a living being
point source pollution - pollution that comes from an identifiable point, including pipes, ditches,
sewers, channels, tunnels or containers of various types.
reservoir - a body of water (often a lake) in which water is collected or stored
runoff - precipitation that flows over the land to surface streams, river, and lakes
sediment - bits of sand, soil, pebbles and other material deposited by wind, water and glaciers that
washes into rivers, lakes and oceans and piles up layer on top of layer
soil - a naturally occurring mixture of minerals, organic matter, water and air that forms the surface
of the land
storm drain - an opening in a road where runoff from the surface flows into an underground pipe
tributary - a stream or river that contributes its water to another stream, river or body of water
watershed - the land that water flows across or under on its way to a stream, river or lake.
water treatment plants - facilities that treat water to remove contaminants so that it can be safely