Importance of Citizen Stewardship:

Humans need clean water and for that the SRWA needs you!

Humans need clean water and for that the SRWA needs you!  

Water is a valuable resource. Clean water is essential to healthy living. The following explains how you can be engaged to help your local waterways and be a partner with us. 

1. What is a watershed? 

We live in the Stones River watershed. A watershed is the area of land drained by the Stones River. Everything  done in a watershed affects the soils, water, plants, and animals living there. A watershed stores precipitation  and gradually releases water back into the Stones River waterways. Portions of watershed land area are covered  by impermeable surfaces. Without management, more water runoff will occur which may lead to degraded surfaces and groundwater.  

2. Why is it important? 

Fresh water is important to you and me. Life could not exist without water, so, we all must be good stewards of  our water resources. We need clean water because it is found in both healthy and diseased biological cells.  Up to 60% of the human body is water. Water content ranges from 80% in the lungs to 30% in bones and  

we need to consume it every day to replenish what we lose. To ensure an adequate supply and high quality of water, we need to be involved in working towards water stewardship.

The goal of the Stones River Watershed Association is to demonstrate water resource stewardship and to identify where waterways can be preserved. We must take care of our water resources because the population of Rutherford County has dramatically increased since 1990. From 1990 to 2019, US Census Bureau figures show an average population increase of approximately7400 people per year in Rutherford Co, while Cannon County’s population increased by only 145 people per year during the same time. 

3. How can we improve and maintain our watershed? 

A definition of “stewardship” isthe careful and responsible management of the watershed. “Preservation” is the activity or process of keeping the watershed alive, intact, or free from damage or  decay. “Conservation” is the prevention of wasteful use of our valued resource. 

Watershed stewardship focuses on the overall health and management of the watershed. The watershed management approach takes into consideration all the activities that go on in the watershed and helps to organize and guide those activities in reaching clean water goals. One measure of this goal is monitoring the Total  Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program. It is an initial method to monitor water quality. The TMDL is the maximum amount of a pollutant [i.e., bacteria or suspended solids] allowed to enter a water body so that the waterbody continues to meet water quality standards. 

Partners and tools help! For example, one tool the Natural Resource Conservation Service [NRCS] uses to manage sediment runoff into a waterway is the Universal Soil Loss Equation [USLE]. The USLE  estimates sediment loss from rural or urban land settings and communicates to the public what may be done to minimize sediment loads moving into their waterways. 

4. How can you help? 

Understand how our daily habits can contribute to water quality through pollution. Also, think about how certain behaviors improve and protect this resource for ourselves and our natural areas. Examples of this include water conservation, citizen engagement like participating in local meetings, and events such as litter cleanups and planting trees and streamside buffers.  

Plants have been used through recorded history to clean low-level polluted water and soil. Some water pollutants are found in bagged lawn fertilizer or manure. Water cleaning can be done today by maintaining vegetative buffers along perennial waterway channels or rain gardens in intermittent waterways that drain into perennial waterways. Think of woody and herbaceous plants along perennial waterways and in rain gardens as solar-powered water treatment facilities.  The big takeaway is water is used by everyone, and to protect it we need everyone’s help. Find other local partners such as city parks and stormwater staff, planning and zoning, county soil conservationist, extension agent, and even civic groups such as garden clubs, Rotary, scouts, and yes us! SRWA works to include all of these partners in our resources and calendar of events. We look forward to seeing you and value your contributions.