A Journey Through a Watershed with Freddy the Fish...An environmental education unit for watersheds, storm water and pollution runoff. A Journey Through a Watershed with Freddy the

An environmental education unit for watersheds, storm water and pollution runoff.

A Journey Through a Watershed with Freddy the Fish

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A watershed is an area of land that drains into a body of water.

What is a Watershed?

Image Credit. A. Vicente, U.S. Forest Service.

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Where does the water come from?

All of our freshwater starts as precipitation, which moves continually through the water cycle.

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• Your own backyard is part of a watershed.

Everyone lives in a watershed…

File:Zimmerman house Manchester NH (3).JPG

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Weather and Watersheds = POLLUTION

• Sources of pollution come from many areas such as farms, lawns, and paved surfaces.

Examples of Pollution…

Sewage, soil, litter, oil, salt, industrial waste, gasoline, antifreeze, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, animal waste, etc.

Clean water is important!

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Let’s pretend that you will see and feel everything that Freddy sees and feels on his journey downstream.

And now the story of Freddy the Fish…

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• Imagine a clean river as it

meanders through a protected wilderness area.

• How do you think Freddy feels living in this clean beautiful river?

A beautiful river running through a protected

wilderness area…

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• Freddy is no ordinary fish, he is an OPTIMIST and always looking at the bright sides of situations.

• He has lived in this river all his life.

• Freddy decides he wants to go on a journey to see if the river gets even BETTER downstream.

Meet Freddy the Fish…

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• The first place Freddy passes on his new journey is farming country.

• Farmers had plowed their fields just before Freddy passes by.

Farming Country…

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Tractor_plowing_the_field.jpg

• It’s early spring and it has started to rain.

• The rain is causing the unprotected soil to erode and runoff into Freddy’s river.

• How do you think that made Freddy feel.

• Do you think Freddy wants to stay here to live?

Farming Country…

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• Remember Freddy is an OPTIMIST and he is always trying to look at the brighter sides of things.

• Freddy always thinks that things are going to get BETTER.

Don’t Worry Be Happy!

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• As Freddy’s journey starts again the next place he passes is a construction site.

• The big earth moving equipment has stripped the soil of vegetation to prepare for the buildings.

• It’s raining again and the soil is eroding into Freddy’s river.

Construction Site…

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• How do you think this makes Freddy feel?

• Do you think he wants to stay here to live?

One Muddy River!

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• Freddy decides to swim on. Freddy nears a newly built subdivision near the river.

• Many people had treated their lawns with fertilizer to make the grass grow.

• The rain had washed the fertilizer into the river.

• Plants had started growing very quickly in the river because of the fertilizer.

• Because there were so many plants and so little nutrients to feed them, they started dying and were decaying.

• This made them use up much of the oxygen from the water.

A Subdivision Development

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• Fertilizer and the chemicals in them can cause a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB).

• This can cause health problems for people and animals if they are in or near the water when a bloom is present.



Green Water = Danger!





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• As Freddy’s journey starts again, the next place he passes is a highway bridge.

• Freddy swims under the bridge but has never seen one before because they didn’t have them where he used to live.

• There was a huge pothole on the bridge and every time a car would dive over the bridge and hit the pothole they would drip oil from their cars.

• It’s raining again and the oil is washing into Freddy’s river.

Highway Bridge!

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• Do you think he is starting to get a little upset with humans?

One Oily River!

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• Freddy decides to swim on. But he realizes he can’t see very well in this murky water and it’s getting dark.

• Freddy decides to stay there for the night and head out first thing in the morning.

• It got really cold that night and the water on the bridge turned to ice.

• Cars were slipping and started to have accidents.

• The county maintenance workers had to put salt down to melt the ice.

• It’s raining again and the salt is washing into Freddy’s river.

Highway Bridge!

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• Do you think he misses his protected river?

One Oily Salty River!

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• Freddy decides to swim on. Freddy was thinking about his protected wilderness and all of the little kids that he used to hear laughing there.

• Soon he started hearing children laughing and he was so excited.

• He started swimming as fast as he could, hoping he was home again.

• But as he came closer to the laughter, he realized it wasn’t home.

• It was a city park where people were eating. When they were leaving they didn’t throw their trash in the garbage cans.

• It was starting to rain again and the trash was washing away into Freddy’s water.

Possibly Home Again…No It’s Just a City Park

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• Do you think he is starting to get sick from the dirty water?

One Trashy River!

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• Freddy decides to swim on. Freddy wasn’t feeling very well but just kept swimming.

• Soon he passed some factories located along the riverbank.

• There are regulations for factories that limit the amount of pollution they can release into the river but they don’t always abide by the rules.

• As he swam closer to the factories, he started swimming through factory chemicals that they had released into the water.

Factories Located Along the Streambank

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One Polluted River!

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• Freddy decides to swim on. Freddy wasn’t feeling very well but just kept swimming.

• The next place he passes is a wastewater treatment plant.

• That’s a place where all of our dirty used water goes to be treated and released into the water again.

• As he swam closer to the wastewater treatment plant a section had broken down. The wastewater was washing into Freddy’s water as he passed by.

A Wastewater Treatment Plant

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One Nasty River!

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• Freddy musters up some energy in his little body to swim on. Freddy wasn’t feeling very well but just kept swimming.

• He sees a bend in the river ahead and hopes that when he makes the turn, everything will be BETTER.

• He swam as fast as he could but when he turned the bend this is what he saw.

• Years ago there had been a hazardous waste dump located along the river.

• The barrels full of toxic chemicals were rusting and leaking.

• It had started raining again and it was washing the toxic chemicals into Freddy’s water.

A Hazardous Waste Dump!

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One Nasty Polluted River!

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To see ten ways that you can help please see this link

A Journey Through a Watershed with Freddy the Fish...An environmental education unit for watersheds, storm water and pollution runoff. A Journey Through a Watershed with Freddy the

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