If you’re having a hard time attracting the community to your “watershed association” or “watershed education event,” then watch this video. If policy makers aren’t paying as much attention to your “watershed management plan” as you wish, then watch this video:
This clip is an excerpt from the video “After the Storm,” produced by EPA and The Weather Channel. It’s a well-meaning effort, but the script needs a “words that work” overhaul. You’d think the filmmakers would know better, after all, they’re the ones who captured on film how the term “watershed” puzzles everybody they point their camera at– and they don’t seem to have any footage of anybody perkin up and saying “Watershed? I have not idea, please educate me!”
I know you watershed education people watch this video and want to change this. But adults learn, on average, less than one new word per week — mostly their own shop talk. If we tell ourselves that people must become educated on watersheds before they take action to protect them, then we won’t have much protection.
Thanks to Lynn at the Missouri DNR for tipping me off to this clip.
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What about mission statements…
“To protect and preserve Big Cane Creek and its tributaries for the health of the river and the benefit of the communities surrounding it”
The above mission statement is replacing this one:
“To protect and preserve Big Cane Creek and its tributaries for the benefit of its communities and health of the watershed.”
And what I would like to say is:
“To protect and preserve Big Cane Creek and its tributaries for the health of the river and the benefit of the communities surrounding it who unknowingly use the creek for drinking water and to carry away their sewage.â€
The clip serves to define “watershed,” and to show that, to the layperson, the term is confusing at best and meaningless at worst. I personally would like to see it replaced with “drainage basin” as often as possible. There is a distinct image that people get from that, usually that of a sink with sides that literally drain into a pipe. Everyone knows that the pipe goes SOMEwhere; the next step is to show people where that somewhere IS. River, stream, wetland, ocean, or estuary — we all live downstream.