Source: Creek Signs: Guide to Developing a Local Watershed and Creek Signage Program, Southern Sonoma County Resource Conservation District, 2007
As a frequent traveler, I often see signs like this along the side of the road advising drivers and passengers that they are entering and leaving some-watershed-or-another. It seems to be a kind of a fad in our circles — so much so that the Southern Sonoma County Resource Conservation District recently published a “how to” guide for getting these kinds of signs along your local roads.
If you’re determined to put up one of these signs, it’s a thorough resource — exploring how to work with various highway authorities, permitting, sizing, etc… And I certainly agree with the authors road signs are valuable real estate and we should put them to some good use.
But I’m frustrated at how little rigor has been brought to bear on the question of whether using signs to tell people about watersheds is worth the trouble.
It’s well established that most Americans have little or no idea what a “watershed” is — and I have carefully reviewed several hundred polls, focus groups, and other studies and nobody has ever found that filling this particular hole in their knowledge produces a change in their attitudes or behaviors.
So if you want to put a road sign up, godspeed to you. This resource is sure to be helpful. But before you go slapping the word “watershed” up there in big letters, would you at least give some thought to putting some words that work on there, instead? Something simple and direct like:
Keep Johnson Creek clean and healthy: Don’t litter
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Good point! Unless you plan to include a definition on the sign as to what a watershed is, stick to the waterbody name — people relate to that. I still talk to folks who know “watershed” in terms of “a watershed event”, a turning-point in history. While I’m sure there are some nice poetic echoes there, it won’t help them understand drainage or groundwater.
I was in Tennessee this weekend, saw some of these signs, and immediately thought of this blog.
On one hand, I think that these signs might be helpful toward familiarizing people with the word watershed…when used correctly.
Some of the signs that I saw were perfectly positioned right at the crest of a mountain so that drivers would see the sign right as the water body in the valley below came into view. Coupling the sign with the beautiful view seemed to me a great illustration of the meaning of the word.
However, other signs that I saw were placed at random locations along the highway, or directly beside a creek just before the bridge that ran over it. Those signs were meaningless: drivers had already been in the watershed for several miles before seeing the signs. In those situations a sign that said, “Now crossing beautiful XXX creek. Keep it clean! Don’t litter” would have made a lot more sense and had a lot better impact.
I see them as extremely valuable, especially when the waterbody is well known and already perceived as valuable. The Chesapeake signs elicited a “gee whiz” response in our car (we know what a watershed is) because of its geographic extent.
DOT rules demand brevity, so it is a challenge to reach those who don’t understand “watershed”. I see it as an opportunity to educate; people will talk about signs.
Signs for “entering” and “leaving” should obviously be posted at crest of hill.
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