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Claiborne Parish Watersheds |
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What
is a Watershed? ![]() A watershed, also called a drainage basin, is the area in which all water, sediments, and dissolved materials flow or drain from the land into a common river, lake, ocean, or other body of water. top Watersheds are the link between land
and water resources. A watershed approach to
conservation and development of resources
addresses, not only water resources, but also the
surrounding land from which the water drains.
Watershed management is a program to
conserve and develop local natural resources.
It is most effective when coordinating with other
resource management programs, including other surface and
ground-water protection programs, flood control, water
supply, protection of fish and wildlife, recreation,
control of stormwater, and nonpoint source pollution, and
economic development. Claiborne Parish is part of Three Watersheds
(figure at top left of this page):
SURF YOUR WATERSHED (Claiborne Parish)! Explanation of Watershed Address System The drainage basin for a small stream is a watershed. In turn, the stream flows into a river, and its watershed is part of the larger watershed for the river. Over the years a system for identifying and numbering watersheds has been developed in the United States. Watersheds are delineated by USGS using a nationwide system based on surface hydrologic features. This system divides the country into 21 regions, 222 subregions, 352 accounting units, and 2,262 cataloguing units. A hierarchical hydrologic unit code (HUC) consisting of 2 digits for each level in the hydrologic unit system is used to identify any hydrologic area. The 6 digit accounting units and the 8 digit cataloguing units are generally referred to as basin and sub-basin. It is defined as the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) and generally serves as the backbone for the country's hydrologic delineation. Through this system all U.S. watersheds have a proper name and a corresponding number (see below). The watershed's number is commonly called it's "watershed address." Example of Watershed address system
A watershed in Surf Your Watershed is the 8 digit cataloging unit.
Claiborne Parish Watershed District, P.O. Box 266,
Homer, LA
71040
624-1839 or (318) 927-9832 |
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