Opener 4/30 In your foldable,

answer the following questions:

1. What do you see?

2. Where is it?

3. What do the colors mean?

Opener 5/1-on your foldable answer these:

1. What living things can you see in the Prairie Dog’s habitat?

2. What nonliving things do you see in the Prairie Dog’s habitat?

Opener 5/2

1. What do you see?2. What states are

covered by the shading?

3. What does this represent?

The Watershed of the

Chesapeake

On your foldable, answer the following:

1. What do you see?

2. What do you think?

3. Where is this object?

Opener 5/3

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

• Both bridges were designed by J.E. Greiner Co., Inc., of Baltimore, Maryland. The first bridge had two lanes, was opened on July 30, 1952, and cost $45 million. The second bridge had three lanes, was a "modernized look alike", and cost $148 million, and opened on June 28, 1973.

Size of the bay: 1. The Bay is about _____ miles long and

ranges from 3.4 to 35 miles in width. 2. Watershed is ______ square miles. 3. Averages ____ feet in depth.

Opening 5/9-Read these paragraphs• Riparian Forests• are integral to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams for

many reasons. Their position in the landscape makes these forests excellent buffers between upland areas and the adjacent waters that will eventually enter the Bay. Riparian forest buffers are capable of filtering ground and surface water, stabilizing stream banks, providing shade, and supporting a variety of habitats.

• Forested buffers • can retain and absorb up to 80 percent of the phosphorus, and 89 percent of the

nitrogen in ground and surface water. The roots of buffers are extremely beneficial to vegetation by keeping stream banks in place; creating breaches in soil to allow rainwater to penetrate and recharge underground water reservoirs; and to fish, by providing numerous underwater obstacles that enhance feeding grounds. Also, leaves from trees fall into the streams and are trapped on woody debris and rocks, where they provide food and shelter for small bottom-dwelling creatures such as insects, amphibians, crustaceans, and small fish, which are crucial to the aquatic food chain.

• Why do we plant riparian and forest buffers? Give 2 reasons for each.

1. What do you see?

2. What do you think?

3. What can you do?

• A couple weekends ago I bundled up and took a boat tour of the Anacostia River with Jim Connolly, executive director of the Anacostia Watershed Society.

• The Anacostia is not only Washington’s forgotten river, separating the city’s poorest section from the rest of D.C., but it’s heavily polluted. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Anacostia is the area’s greatest source of pollution to the Bay, including millions of gallons of raw sewage. Today, there are a number of groups, including the Anacostia Watershed Society, that are working to clean up the river. But it’s still in bad shape.

• One of the things that stuck with me after Connolly’s tour is that most Americans don’t know the definition of a watershed–which is clearly an obstacle in educating the public about clean water.

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a watershed is the area of land where all the water that is under it or drains off it goes into the same place. The EPA says there are 2,110 watersheds in the continental United States. And we all live in a watershed, because when it rains, the water collects and eventually flows into a stream, river, lake, wetland or the ocean. Our daily actions within these watersheds—whether it’s pesticides on our front lawns, cigarette butts tossed on the sidewalk or tree removal for development—can be detrimental to our bodies of water.

• One of the threats to the watershed is stormwater runoff. In urban areas like Washington, stormwater flows over paved roads and collects sediment, oil and metals that are then dumped into water bodies that are used for drinking and recreational activities. When soil is covered by pavement, it can’t absorb and filter stormwater like it would naturally.

• This is just one small piece of the puzzle in cleaning up our waterways. The most important thing to understand is that no matter where we live—whether it’s on the coast or miles from a substantial body of water—we live in a watershed. The water that falls on our front porch and on our street and in our neighborhood will hit a body of water eventually.

• Now you know what a watershed is. If you want to make a difference and aren’t sure how, start here.