It is a humble and often joyful mending of biological ties, with a hope clearly recognized, that working from this foundation we might, too, begin to mend human society. Lopez's quote comes from a work appropriately titled, Waiting on Wisdom . Thankfully, restoration offers us as fisheries professionals a new way - a way to bring people together to restore the soil and water and air upon which we depend. Well for one thing it is not new. Watershed protection is as old as the Organic Act itself.
Watersheds are the basic building block of resource stewardship.
Whenever I hear scientists or natural resource managers getting hung up on the definition of words such as ecosystem, biome, or landscape, I always steer them back to watersheds. We all live within a watershed and all of our actions on the land are reflected by their health. Watersheds perform three basic functions. They catch, store and release water over time. The health of our watersheds and forests is reflected by their ability to produce sustainable supplies of wood products, clean water, recreational opportunities, and fish and wildlife habitats.