This classroom resource provides clear, concise scientific information in an understandable and enjoyable way about water and aquatic life. Spanning the hydrologic cycle from rain to watersheds, aquifers to springs, rivers to estuaries, ample illustrations promote understanding of important concepts and clarify major ideas. Aquatic science is covered comprehensively, with relevant principles of chemistry, physics, geology, geography, ecology, and biology included throughout the text. Emphasizing water sustainability and conservation, the book tells us what we can do personally to conserve for the future and presents job and volunteer opportunities in the hope that some students will pursue careers in aquatic science. Texas Aquatic Science, originally developed as part of a multi-faceted education project for middle and high school students, can also be used at the college level for non-science majors, in the home-school environment, and by anyone who educates kids about nature and water. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

New York City's municipal water supply system provides about 1 billion gallons of drinking water a day to over 8.5 million people in New York City and about 1 million people living in nearby Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, and Orange counties. The combined water supply system includes 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes with a total storage capacity of approximately 580 billion gallons. The city's Watershed Protection Program is intended to maintain and enhance the high quality of these surface water sources. Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program assesses the efficacy and future of New York City's watershed management activities. The report identifies program areas that may require future change or action, including continued efforts to address turbidity and responding to changes in reservoir water quality as a result of climate change.

The Los Angeles Watershed is a dynamic system that is undergoing constant change and a regular, reoccurring program of monitoring allows us to better understand and respond to changes. The Los Angeles River Watershed Monitoring Program (LARWMP), which is the basis for this report, is a collaborative effort to assess the health of the Los Angeles Watershed from a regional perspective. The Cities of Los Angeles and Burbank and their partners envision a healthy, sustainable Los Angeles River Watershed that meets the water quality, water supply, flood management, recreational and habitat needs of its human and biological communities. With 1,400 miles of streams from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, the Los Angeles River Watershed supports a population of more than 4.5 million people and countless plants and animals. We need to understand the watershed's overall health and the major stressors in order to ensure sustainability and resilience of this region. The intent of this and subsequent reports is to describe current conditions and trends of the Los Angeles River Watershed through addressing the following five questions: 1. What is the condition of streams in the watershed? 2. Are conditions at areas of unique interest getting better or worse? 3. Are receiving waters near discharges meeting water quality objectives? 4. Is it safe to swim? 5. Are locally caught fish safe to eat? This is the first time the watershed has been comprehensively assessed using multiple indicators. The results presented in this report will assist watershed managers and other interested persons to identify areas of concern and to prioritize management actions. The detailed assessments, methods and quality assurance for this program can be found in the individual Los Angeles River Watershed Monitoring Program annual reports from 2008 through 2012. The LARWMP monitoring efforts will continue in future years and the State of the Watershed report will be issued periodically to reflect new data and findings.

Set in 1937 in rural Tennessee, with the construction of a monumental dam serving as background--a cinematically biblical effort to harness elemental forces and bring power to the people--Watershed delivers a gripping story of characters whose ambitions and yearnings threaten to overflow the banks of their time and place. Nathan, an engineer hiding from his past, and Claire, a small-town housewife, struggle to find their footing in the newly-electrified, job-hungry, post-Depression South. As Nathan wrestles with the burdens of a secret guilt and tangled love, Claire struggles to balance motherhood and a newfound freedom that awakens ambitions and a sexuality she hadn't known she possessed. The arrival of electricity in the rural community--where violence, prostitution, and dog-fighting are commonplace--thrusts together the federal and local worlds, in an evocative feat of storytelling in the vein of Kent Haruf's Plainsong, and Ron Rash's Serena.

Emergence of a toxic organism like pfisteria in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay has focused public attention on potential hazards in our water. More importantly, it has reminded us of the importance of the entire watershed to the health of any body of water and how political boundaries complicate watershed management. New Strategies for America's Watersheds provides a timely and comprehensive look at the rise of "watershed thinking" among scientists and policymakers and recommends ways to steer the nation toward improved watershed management. The volume defines important terms, identifies fundamental issues, and explores reasons why now is the time to bring watersheds to the forefront of ecosystem management. In a discussion of scale and scope, the committee examines how to expand the watershed from a topographic unit to a framework for integrating natural, social, and economic perspectives as they share the same geographic space. The volume discusses: Regional variations in climate, topography, demographics, institutions, land use, culture, and law. Roles and interaction of federal, state, and local agencies. Availability or lack of pertinent data. Options for financing. The committee identifies critical points in watershed planning to ensure appropriate stakeholder involvement and integration of science, policy, and environmental ethics.