What is a Watershed? 
Watersheds are interconnected systems of land, water, air, and the plant and animal species they support—including humans. ​A watershed is an area of land that is bound by ridges or hills (watershed divide) and creates a basin in which water drains to a common point (river, lake, ocean, etc). Watersheds can be as small as a depression from a footprint in the mud, to the size of the Mississippi River watershed which drains over one-third of the land in the United States!

Why Do We Need Healthy Watersheds?
We are all citizens of a watershed. In many ways, your own health depends on the heath of the watershed.

A healthy watershed is a well-balanced system that provides clean air, water, and soil to the people, plants and animals who live in the watershed. Watersheds perform very important functions such as water and nutrient cycling, groundwater recharge, and collection of rain and snow melt. They also play an important role in the absorption of greenhouse gas emissions, providing healthy soils and habitats for plants and animals, and providing natural areas for people to recreate and enjoy nature. 

When our watershed is polluted, the water we rely on for drinking, irrigation, recreating, and more, is put at risk. Animal species, like the fish we eat, can become contaminated and sick from polluted water.  Air pollution affects human health but it also effects the health of the soil, vegetation communities and animals who depend on clean air for life.
What you do upstream effects your neighbors downstream and all the ecosystems along the way. If we pollute our water high in the mountains and reaches in between, eventually, this pollution will reach downstream into urban centers and larger river systems.

​Your everyday actions can directly affect not only your neighborhood, or your community but also your entire watershed! When a watershed is unhealthy, everything living in it suffers.  If we take action to protect our watershed then everything living in it can have access to clean and healthy resources.

About the Crooked River Watershed

Land And Water
  • Acres: 2,893 (appx. 4,500 square miles)
  • Miles of Streams: 9,548
  • Number of 4th Field Watersheds: (Lower Crooked, Upper Crooked, Beaver/South Fork)
  • Number of 5th Field Watersheds:32
  • Highest Point: 6,926 ft. (Lookout Mountain)
  • Lowest Point: 1,900ft. (Lake Billy Chinook)
  • Average Precipitation 8” (Western Plateau) 34” (Ochoco Mountains)
  • ​Percent of Total Water Used from Surface Water Sources 95%
  • Percent of Total Water Use from Ground water Sources 5%
Land Use
  • Top 3 Industries: Forest Products, Agriculture, Recreation and Tourism
  • Land Classified as Rage: 70%
  • Land Classified as Forest 25%
  • Land Classified as in Crop Production 4%
  • Land Classified as Urban/Residential: 1%
Land Ownership
  • Private Land 41%
  • BLM 35%
  • USFS 23%
  • State of Oregon 1%
  • Land Adjacent to Streams Privately owned 51%
  • Counties in the Watershed: 7 (Crook, Wheeler, Grant, Harney, Lake, Deschutes, Jefferson)
Socio-Economic Data
  • Watershed Population: 70,580 (2017)
  • Incorporated Communities: Prineville and portions of Redmond
  • Unincorporated Communities: Brothers, Culver, Hampton, Millican, Paulina, Post, Powell Butte, O’Neil and a portion of Crooked River Ranch
  • Top 5 Agriculteral Commodities: Cattle, Hay and Grass Seed, Wheat, Vegetables, Misc Crops
Fish and Wildlife
  • ​Native Fish Species: 17 (Redband Trout and the most numerous)
  • Introduced, Non-Native  Fish Species: 12
  • Species of Mammals:78
  • Species of Birds:182
  • Species of Reptiles:16
  • Species of Amphibians: 10
  • State or Federally Listed Species:42
  • Steelhead extirpated from 122 miles of river above Opal Springs Dam

Specially Designated Lands
  • State Parks 3 (Smith Rock, Cove Palisades, Prineville Reservoir)
  • Wilderness Areas : 1 (Mill Creek 17,300 acres)
  • Wild and Scenic River Segments: 3
  • Number of Wild and Scenic River Miles: 52.6