Chrysti The Wordsmith: Watershed - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith a listener of the series sent an email with the question what does the word watershed meaning critical turning point have to do with the drainage area where water flows from the mountains. Interesting question especially in the American West where identifying watershed areas is critical to water rights issues. First an official modern geological definition of a watershed from the Environmental Protection Agency's Web site quote a watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. So a specific valley with a stream or lake or Marsh at its bottom fed by snow pack and precipitation is a simple example of a watershed. The Oxford English Dictionary on the other hand has a slightly different take on the term a watershed in that home is quote the line separating the waters flowing into different rivers or river basins. A narrow elevated tract of ground between two drainage

areas. So while the Environmental Protection Agency looks at a watershed as a bounded hydrologic system the Oxford English Dictionary recognizes a ridgeline say at the crest of a hill that separates two drainage areas. Next time a look at Watershed etymology and how the term is used figuratively to refer to a crucial dividing point. I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman at k g l t f m Christie the wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dotcom.