We all know that the water that comes out of our faucet has an origin well beyond our front door, or even our Main Street. More often than not, the “out of sight, out of mind” nature the relationship between source and use means that it’s easy to forget the clean, cheap, potable water we enjoy often travels hundreds of miles to get to us, and that its point of origin is not only far way, but most likely located in a fragile, threatened environment.
The US Forest Service’s program “Forests to Faucets” is an attempt to bring more awareness to the connection between water source and water use. The Forests to Faucets project uses GIS modeling and mapping to create an interactive map that illustrates the locations of watersheds throughout the country in an attempt to highlight “the role forests play in protecting these areas, and the extent to which these forests are threatened by development, insects, disease, and wildland fire.”
The hope is that the information provided in the map will bring watershed protection to the forefront of water resource management discussions at state and local levels. Because the project’s dataset can be “incorporated into broadscale planning,” water purveyors can take advantage of the information the map provides when making important decisions about surface water drinking and source protection. Another purpose of the project is to “serve as an education tool to illustrate the link between forests and the provision of surface drinking water—a key to watershed-based ecosystem service.”
The biggest value of the map to water resource professionals is that the project lays the groundwork for watershed identification and identifies areas where a “payment for watershed services [PWS]” could be “an option for financing conservation and management on forest lands.” These PWS initiatives are particularly dependent on user data, and as such the map provides valuable information on a macro level, including areas of supply surface drinking water in relation to consumer demand and possible development threats or other extenuating circumstances.
In a statement announcing the Forest to Faucets map, US Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said, “Spending money on forest management upstream in a watershed saves money on water treatment downstream. The Forests to Faucets project provides powerful information that can help identify forest areas that play a key role in providing clean drinking water.”
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