Every square millimeter of earth is a watershed

The Scenic Illinois River Canyon in the wake of the 1997 New Years Day storm.

In his wonderful book, The Habit of Rivers: Reflections on Trout Streams and Fly Fishing, Ted Leeson writes that:

"Every square millimeter of earth is a watershed, and a river the most comprehensive expression of a landscape. That it resembles in this way the architecture of circulation, and venules, and capillaries is more that coincidence.  Rivers transfuse the land and pump it full of live, our ordinary vocabulary of "drainage" notwithstanding."

The indigenous people of the region once traveled great distances to fish at the Illinois River Falls, not for sport, but for nourishment. Even during winter high flows, when the salmon were running, the Illinois ran clear. The Rogue and its upper tributaries would wash out due to the nature of their watersheds. But not the Illinois, though there few left to remember this.

Today—when rainstorms pound the clear cut, plowed, paved and roaded landscape of the valley floor and upper watershed—the river as it flows by my door is a comprehensive reflection of its watershed—a watershed once densely forested and rich with extensive valley floor wetlands, meadows and oak/pine woodlands.

Josephine Creek (clear) as it flows out of the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area and the Illinois River (muddy) as it flows out of the Illinois Valley.

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