The document discusses North Carolina's river basins and their importance. It explains that a river basin is the area of land that drains into a river system. It notes that there are 17 major river basins in North Carolina, with 5 draining into the Mississippi River and the rest draining into the Atlantic Ocean. The health of river systems is directly related to human activities on the surrounding land.

1. Discover
North Carolina’s
River
Basins

2. North Carolina is a diverse land with
ENVIRONMENTAL natural beauty that appeals to residents
EDUCATION and visitors alike.
It is also a land experiencing competition for its natural resources that are
already under stress and that could be lost to us in the absence of a widespread
awareness of their existence, their significance and their value.
Natural resources are not isolated from each other or the people who use them.
Each resource is an integral part of the ecosystem. When one part of the system is
affected, other parts feel the impact. It is environmental education that provides
the knowledge, understanding and awareness of this interconnectedness of all
things and gives us the ability to make informed environmental decisions.
The more we understand and respect our own community, the more capable we
are of being good stewards of the environment. If you have ever visited one of
North Carolina’s many Environmental Education Centers—nature centers, parks,
aquariums, museums, the zoo, public gardens, etc.—then you have already
started appreciating natural systems and had fun while learning about them.
Environmental education is not issue advocacy or a biased point of view.
Environmental education enables communities to care for their own environ-
ment. Living within the limits set by the environment depends on the beliefs
and commitment of individuals. Individuals working together as a community
have more power to promote practices that can nourish rather than cripple
their natural life-support systems.

3. I N T H E 1 9 9 0 S , several crises elevated rivers in the
public consciousness. First came Pfiesteria, a lethal organism
that killed millions of fish in coastal waters. Then a series of
hurricanes brought river and development issues to the fore-
front. How we treat rivers and the land around them has a
direct relationship to our quality of life. The purpose of this
booklet is to describe how river basins function and how
humans and rivers are interconnected. It demonstrates how
decisions we make as homeowners and citizens affect the
quality of the water we drink, swim in and fish from. With
North Carolina’s this knowledge, individuals can make more informed deci-
sions regarding their environment.
River Basins
KEN TAYLOR, WILDLIFE IMAGES
W H AT I S A R I V E R B A S I N ?
A river basin is the land that
water flows across or under on its
way to a river. As a bathtub catches all the water that falls within its sides, a
estuary: a semi-
enclosed area
where fresh water
from a river meets
river basin sends all the water falling on the surrounding land into a central salty water from
the sea
river and out to an estuary or the sea.
river basin: drainage area of a river
A river basin drains all the land around a major GRAPHIC BY ERIN HANCOCK, NCWRC
river. Basins can be divided into watersheds, or
areas of land around a smaller river, stream or
lake. Large river basins,
such as the Neuse and watershed: all
the land drained
Cape Fear, are made
by a river, stream
up of many smaller or lake
groundwater: the watersheds. The land-
water found in scape is made up of many interconnected
cracks and pores
in sand, gravel watersheds. Within each watershed, all water
and rocks below runs to the lowest point—a stream, river, lake
the earth’s surface or ocean. On its way, water travels over the land
surface—across farm fields, forestland, suburban
lawns and city streets, or it seeps into the soil and
travels as groundwater.
Everyone lives in a river basin. You influence
ecosystem: a natural sys- what happens in your river basin,
tem linked by living (plants, good or bad, by how you treat the natural resources—the soil, water, air, plants and
animals) and nonliving (soil,
air, water) things. animals. As water moves downstream, it carries and redeposits gravel, sand and silt.
Water also transfers bacteria, chemicals, excess nutrients and organic matter. Whatever
happens to the surface water or groundwater upstream will eventually affect downstream systems.
Therefore, the health of the aquatic ecosystem is directly related to activities on land.
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U NI O N A NS O N
NORTH CAROLINA HAS 17 MAJOR RIVER BASINS.
Five of the state’s river basins—the Hiwassee, Little T ennessee, French Broad, Watauga
and New—are part of the Mississippi River Basin, which drains to the Gulf of Mexico. All
the others flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins, 11 originate in North Carolina,
but only four are contained entirely within the state’s borders—the Cape Fear, Neuse,
White Oak and Tar-Pamlico.
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