The Watershed Project helps homes, schools, and communities protect water resources throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Our programs prevent pollution, save water, reduce waste, and protect local birds and wildlife. The mission of The Watershed Project is to educate and inspire communities to protect their local watersheds. We use an innovative approach to protecting our water resources by giving people the practical skills they need to reduce pollution and protect the health of San Francisco Bay.

Why watersheds? As a particular region that drains into a creek, a bay or ocean, a watershed provides the appropriate scale to address the critical natural systems that sustain and enrich our daily lives. Because watersheds are defined by natural hydrology, the watershed becomes the focal point and we are able to gain a more complete understanding of overall conditions in an area and the stressors that affect those conditions.

Traditionally, water quality improvements have focused on specific sources of pollution, such as sewage discharges, or specific water resources, such as a segment of a river or a wetland. While this approach may be successful in addressing specific problems, it often fails to address more subtle and chronic problems that contribute to a watershed’s decline. An ecosystem approach can offer a stronger foundation for uncovering the many stressors that affect a watershed as well as acknowledging the interrelatedness of the web of living organisms that inhabit the watershed and depend on it for clean soil, air and water.

Learn about your watershed today. Take a workshop or support a local community group. Together we can protect the Bay Area’s many creeks, waterways, and watersheds.