What is a watershed?
It is an area of land where all of the stormwater runoff coming from the land all drains to a specific point. Watersheds can be large or small. No matter where you live, you live in a watershed.
Each of the rivers in the Fort Wayne area receives water from its own unique watershed. Fort Wayne’s rivers are part of bigger watershed systems. The St. Joseph, St. Mary’s and Maumee Rivers all eventually go to Lake Erie. They are part of the Lake Erie watershed. The Eel River in southwest Fort Wayne flows to the Wabash River which eventually goes to the Gulf of Mexico. So the Eel River is in the Gulf of Mexico watershed.
Because the City of Fort Wayne is located on three rivers, we have an historical relationship with the rivers and a commitment to help keep them clean.
Local Watershed Groups & Organizations
Stormwater drainage from Fort Wayne’s hard surfaces is carried to the rivers by pipes and open ditches. Whatever the stormwater runoff picks up as it flows over land and across hard surfaces is carried to the rivers. So Fort Wayne is committed to working with watershed groups in the St. Mary’s, Maumee and Wabash River basins to make sure that the stormwater runoff is as clean as possible.
Here are links to the websites of area watershed groups and other organizations that work to keep our rivers clean:
- Maumee Watershed Alliance
- Upper Maumee Watershed Partnership
- Little Rivers Wetlands Project
- Friends of Cedar Creek
- Friends of the River
- Save Maumee Grassroots Organization
- Allen County Partnership for Water Quality
- Adopt Your Watershed — US EPA site
- Watershed Planning — IDEM site
- Watershed Protection — Purdue University site
- Center for Watershed Protection