Watersheds
How You Can Help
MHC works in partnership with landowners to conserve lands needed to maintain watershed health.
These programs include:
Did you know
The areas alongside streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands are known as “Riparian Areas” or the “Riparian Zone”. Healthy riparian areas usually have a combination of trees, shrubs, and grasses and are areas between water and dry-land. Because of their location on the landscape they are often considered “drier than wet”, but “wetter than dry”. These areas represent about 2% of the land base, but are essential to the overall health of a watershed.
- Riparian areas provide:
- corridors for the movement of wildlife,
- increase biodiversity,
- help to slow flooding by holding back water,
- attenuate the potentially destructive force of flood waters,
- stability for the shoreline which helps reduce erosion,
- fish and aquatic species habitat, and
- regulate water temperature.
