What is a Watershed Anyway?

A watershed is an area of land where all of the water drains to the same place. In the Cayuga Lake watershed, that place is Cayuga Lake.

This is a map of the Cayuga Lake watershed, which is in green. All of the water that lands in the green area when it rains, and all of the water that flows down the blue creeks ends up in Cayuga Lake. Click on the map to take a closer look. Is your house in the watershed? If it is, that means all the rain and water that lands in your yard is headed for the lake!

The water goes toward the lake because it is flowing downhill. All of the areas on the edge of the green shape are much taller than the lake. All of the waters flows from the high areas to the low areas. It is just like when rain water flows to a low spot to form a puddle.