Voices

Myers Creek Watershed


What does it mean to live in a watershed.  Everyone lives in a watershed.

We live in the Pacific Ocean watershed.  Our little streams in the Myers creek watershed eventually flow down the Columbia into the Pacific.  Water falling high on the northern slopes of Bonaparte Mountain flow north through the Okanogan Highlands, through the wee town of Chesaw into Canada and eventually Into the Kettle River.  The Kettle River then winds in and out of Canada and mixes with the Columbia near Kettle Falls. 

The  Okanogan, our large watershed neighbor to the west, ends up in the Columbia but not for many a mile below the Kettle Rivers confluence.

We who live in the Myers Creek watershed are shed mates.  In the city one may identify with the hood.  Our welfare is dependent on the shed, our watershed.  We are enriched if the watershed has pristine waters.  We are lessened if the waters are polluted.  As we become part of the shed we use the waters and contribute to the waters. 

The blood flowing throughout veins and arteries are part of the waters of the  watershed.  Water passes through us, through our gardens and animals and back to the flow.  We become the watershed.  We bath in those waters and  are cleaned by those waters.

These waters make us sisters and brothers.  Political lines melt away,  religious differences are washed away in our pure waters.  We can hold services in the waters of Lost Lake.  We come to love the water that flows.through us and around us. Our well being is bound to the well being of our watershed.  

So here is to the health of the Myers Creek Watershed,  and to our health as integral parts of the shed.  Maybe we can learn from the original inhabitants of the  watershed who called it Sarsop.  We, as the most destructive creatures in the shed will take care of these waterways so that all of us can live here in harmony. Our welfare as a community depends on how we care for our waterways.

—Harris Dunkelberger
April 27, 2013