Framing it was pricey, but it is a comfort and an education to view my Northeast Ohio watershed map with regularity. It has helped me to be increasingly aware of the water issues we face in our bioregion such as the alarming number of CSO (combined sewer overflows), algal blooms in the Shaker Lakes, lawn care issues, land use issues and even energy and environmental justice issues.

I have it hung right next to an aerial photo of one of my other favorite watersheds -- the Apalachicola River watershed in Northwest Florida. Unlike the artist-drawn watershed map of Northeast Ohio, the Apalachicola River watershed map shows an aerial photo of the water from the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola Rivers spilling into the Apalachicola Bay and then on to the Gulf of Mexico. Though the area was once teeming with trade (cotton and produce from Alabama and Georgia was traded for sugar and coffee from Cuba on European trade routes in the early 19th century), the river’s connection to the bay and gulf now provide the rural areas greatest economic resource -- oysters.

Where as here in Cleveland, the river meets the lake surrounded by industry and bulkheads, in Apalachicola the lazy meandering river oozes through bayous, swamps, marshes, past tupelo trees, and pitcher plants as it watches the heron and the osprey soar and dive, the alligator sunning on the bank.

It’s getting cold in Northeast Ohio. Maybe it is time to make plans for a visit to the more temperate Florida panhandle… Though that area, like this one, has many challenges environmentally, there seems to be a heightened sensitivity to the fragile ecosystem there, an appreciation among residents for beaches and waterways that Clevelanders have yet to fully grasp in our own bioregion.

It is good to slow down, way down to about the speed of a porch swing. It gives one time to think about how the river flows, to remember early lessons about the water cycle. Here, in Cleveland, it is my watershed map that reminds me that there is water flowing underground and helps me to remember to conserve it.

If you simply don’t have wall space to place one in your living environment, purchase one as a gift for a friend or a classroom in your local school or library.