This time on The Children’s Hour, we learn what watersheds are, and how they are impacted by forest fires. All over the world, people rely upon watersheds for drinking water, irrigating farmland, and for ecosystems. We are joined by educators from the New Mexico Watershed and Forest Restoration Institute, Natalia Shaw and Raymundo Melendez, along with educator and ecologist Dr. Krista Bonfantine.

There is no land on Earth that isn’t part of a watershed. We learn how each drop of precipitation, the rain and snow that falls upon us, ends up in a watershed. But watersheds also rely upon the water that trickles through the soils from our forests to stay clean. With so many wildfires burning around the globe each year, we wanted to know more about how wildfires impact our watersheds, and if there is any benefit to having wildfires for the forests, or for the watersheds.

Photo by Sippakorn Yamkasikorn on Unsplash

All over the world, people rely upon watersheds for drinking water, irrigating farmland, and for ecosystems. We are joined by educators from the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute, Natalia Shaw and Raymundo Melendez, along with educator and ecologist Dr. Krista Bonfantine.

We learn the how forests can be kept healthy to prevent wildfires from getting too out of control. There are also step that can be taken by everyone to keep our watersheds clean. From picking up trash in the woods, to staying on the trail, everyone plays a role in keeping watersheds healthy and safe.

You can learn more about watershed law and protection at the Kids Corner at the United States Environmental Protection Agency website. PBS Learning Media also has a short video explaining watersheds.

This episode of The Children’s Hour was written and produced by Katie Stone, our Executive Producer with help from Senior Producer Christina Stella, and our summer intern, Thaniel. Chad Scheer was our engineer at the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, New Mexico where we record our shows. 

The Children’s Hour radio show is distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American Radio Network. 

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