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Story of the Nisqually Watershed

"A river is remarkably like an elm-tree, and it requires but little imagination to picture it standing upright, with all of its lakes hanging upon its spreading branches, the topmost eighty miles in height."

John Muir

Watersheds: A Natural Unit

On clear days, it is possible to sit on the dock at the Nisqually Reach Nature Center on Puget Sound and gaze across the mudflats and saltmarsh of the Nisqually Delta while viewing the massive glacier clad slopes of Mount Rainier, where the river begins. An active imagination can take the viewer up to the summit, 14,410 feet above where they currently sit.

In between, the Nisqually River Basin is a rich and varied environment with a myriad of ecological communities. From montane to marine, these communities are directly linked by the living river.

Just as a toolshed has floors, walls and a roof, so too does a watershed. Its walls are the sides of valleys and mountains, its floor bottomlands with streams, river and lakes, and its roof a ceiling of clouds.

Watersheds are systems as well as structures. They gather precipitation and funnel it into a common waterway. Small rivulets merge with others which in turn mix with streams before they enter the river. Ultimately, the Nisqually River drains over 700 square miles of land, nearly a half million acres, before returning the water it has gathered to Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean.

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