We all live in a watershed!
Our Salt Creek and its watershed are located in northeast Illinois. It starts in northwest Cook County, runs south and east through DuPage County, and empties into the DesPlaines River in central Cook County. If you live in one of these communities, you live in the Salt Creek Watershed.
A watershed is the area of land that drains into a particular body of water. Where one watershed ends, another watershed begins. The Salt Creek Watershed is bounded by the DesPlaines River watershed on the east, and the DuPage River watershed and the Fox River watershed on the west.
All watersheds are connected. The Salt Creek and the DuPage River are part of the DesPlaines River
watershed. The DesPlaines
River is in the Illinois River watershed, and the Illinois River is in the Mississippi River watershed. The
Mississippi River is in the Gulf of Mexico watershed.
This next map is not to scale. The Mississippi River between the southern tip of Illinois and the Gulf of Mexico is much longer than the map shows.
If you want to protect the Mississippi estuary and the Gulf of Mexico, start in your own back yard. There are things you can do to improve the water quality of the Salt Creek, and that improves water quality all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.