National Forests and Grasslands are primary source of drinking water for Western US
The Oregon Capital Chronicle recently covered new research from Threat Center scientists and colleagues demonstrating the critical importance of forest lands, and National Forests in particular, for supplying drinking water to people who may live far from the forest lands they depend on. Water from forested lands is sometimes transferred hundreds of miles away to serve large cities through inter-basin transfers. SRS scientists compiled a national database of all inter-basin transfers and linked it to a hydrologic model, tracking water from forests to surface water intakes for more than 5,000 public water systems in the U.S. The study shows that forests provide 83 million Americans with more than half of their surface drinking water. National Forest System lands were particularly important for provisioning water supply in western states, providing more than 10% of the water supply for more than 83% of those who obtain their drinking water from public water systems.
Read the article in the Oregon Capital Chronical
Read the Research Highlight
