Virginia's watersheds

What is a watershed?

We all live in a watershed. A watershed is an area of land that drains to a common water body.  The water body can range in size from a small creek to a flowing river. Watershed boundaries are natural and vary based on differences in geography and hydrology. Therefore, watersheds do not follow county, city or state boundaries. Since watersheds know no jurisdictional boundaries, managing our natural resources from a watershed perspective allows us to bring together stakeholders from different localities to focus on a shared resource, our surface water.
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The James River Watershed

The James River watershed is 10,236 square miles and is the largest river contained within a single state. The James River watershed covers one quarter of the Commonwealth and includes 57 counties. Because of the size and diversity of land use within the James River watershed, the watershed was divided into three sections Upper, Middle and Lower.
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The Middle James River Watershed

The Middle James watershed extends west to Amherst County, north to Green County, south to Prince Edward County and east to Charles City County. The Middle James watershed region is approximately 6,190 square miles and is the largest and most diverse portion of the James River watershed. With the diversity of the Middle James watershed, comes many valuable natural areas, historical areas and resources. 

Watershed Roundtables

There are 13 active watershed roundtables in Virginia. These watershed roundtables represent the Albemarle-Chowan, Big Sandy, Eastern Shore, Middle James, Lower James, New, Potomac, Rappahannock, Shenandoah, Upper James, Upper Tennessee, Upper Roanoke and York Watersheds.