Welcome to the RIVERS OF ALABAMA website!

Depiction of a Watershed

Alabama is blessed with some of the most unique river basins in the world! This website is intended to bring these rivers to life by examining each watershed individually and in-depth.

The concept of a "watershed" is the central organizing principle for this website. To understand how watersheds work cup your hands in front of you as if you were going to drink from them. Now imagine that your hands are a land form and that a miniature cloud is raining down upon them. No matter where these miniature raindrops land, they will begin flowing downward via the creases of your hands, to the center, and then out of your hands at your wrist. Your fingertips are the tops of the hills where a rivers headwaters begin. The middle of your hands are the valleys where the river flows. The creases of your hands are the tributary streams that come together to form the river. Where the water leaves your wrist is the mouth of the river where it flows into a larger river or eventually the ocean.

This is the basic concept of a watershed. But a watershed isn't just the river, or even the tributaries and streams that comprise it. The watershed, more than anything else, is the entire land area that drains to a given river or stream.

"In 1819, when Alabama entered the Union, its leaders designed a great seal that featured the state's waterways. In adopting this symbol they affirmed their belief that the future of Alabama lay with its rivers. It did, and it still does." Harvey Jackson III, Rivers of History

This website is all about Alabama's watersheds. It describes what they look like, what types of aquatic animals live in them, how healthy they are, recreation opportunities, protected areas, and much, much more.

This website if far from complete. The knowledge that local individuals have about their local rivers and streams often far surpasses that of the "so called" experts. If you know of a publication, a photograph, a unique story, or a unique place that would make this website more complete and more interesting....PLEASE let us know.

Click on the BIG MAP link below to find the watershed that you live in...or explore the whole state, one river basin at a time.