What is a Watershed?
A watershed is a drainage area on the landscape where all the water within that system flows to a single body of water. In the Kezar Lake Watershed, all waters–both above and below ground–drain into the 2,510 acre Kezar Lake. The contours of the landscape that form the watershed’s boundary function similarly to the continental divide: rain that falls on one side of a ridge flows into Kezar, while rain on the other side drains to a different watershed.
Kezar Lake Watershed Boundaries, which are curiously similar to the shape of the state of Maine.
The Kezar Lake Watershed contains, within itself, countless micro-watersheds of every size. In fact, every body of water–whether a tiny stream or small pond or the mighty Mississippi River–is its own watershed.
The 56 square mile Kezar Lake Watershed includes Kezar Lake, nine smaller ponds, scores of named streams and countless smaller headwater streams, wetlands, and bogs; with each claiming it’s own unique watershed.
The Kezar Lake Watershed falls within the towns of Lovell, Stoneham, and Stow; and flows through the Kezar Outlet in Lower Bay, into the larger Saco River Watershed. Individual watersheds combine with other watersheds to create networks of streams and rivers that drain into increasingly larger watersheds.
What happens upstream, in all connected watersheds, will invariably impact the downstream waters and landscape. Everything is connected.