What Is A Watershed

A watershed (or drainage basin) is an area of land that drains to a central location. That location can be as small as a puddle or a small drainage ditch in your backyard, or as large as a river, like the Black Warrior.

As a significant portion of the Mobile River Basin, the Black Warrior River flows southward through Alabama from the confluence of the Locust, Mulberry and Sipsey Forks in North Alabama, joining the Tombigbee River flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds of miles of tributaries feed it along the way. In the last 200 years, the river basin has seen great changes in the area's population, land use, and even in the look and flow of the river. Throughout the watershed, the land has been used and managed for different purposes, and the waterways are as varied as the surrounding landscapes: from pristine wetlands to beautiful water bodies within national forestland, to reservoirs to some of the state's most impaired creeks.
Understanding, restoring, and preserving a healthy watershed is crucial not only to being able to use the waters as a robust natural resource, but also to maintaining the communities within the watershed, which depend on the waters of the Black Warrior River.

BLACK WARRIOR WATERSHED FACTS

• Drains 6,392 square miles or 4,090,880 acres
• Supports 72.5% of Alabama’s population in four major cities: Cullman, Jasper, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa
• Main stem and tributaries flow through 15 counties (Bibb, Blount, Cullman, Etowah, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Lawrence, Marengo, Marshall, Perry, Tuscaloosa, Walker and Winston.
• The Black Warrior Watershed and Cahaba Watersheds are the only drainages contained completely within the State of Alabama.
• Contains the second and third longest free-flowing rivers (Locust Fork and Mulberry Fork Rivers)

The Black Warrior is divided into five main watersheds: the Sipsey Fork, Mulberry Fork, Locust Fork, the Upper Black Warrior, and the Lower Black Warrior.

• Mulberry Fork Watershed contains twenty sub-watersheds primarily within Cullman, Walker, and Winston Counties and drains portions of the Cumberland Plateau. The streams drain through steep-sided, gorge-like valleys in the east. Streams located along the western border of the watershed are characterized by the riverine wetland geomorphology of the Fall Line Hills.
• Sipsey Fork Watershed drains thirteen subwatersheds located within Winston, Walker, and Cullman Counties. The tributaries of the Sipsey Fork are generally high gradient, riffle-run streams draining the gorge like valleys of the Cumberland Plateau.
• Locust Fork Watershed contains fifteen sub-watersheds primarily located within Jefferson, Blount, Marshall, and Etowah Counties. The entire watershed drains approximately 1,209 square miles of the Cumberland Plateau and Valley and Ridge Provinces. It is primarily located within the Southwestern Appalachian ecoregion. Elevations range from around 1,100 feet of the northern slopes to around 600 feet at the northern boundary of the Fall Line Hills near Tuscaloosa. The streams drain sandstones and shale and occur in steep sided valleys, creating high gradient, riffle-run streams characterized by abundant and diverse habitat.
• Upper Black Warrior Watershed drains twelve sub-watersheds located within Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Jefferson, and Walker Counties. Tributaries located in the Fall Line Hills are generally low gradient, habitat poor, glide/pool streams. Streams located in the Fall Line Hills flow year round due to the extensive sand and gravel aquifers in the region. Riverine wetlands are characteristic of this ecoregion. Within the Black Warrior drainage, the Fall Line Hills sub-region is a transition zone between the Coastal Plain and the Southwestern Appalachians sub-regions. The region is primarily forested terrain of open hills with 200-400 feet of relief. This watershed drains the Fall Line Hills and the Cumberland Plateau. Tributaries of the North River, located within the Cumberland Plateau, are higher gradient streams characterized by riffle-run geomorphology.
• Lower Black Warrior Watershed - drains nineteen sub-watersheds located within Tuscaloosa, Hale, Greene, and Pickens Counties. The entire watershed lies below the Fall Line and drains portions of both the Fall Line Hills and the Blackbelt region. They are generally low gradient, habitat poor, glide/pool streams. Streams located in the Fall Line Hills flow year round due to the extensive sand and gravel aquifers in the region. Riverine wetlands are characteristic of this ecoregion.

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