Headwater forests filter sediment and nutrients before rivers reach the lowlands
Tiny first-order streams under forest canopy catch leaf litter, root mats, and microbes that trap eroded soil and soak up excess nitrogen and phosphorus from surrounding slopes.
Clear those headwaters and muddy pulses and nutrient spikes travel downstream into lakes, estuaries, and drinking intakes. Protecting a few percent of a basin’s upper forest can safeguard water quality for the whole watershed.
Clean rivers are grown upstream. Headwater forests are the quiet filtration plant that geology and biology built before pipes existed.
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