a windowonthe natural resourcesof rice county（一个windowonthe水稻县自然资源）.doc

A Window on the Natural Resources of Rice County Video series sponsored by a grant from the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance And Developed by River Bend Nature Center Volume I: Rivers -- Transcript -- One of Rice County’s Surface Water Resources Narrator: Whatever the view from your window in Rice County you depend on water. Humans are dependent on water for their very existence; in fact we are nearly 70% water ourselves. We use water for drinking, for our daily needs and for recreation as well as for agriculture, business and on our yards—the quality of the water in an area is often equated with the very quality of life in that area. But did you know that of all the water on earth it is estimated that less that 1% is realistically available for human needs and to sustain the lake, river and freshwater ecosystems that surround us. This container is holding 1 gallon of water and represents all the water on earth. Think of it as a model for what we can’t actually see. If we remove only the fresh water from our model, 97% would remain in the large container. That is the amount of salty ocean water. Of this amount of fresh water 2/3 would be found in the polar ice caps and glaciers. And the remaining 1/3 would be the amount of ground or surface water that is available for our use. In Rice County we use the underground water in the aquifer for drinking and the lakes and streams for different reasons. If we continued to break down the fresh water into the amount that would make up the rivers and streams in our model, it would be about 1 drop. Let’s find out about the rivers and streams in Rice County that help to make up this small amount of fresh water. Where are they, are they healthy, and what kinds of actions can each of us take to preserve or if necessary restore this valuable and limited natural resource? Melissa: In Rice County the two major rivers are the Cannon River and the Straight River but com