The health of every community, whether rural or urban or small or large depends on the health of the watershed in which it resides. A watershed is an area of land that drains into a shared destination such as a river, stream, lake, pond or ocean. The size of a watershed can be tiny or immense and its boundaries and speed of flow are determined by landforms such as mountain ranges, hills and slopes that direct and channel water.  Our work centers around the North Saskatchewan River and its watershed, meaning all the lakes and streams that flow into it.  It is made up of much smaller subwatersheds, and is, along with the South Saskatchewan River, a part of the larger Saskatchewan River Watershed that runs across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and into the Hudson Bay. 

The North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance (NSWA) is a non-profit society whose purpose is to protect and improve water quality and ecosystem functioning in the North Saskatchew an River watershed in Alberta. The organization is guided by a Board of Directors composed of member organizations from within the watershed. It is the designated Watershed Planning and Advisory Council (WPAC) for the North Saskatchewan River under the Government of Alberta's Water for Life Strategy.