User:Jaymen/Draft of North Saskatchewan Watershed article

The North Saskatchewan River (NSR) watershed in Alberta is made up of 12 sub-basins, in a total area of about 57, 000 square kilometres. The river elevation is 1,390 m above sea level at Saskatchewan Crossing, near the national park boundary, and 500 m above sea level by the time it reaches the Saskatchewan border. It joins with the South Saskatchewan River just east of Prince Albert, flows into Lake Winnipeg and from there empties into the Hudson Bay by way of the Nelson River. As part of the Saskatchewan River basin, the NSR is subject to the 1969 PPWB Master Agreement on Apportionment which states that Alberta must pass 50% of the natural flow of east-flowing rivers into Saskatchewan. Water quality in the North Saskatchewan River is affected by input from natural, human, non-point and point sources. Nutrients, bacteria and chemicals accumulate as water flows downstream. Dissolved oxygen decreases downstream of major urban areas. Flow in the North Saskatchewan River is affected by two headwaters dams: the Brazeau on the Brazeau River, and the Big Horn on the main stem near the mouth of the Big Horn River. The effect of these impoundments is to redistribute flow to a higher than average flow in the winter time and lower than average flow in the summer. Land use in the North Saskatchewan River Watershed includes: agriculture; resource exploration and extraction; forestry; recreation; and municipal use. The upper region of the watershed is sparsely populated; the greatest population base is found in and around Edmonton.

Watershed Management
The Alberta provincial Government created the Water for Life policy in 2005. Under this policy, non-profit societies are named Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils and are mandated by the government to create a State of the Watershed Report, a watershed management plan, and to perform continued education and outreach to stakeholders. The North Saskatchewan Watershed in its entirety originally fell under the responsibility of the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance, but the large subwatershed of Battle River was removed in 2005. It was recognized at this time that issues facing the Battle River, a prairie fed system, were different from the rest of the watershed, and the Battle River Watershed Alliance was created to serve as a WPAC for that subwatershed.