He's cool, he's fun, he's smart, he's green, and he's the watershed mascot for the Santa Margarita and San Luis Rey River watersheds!!! Introducing... 

Phinnious J. Green, PhD

a.k.a. the "Phibious Dude"  

Designed and copyrighted by Julia Escamilla

Hi Kids! Welcome to my page. I am the official mascot and expert on watershed awareness at Mission Resource Conservation District. You might have noticed that I am not your average dude...I am a pacific tree frog. If you look around the creeks, ponds, and other wet areas, you can find my friends and relatives in these areas of Santa Margarita and San Luis Rey Watersheds. I have a cool job. I teach kids, moms & dads, teachers, and neighbors about the importance of conserving natural resources. Our natural resources included air, land, water, animals and plants that are located in our local watersheds.

But wait! I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Some of you may not know what a watershed is!

WHAT IS A WATERSHED? Storm water (everyone calls this rain), flows downhill to a nearby waterway. A waterway can have many names like: gutter, creeks, stream, brook, wash, channel, ditch, or river. Smaller waterways, such as creeks, usually join into larger ones such as rivers, as the water continues to join on its way downhill.

Waterways carry runoff to large bodies of water such as lakes, reservoirs, bays, and the ocean. All of the land that drains into a waterway is called a watershed. Everyone, everywhere lives in a watershed, along with a wide variety of plants, animals, and of course...FROGS!

Both the Santa Margarita and San Luis Rey River watersheds drain into the Pacific Ocean. When the water gets to the ocean, it is recycled into rain again the hydrologic cycle. Do you remember … Evaporation, Condensation, & Precipitation??? I thought you did! Anyway, the water cycle transports water among surface water, clouds, and our land.

Which watershed do YOU live in?

Santa Margarita River or San Luis Rey River

When the rain falls in our watershed, the very first thing it wants to do is to get back to the ocean. But in-between our homes and the ocean, our rain water can become very dirty or polluted.

OH NO...POLLUTION? - Pollution is usually caused by people. Pollution dirties our environment. And I am sad to say that pollution can harm people, plants, and animals. Pollution in a watershed can be called either point-source or nonpoint-source. It is easy to remember the difference between these two sources of pollution. If you can point to something that is causing the environment to become dirty, it is point-source pollution. And example of point-source pollution would be from a factory that dumps waste into the environment. Nonpoint-source pollution comes from different, unidentified sources. To prevent storm water pollution, we must locate the source of pollution. It is much easier to stop pollution if we can determine what it is and where it is coming from.  

LET ME TELL YOU MORE ABOUT STORM WATER POLLUTION - Storm water pollution occurs whenever rain water flows over streets, roofs, yards, parking lots, building sites, forests and farms. Water runoff from the daily use of garden hoses, irrigation water, and sprinklers can also carry pollutants into the storm drain, or directly into a waterway.

Different kinds of pollutants come from different places. For example, leaked motor oil comes from paved areas where cars and trucks drive, like streets, parking lots, and freeways. Pesticides (bug poison) can come from farms and yards that have been sprayed to control pests. Litter can come from people that visit our rivers as recreational areas.

Storm water pollution also happens when people dump pollutants directly into storm drains and waterways. Some people think that storm drains are sewers for disposing waste, like the drains in most of our homes. NO WAY! Storm drains flow directly to water and wildlife areas. Storm water is NOT cleaned before reaching our rivers, lakes and oceans.

One more thing...in many of the rural areas within our watershed, it's hard to find a storm drain. Instead, the rain water drains into open ditches and creeks on its long journey back to the ocean. It too, can pick up pollutants along the way. So even if you live out in the countryside, YOU should remember the importance of keeping our storm water clean!

I always hope that my friends will help me to keep the water clean...

AND it's so easy to do. If you would like to know what you can do to help keep water clean, click on Phinnious' picture below!

                                                Last Updated: June 10, 2008