AMERICA'S BIG MISTAKE: Watershed Democracy REJECTED! 

As someone who works in the environmental field in the midwest, so many problems we face daily are because watersheds are split up between rural municipalities that can't agree on anything. It's such a divisive system. Yet as soon as they can agree to work together, there's so much change and hope for the future.

In the late 80's, I was an appliance salsman. Asked the front load washer machine rep why we could not sell their washers compared to top load? His responce rocked my world and affected me forever. He said, " Energy is to cheap here". "In Europe they have their front loaders down to a teaspoon of detergent, 2/3rds less water, no transmission, reversing electric motor, etc. Built to use the least amount of energy because energy is expensive there".

Perhaps it would have passed the US Senate if he had simply called it "Watershed Republic"?

Abundant cheap energy is what allowed us to build such inefficient societies. If as some say the age of abundance is coming to an end, these teachings are essential. Thanks for sharing!

God damn it, I argued about the house orientation issue in an architecture class once and was scoffed at for suggesting we could do urban planning better just by designing for solar optimization. Nice to see it explained here.

Dang, the idea of Watershed Democracy seems really compelling to me! It seems to have lots of run-on effects. I suppose that the basic principle is working with mother nature rather than against her.

As someone who lives in high desert I definitely experienced this firsthand. I had one house E/W facing--never again. You'd BURN trying to enter the door in the summer, and we might as well not have had windows because they always had to have thick shades blocking the sun. Next time I moved I refused to consider anything but N/S facing. The light is gentler, and the temperature is eons better.

8:30 This is the same reason why many Middle Eastern buildings have domes - half of the dome is always in the shade, so there's a hot side and a cold side, which creates air currents within the building that average out the temperature in each room. Pitched roofs are such a bad design for so many warmer climates.

"But my railroads!" Cries in Robber Barron.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has thought of this as a solution to water-scarcity and gerrymandering.

Lesson I've gained is that living in harmony with the nature is the key to our survival

Such an excellent video. Crime of intentional blindness these days... so much is now known, yet not a single thing about planning and construction has changed.

"If you've ever wondered what evil is? It is stupidity on a large scale." -Bill Mollison, 1983

Arguably the mistake has its origins even earlier with the Treaty of 1818 that set the boundary between the US and what became Canada along the 49th parallel rather than along the Mississippi/Hudson Bay continental divide as it had nominally been before then. With an international border along a drainage divide, it would have strengthened the case for internal boundaries along watersheds. But with that nice straight northern border along a line of latitude, it becomes a lot easier for the straight line map drawers to continue doing so for state boundaries.

J. W. Powell is the the author of the book titled “The Exploration of the Colorado River and it’s Canyons” published in 1961 too. It’s an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work first published by Flood and Vincent in 1895 under the title of “Canyons of the Colorado”. Also it’s Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-2228

Wow - this is an alternate time line I wanna be in. Imagine America designed with this level of connection to nature. Your Amazing Andrew! 🌟

The title might be click-baity, but the ideas and science behind this are very very sound. Your points are so valuable and there is so much more to say about this from an economics perspective (you touched upon internalizing costs, for example). Hopefully videos like these will help people get informed and organized, and holding their community leaders and higher ups accountable for reform, for which there is a dire, dire need. Thanks!

Mistake, or intentional money grab?

I don't know if its been mentioned elsewhere, but a big undersold point of this argument is that humans tend to settle along waterways, so current states with a huge populations would naturally be divided up, as each watershed would take with it its portion of the population. As a quick example California has been in talks about dividing the state, and a quick look at google maps indicates that LA, SFC/Sac, and North Cali would all make for pretty compelling divisions.

By golly wow, dude! I’ve never heard of anything so innovative , logically and making so much sense! I’m subscribing and sending this video to others! Where were you in 1878 ! ! !

Definitely one of the best RU-vid Channels I've found recently; so interesting!

This is the video I've been looking for! Here in the NW, some of us speak of the Bioregion of Cascadia - the watershed and connected bioregion that arguably begins at the source tributaries of the Columbia River, through western BC, and down along western Washington, Oregon, and possibly northern colonial California. It's about prioritizing the ecosystem of the land and it's Indigenous population. One great example of how this might work is the active effort to return the salmon spawn in the Columbia back to where it was only 100 years, before dams - as far as Alberta. Doing so would be good for the river, and allow the tribes to live sustainably as their grandparents did before them. Of course, every other day someone thinks it's about secession for the sake of political upheaval (usually a "Western Idaho" type) and completely misses the point of using multi-lateral governance as a tool for sustainability and justice. This video will hopefully be a good primer for some of those folks.

The beginning was interesting but it transitioned into a site layout design nitpick. It’s not wrong per se but it misses the forest for the trees. If you care about saving energy and harnessing nature in building design then considering a suburban layout is futile to begin with. Humanity has never conceived of any more wasteful living arrangement

i love this channel SO MUCH WTF 1:16 look at that beautiful map wow, ive never seen it drawn that way 4:33 oddly enough i'm also seeing conceptual overlaps with the channel not just bikes, where the content creator discusses how we buy smaller plots of land that form communities, destroying community say in its development. worth checking out the channel to see what i mean

The official postal abbreviation for Louisiana is LA not LS… interesting map thanks for making it. Great video, keep up the good work.

I had no idea they even considered that. Thanks for the history lesson! If only suburbs that are evolving used the sun orientation the the planning phase....

lol ".....BUT SHIT MAN" Amen. And today in Ontario we opened up protected agricultural/undeveloped land to be turned into housing. I'm sure that since we've chosen to build homes on this formerly protected land in the greenbelt, the homes will be built to passive standards while using lessons like those in this video...

Wow! You voiced my thoughts! I have been thinking about all this ideas for long time. Good job pal!

When I visited New Mexico I saw a number of old Spanish land grant properties. Each one has access to the local drainage, so they are long narrow strips of land from the top of the hill to the bottom.

I live in Douglas County Oregon and if you look on the Map you can see the county lines perfectly correspond with the Umpqua Watershed. Be curious to know if any other counties have draw lines like these in America (hope we're not the only ones). Big thanks to the settlers who proactively drew up these lines with that intention. But then again plenty of gridded properties throughout the county.

America's big mistake?! Singular?! Give US(A) a little more credit than that! We been f#$%in' things up for a long time now, partner!!! 🤷‍♂️ 😜I'm really enjoying your work! 🙏✌️💚🌲🌏☮️

I like that you have the State of Jefferson.

wait until the new urbanists see this!!!! they're gonna go insane

sobbing ur so right. ur sooooooooo right I think abt this all the time it makes me sososo sad. I'm gonna go cry again.

This is fascinating! Thanks! I never knew that history of Powell. I grew up in a passive solar house in one of the rectangle states, CO. I always felt the home designs in this state were ridiculous for not incorporating the abundant sun we have here.

Why do our leaders always disregard brilliance like that of J W Powell? Watershed Democracy would have created unbreakable states. The most essential public service is water safety, delivery and treatment. Thank you for bringing this story to light.

As a traveler for over 3 years, can confirm nearly all cities look the exact same It's kind of lame how every new city I enter it already looks familiar, especially when they've been monopolized of local businesses

Andy, do you know if there is any movement/ network/ political party trying to revive watershed democracy? It would help out in the geremandering and constant redistricting that hold some states in gridlock.

It's interesting that even when you draw the watershed states, California and Texas are still pretty recognizable. And I agree that solar orientation should be key in architectural design. I live in Los Angeles and have no air conditioning (and no need for it) while I have friends that spend $800 a month to run their air conditioning during the summer.

I definitely learnt something new today, thank you for this!

i grew up in a well designed house. We had windows to the north, east and south and the roof was so low, that in the winter the sun would shine inside throughout the whole day in winter, but only in early morning in summer. Every side of the house had a door which could be opened when it was too hot and it would create an aircurrent through the house. the building material was wood, so it insulated very easily, but could cool down fast as well and the roof had such an angle, that we could place solar panels on it, which helped with energy. For very cold winters, we also had a wood stove which we could also use to kook on if we wanted to. With all this, we almost didn't use any energy at all, making it possible to save up the money and use it for other things.

in 1885 there was a rebellion by the Metis, in Saskatchewan, against the Canadian Government. The first act in that rebellion was years earlier, when Metis chased off some surveyors who were implementing a grid. The Metis registered only ownership of riverfront, and that ownership included water rights. No one bothered to assert ownership of the land far from the river. The Metis weren't sure what the surveyors were up to, but it seemed likely they were planning to establish a new system of land ownership, the better to take the Metis' land.

I love how you ended this! great comic relief

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing this prospective. I contend that if we could go back to that original plan it would not only make our communities more sustainable it would disrupt the political tribalism that is being cultivated by corporate interests. Again thank you!

Wow. I would love to participate in creating that world. Thank you for your inspiration and wonderful speaking!

Facinating! Thank you for posting!

Now , THIS IS WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS , I think Andrew, Millisons knowledge could change the world . I write this with a sad heart because of the wildfire in Canada .This could have been prevented . Animals have rights too !!!!!

The irony is that when they decided to impose the grid like system they probably thought it was efficient 😅

Every single civilisation in history colonised the natives around them starting with the ancient Sumerian’s. Some other colonists through history were Egyptians, romans, mongols, ottomans Carthage, mayans, etc There were hundreds of colonial empires, all of which used slaves and some sacrificed humans

I so wish that people would realize that conservationnism, the wise and judicial use of resources, is a central tenant of Federalism and conservatism. Powell had many supporters in the Republican seats of the Congress during Grants term, but they were overruled by the factions in the east that just wanted to get the masses of poor immigants out of their towns. So, they opted for the fastest way to settle these areas after the civil war. They figured any problems that came up could be solved by future generations. They didn't even consider the damage that would be done, and the legal precedents that would be done in this rush to settle these lands. The great thing about watershed conservation management is that by starting to practice what Powell tried to do then, the watershed environments can recover. It does not take a lot of government money, just local governments and individuals coordinating their efforts and activities up and down the watersheds for them to recover. Starting with a practice of for every 1 tree harvested, 3 trees of fruit or nut bearing varieties, like The American Chestnut tree or apple and pear trees, be planted. Yes, state and county lines are drawn, but coordination across those lines can, and must be made.

The way you illustrate your point in the video is really amazing. Good job. Love all of your work.

These concepts were known in the Medieval times too. Kingdoms were established around watersheds. Those that were not, had an agenda to conquer the whole watershed. Mountains, seas, wide rivers were used as borders and were fortified.

I appreciate how you snuck Jefferson on the map “JF”.

Just want to point out that most US states were not created arbitrarily. They were created in an attempt to create equality. One size of state was added when another state of roughly the same size was added. The North vs South had a big part in how these were determined. It wasn't perfect, but it was respectable attempt to achieve a noble goal. Yes, there are other ways to do it, but this was not arbitrary.

You could phrase it as "AMERICA'S BIGGEST TECHNICAL MISTAKE!"

Great video! You could expand even more on how indigenous territories were/are shaped along fluid geomorphic ecological boundaries like this for millennia before these ecologically illiterate patterns of development were imposed upon the land and the peoples through settler colonial violence. The peoples here before conquest were the visionaries. Powell’s observations of their watershed cultural organization certainly informed his proposal. If we return to some form of bioregional governance we should center indigenous knowledge in our path to remembering our way forward out of the mess that’s been created over the last 500 years😊

I'm not sure if I wanted to see this or not. Great info, love your videos, but dang, what a huge missed opportunity. I'm so disappointed we screwed this up from the start. Even worse, all builder/developers know about E/W orientation, but they're still building massive residential developments with only 50% of the houses on the E/W axis. It's no longer a crime of ignorance; it's shamefully negligent.

We must make a video of Solarpunk make a video on Solarpunk and brand yourself as a Solarpunk channel!

You are right we must come together and restore the water table across the world and hydrate Gia

Notably, this puts New York in the state of New Jersey

We persist in trying to grow our crops in areas with insufficient rainfall, so water has to be transported hundreds of miles (losing much in evaporation and leakage) to the farms where it's needed. The country does have millions of acres of good farmland, but what do we do with it? We build houses on it. Developers love level land near rivers, and their houses are rarely oriented or designed for energy efficiency. Just because you can afford to waste money on energy - or water - doesn't mean that you should be allowed to do it.

Great stuff 🤯 it is cool and sad at the same time to see that there were visionary people in the past but who's ideas never came to fruiton.

Well said!!

"Crime of ignorance", well put.

Fascinating stuff! Watershed state boundaries seems really cool, wish we had more of this foresight. I do however think you're discounting that there's a lot of value to grids in providing simplified clear boundaries, especially for a time before 1900. Part of the reason the Midwest was developed so much quicker than southern states is that the square platting made property claims much easier to establish (its part of why Abraham Lincoln's family moved from Kentucky to Illinois). Additionally in an urban context where land is scarce, grids are absolutely essential because of how well they can fit more buildings in the same space and facilitate transportation.

Doing the lords work

great video as always

A crime of ignorance? Better, a crime of arrogance!

As someone who works in professional land surveying this system of land management and political organizing makes the most amount of sense.

Wow. If we could only do that one over again. But we pretty much inherited the cities that were here already the roads were already laid out. :-)

I especially liked your passive house orientation presentation. My house faces ssw and in the winter on a sunny day I get as much heat from the sun as I can. It's crazy that builders don't go more for passive features in a house, it's free. Nobody really talks about this, just energy consumption.

If only this concept was common knowledge 200 years ago. The world would be a much healthier place to live in if all countries were oriented towards watershed democracy.

I love you for making this ! Shoutout to all of the geography and U.S. history fam out there!

Awesome material! Thank you so much for sharing!

Almost all of the issues with my county's river happen upstream and out-of-county. No way to achieve anything when the dam is 5 counties away.

Thank you for the bit on passive solar, as an architecture student, this was one of the most basic principles, design to the environment, not around it

Amazing work Andrew, thank you for everything 🙏

Your s-bomb at the end caught me off guard xD

This explains why Utah uses more of the Colorado Rivers water than any other western state while Arizona is the best at conserving it.

As someone living in the Great Lakes region, aspects like water and heat in the summer are not that big of a deal, but this sounds game changing for anyone living in climates like New Mexico.

Can you also make videos about reforestation permaculture and agroforestation in Turkey?

This is fascinating.

Really awesome information to share, and as usual a cool presentation. Thanks again Andrew! All of us viewers will be figuring out how to right this wrong. Education first!

2:28 the dot here made me think my sceen had a pixel die

As a Texan I can confirm that we would rather go to war then allow the borders to change this way In texes.

How suprising that a bunch of people who thought they were superior to everyone else would rather try making the world adapt to them, rather than adapt to the world.

I love you, Andrew!!! This video is brilliant and speaks volumes to Indigenous rejection of gas pipelines throughout the US. Cause and effect.

This makes so much sense! This idea is even more important now than it was when suggested. Wouldn't it be something great if we could recognize this in the present, and make the changes in political boundaries and accompanying governments? Although it certainly seems impossible in the current political environment, there are relatively recent examples even if not exactly the same. For example the UK rearranged its counties and burroughs to better accommodate current realities. This would be a worthwhile project related to our response to climate change.

this is why east africa is having so much conflict currently | i fully agree it makes wayyyy more sense to seperate the states by watershed tremendously more sense

Love the vids, keep this content coming we need it to better prepare for the future.

I’ve been thinking about this idea for so long I’m just glad I’m not the only one

Are there examples of a geomorphological city? I would be curious to visit one to see the potential benefits.

Powell is absolutely right. I had thought of the same idea due to intrastate disputes around shared waterways.

Thanks for simple narrative, a good argument that shud be applicable worldwide

Unfortunately it was not a mistake, it was purposeful. The US Senate was ruled by powerful land & industry owners. They saw the land as resources to exploit and control others. They saw his map and immediately saw a threat to their hegemony. The resulting exploitation was exactly what they wanted and the proof is in the consolidation of land/power in the hands of a few.

But when political boundaries are based on watersheds the politicians have no one to blame but themselves. That could never have happened !

Thank you for your work on our behalf. I am promoting this wisdom to anyone who gives me an opportunity to share. I have been watching your channels since the first day I found it on you tube. Permaculture changes everything for the benefit of all. "Dominion over the land etc. does not mean exploitation it means working "with" the land, water, vegetation and animals for the benefit all all. This is the next step in the evolution of our human family and all life on earth. I love your work and delight to promote it to anyone with ears to hear an eyes to see.

Brilliant, as usual - thank you Andy!

We moved to a neighborhood with the streets running on a 45°. At first I thought it was spatially confusing, now that we built an ADU, I am so excited about how we get sun in different windows all day.

Man!! Geomorphic or watershed democracy. We really missed the mark!