About

The Minnesota Sea Grant-led and nationally used Watershed Game (WSG) is a board game that features a series of active, hands-on simulations that help participants learn how land-use decisions impact water quality and natural resources.

How does the game work?

While participants make management choices about land use they also, learn about practices, plans, and policies that improve and protect the quality of a stream, lake, river or coastal region. Participants work as teams for each land use represented in the game, including an industrial port, a rural coast, and urban center. Each team is tasked with determining the best use of limited funds to meet the water quality goals for the land use they represent.

The object of these team-building simulations is to use limited financial resources to reduce excess nonpoint source pollution (NSP) to levels that meet a clean water goal. NSP, unlike pollution from industrial or sewage treatment plants, comes from diffuse sources. NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As runoff moves, it picks up and moves natural and human-made pollutants, often finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, streams, coastal waters and groundwater.

Are there different versions of the game available?

There are several different versions and models of the Watershed Game:

  • Local Leader Version (4 Models)
    • Stream Model - addresses the land uses associated with an entire headwater (source of a stream)
    • River Model - addresses the land uses associated with large river systems and urban areas
    • Lake Model - addresses the land uses surrounding a typical lake
    • Coast Model - addresses the land uses in a typical coastal community or estuary
  • Classroom Version (2 Models)
    • Stream Model - addresses the land uses associated with an entire headwater (source of a stream)
    • Coast Model - addresses the land uses in a typical coastal community or estuary

The Coast Model of the Local Leader Version is new in 2021. This model, focuses on a coastal community, incorporates community resilience and addressing nitrogen in addition to phosphorus and sediment that are addressed in the other models. Participants work as teams for each land use represented in the game, including an industrial port, rural coast, and urban center. Each team is tasked with determining the best use of limited funds to meet water quality goals for the land use they represent and also improving their community's resilience to flooding.

How is the Watershed Game Program funded?

The Watershed Game was originally developed by Minnesota Sea Grant and University of Minnesota Extension. The WSG is managed by Minnesota Sea Grant.

Development of the new (2020) Coastal Version was made possible through the financial and in-kind support from the University of Minnesota Sea Grant, University of Minnesota Water Resources Center, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management, Louisiana Sea Grant, Georgia Sea Grant, Alabama Water Institute and the NOAA Central Region and Gulf Coast Collaboration Teams and the National Sea Grant Office.

Why Minnesota Sea Grant?

The Watershed Game supports Sea Grant's mission to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal, marine and Grea tLakes resources in order to create a sustainable economy and environment.