The public is invited to participate in biomonitoring surveys of bird and fish populations on the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee’s (LTLT) Welch Farm along the Valley River in Cherokee County on Saturday, August 2, starting at 9:00 am. LTLT’s Welch Farm is a 57-acre property along US Hwy 74 approximately 3 miles west of the Town of Andrews. Signs will direct the public to a parking area. This event was originally planned for Saturday, July 19 but was rescheduled due to weather.

Designed for children and adults of all ages, the half-day event includes two activities that showcase nationally-recognized research work that monitors the health of both birds and fish. Participants will provide hands-on assistance in all aspects of the survey work under with training and supervision from LTLT and Southern Appalachian Raptor Research (SARR) field biologists.

The bird monitoring work is based on the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) protocol. MAPS is a nationwide program coordinated by the Institute for Bird Populations in Point Reyes, CA. The MAPS program includes a continent-wide network of over 500 mist netting stations and is designed to monitor productivity, survivorship, and population trends of breeding birds throughout North America. Analyses of the resulting banding data provide critical information relating to the ecology, conservation, and management of North American landbird populations, and the factors responsible for changes in their populations. For four years, SARR has been conducting bird monitoring surveys in Macon County at LTLT’s Tessentee Bottomland Preserve and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ (EBCI) Cowee Mound property.

The second activity is modeled after LTLT’s highly-successful stream biomonitoring program in the Little Tennessee River valley. The program, which focuses on fish as indicators of watershed health, is currently celebrating its 25^th anniversary. Since the program began in 1990, more than 2,000 volunteers have participated in monitoring across more than 150 sites, generating the largest fish-based biomonitoring database in the world for any comparably-sized watershed.

LTLT acquired the Welch Farm in 2011 to protect its rich farmland, scenic views, waters (including almost a mile of the Valley River) and diverse fish and wildlife habitat. The property is open to the public for fishing, boating, walking, and nature observation.

This event is a result of a partnership between LTLT, SARR, and EBCI’s Fisheries and Wildlife Management program. The program is sponsored by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation’s Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources (RTCAR) initiative, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina State University, and the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research program.

For more information, please contact [email protected] or call (828) 736-1217.

 

From The Franklin Press July 11, 2014
By Ryan Hanchett, [email protected]

The Franklin Garden Club gained knowledge about stream shading from Land Trust of the Little Tennessee citizen science program manager Jason Meador during a monthly meeting on Monday afternoon.

Meador reviewed all of the programs that LTLT conducts to protect area waterways and showed the group of gardeners ways that they could help via the Shade Your Stream project.

“The ‘how’ portion of the shade your stream presentation is easy,” Meador said. “It’s the ‘why’ portion that I spend most of the time on when I am explaining the process to groups.”

Essentially, having growth along a stream bank allows for more wildlife habitat and helps keep water cool and clean. Meador used several aquatic species as examples when describing why having mature vegetation along a stream bank is important.

Fish such as the rainbow trout can only live in water that is cooler than 20 degrees Celsius. Several area salamander species will migrate to shaded areas outside of their home range to find food and shelter.

“Having shade effects every link in the food chain,” Meador added. “The leaves and vegetation that end up in the stream are broken down by insects and algae. Those organisms feed small fish and small fish in turn feed larger fish. It all starts with shade along the stream.”

Vegetation along stream banks also anchors the soil and combats erosion. The Shade Your Stream initiative has been popular with local farmers and landowners who rely on the land for crop production or to raise livestock.

LTLT employees and community groups have spent countless hours adding native species to local banks. The silky dogwood, black willow, elderberry and ninebark species have proven track records as successful shade providers.

“If the silky dogwood is planted during the dormant period it has a 90-95 percent success rate,” Meador said. “The key to livestaking native species is to promote root growth along the stream. The branch and leaf growth will come with time, but it’s the roots that are most important in the beginning.”

Along with the Shade Your Stream activities, the LTLT has kicked off the Grade Your Stream project, where citizens can assess the health of their waterways. Grading a stream begins with a visual assessment which is scored on a scale provided at the LTLT office.

By comparing stream conditions to those pictured and described in a grading packet, the citizen doing the scoring can determine the health of the plant and animal life in the aquatic habitat.

“People are concerned about pollution and water quality, but they don’t necessarily think about habitat,” LTLT Senior Scientist and Aquatic Program Specialist Dr. Bill McLarney said. “Through our citizen science program we are trying to help people think about all aspects of their streams.”

McLarney noted that often the looks of a stream can be deceiving. What property owners view as a beautiful waterway may actually be devoid of the wildlife that it could potentially support.

“Part of the solution is to let things happen naturally,” McLarney said. “Cleaning out vegetation along stream banks and moving dead wood is not good for the stream. Some people may think it looks better, but that is a matter of opinion. If we can redefine the aesthetics from what a stream is supposed to look like to what is most beneficial for nature we can do a lot of good.”

One of the most attractive aspects of Grade Your Stream project is that anyone can do it. The visual assessment and scoring do not take advanced science skills. “The first time someone grades a stream it is best if myself or someone from LTLT walk them through the process,” Meador said. “But once they have done it successfully one time they can grade additional streams.”

For more information on the Shade Your Stream and Grade Your Stream projects log on to www.ltlt.org or visit the LTLT office on East Main Street.