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.
