Conasauga river snorkeling and a working bus ride

We left GPS early to drive through Cherokee National Forest on our way to the Conasauga River. On the way, we worked on revenue, funding and startup needs for the projects. Once the road got too bumpy, we shifted our discussion to Best Management Practices (BMPs) for timber harvesting in the national forests compared to timber harvests of private land.

After catching glimpses of the river from the mountains, we finally arrived at the river itself where two guides from the National Forest Service greeted us. We suited up in wetsuits, fitted our snorkels and plunged into the cold, forested Conasauga river.

A new world opened to us and we were able to observe fish behavior. This was a neat change from all the fish out of water we have observed throughout the program. In the past, we have caught fish in seine nets, fed fish in tanks at the propagation facility and caught fish through electrofishing. 

Holiday darter (photo credit: www.al.com) 

This time, we were able to see the hogsucker ‘hoover’ the bottom of the river, watch stonerollers roll stones, hear drum making sounds, and observe sculpin using fins to ‘walk’ along the bottom of the river. We also saw some bullfrog tadpoles that were larger than some of the fish and were definitely the largest any of us had ever seen! We also saw colorful holiday darters and log perch.

We learned about some of the fish like the Conasauga logperch that are endemic to the river and so the Conasauga is the only place you would be able to see them. While part of the Conasauga is in Tennessee, it does not drain to the Tennessee or Mississippi Rivers. Instead, the Conasuaga joins the Coosa and then empties into Mobile Tensaw delta in the Gulf of Mexico.

Co-lab Generator and River-centric Chattanooga History

On Wednesday, June 10^th, we enjoyed a change of pace with a nice air-conditioned round of creativity and continued work through the co-lab generator canvas. The projects started to take shape and there was a lot of encouragement, collaboration and excitement as fellows helped each other with their respective projects and pushed each other with questions and ‘what ifs’.

Patrice Glass met us at GPS and we went on a short history tour of Chattanooga. Our first stop was a spot by the river under the Market St. bridge. We learned that houses and businesses of the past all faced the river until the railroad was built and Chattanoogans turned their back on the river to face the railroad. Today, we are looking again to the river and finding new opportunities to use it to make a livable and thriving city. We saw pictures of the sling ferry that took people across the river when there were no bridges. We also learned how the river played an important part in the civil war in and around Chattanooga.

            Our next stop was downtown where we saw evidence of underground Chattanooga in the form of windows bisected by sidewalk and a parking garage that showed the former elevation of the city streets. We learned about several severe floods that affected the city, leading to the decision to raise the level of downtown so that the front doors of existing buildings were now on the second floor of the building.

Creepy food storage tips from the loggerhead shrike

Louisiana water thrush 

After our stormy, sleepless night, we woke early and enjoyed some oatmeal. John and Lizzie had already set the bird nets and collected a bird; it was a migrant called a Louisiana water thrush. It migrates to Central America and breeds in the southern United States. This thrush was banded and we returned close to the collection location to release it - this bird likes to live near the banks of intermittent streams.

getting ready to release the thrush 

post-release 

 The bird nets are fine nets with about 4 pockets positioned perpendicular to the river. Most of the nets were set low and so trap low-flying birds. A canopy net was also set, but we didn’t get any birds collected from this net. The nets need to be checked every 30-45 minutes so after releasing the thrush we walked the nets a second time, where we collected a Carolina Wren- the wren was put beak first into a cloth bag for the return trip to the bird banding station.  While on our walk we encountered a Black Locust tree and Lizzie pointed out the extremely spiky bark. 

Loggerhead shrike- impales food on spikes

We were surprised to learn that a bird called the loggerhead shrike impales frogs and small rodents on the spikes to create a food cache for itself.

Once back at the station, we observed the unhappy wren having wings and beak length measured, weight taken, and a metal band placed around its ankle. This particular bird is a local resident and a juvenile. While in the lab we learned more about some birds that are repeatedly captured and what happens if an already banded bird is caught. John told us of a bird he captured in the Arctic with a Tasmanian tag he looked up. In the databse, he found that the bird was nine years old and had made the journey from the Arctic to Tasmania 9 times!

We also learned about migration in general. Many birds know when to migrate based on length of days (photoperiod). They are able to find their way using stars, magnetic field, land masses and scent.  Often, only 1/2 of the birds that migrate survive. Their travel is threatened by bad weather, hunting/trapping, predators, collisions with windows and light pollution. 

A muddy hike out! 

Back to GPS where we met Leda Goodman from Covenant college and she led us trhough more of the co-lab curriculm.

winning idea with ice cream prize 

working through the canvas- practice pitch #1

Camping, bird banding, social entrepreneurship, and storms, oh my!

The first day of the summer experience for the veteran River Fellows was a full one! We spent the morning with an introduction to the co-starters generator, an entrepreneurship model that will be used to help students work through their river action ideas together in a supportive way. The idea is to rapidly uncover flaws in the fellows’ concepts and to quickly find better concepts, which they will then articulate and implement.

transitioning from classroom to trail 

A dry start 

After a morning of identifying passions and generating ideas, we hit the trail for a campout at the Tennessee River Gorge Trust (TNRGT) bird-banding lab. John Diener greeted us with a smile and gave us a glimpse into the globetrotting career of a bird-bander.

 on the way to winning the tent set-up competiton 

After a tent-setting-up competition and some elaborate hammock hanging, we went out to help John set up the bird capture nets.  Unfortunately, the weather threatened to take a turn for the worse and the nets and hammocks had to be taken back down. 

unset bird capture net (almost invisible once set) 

Setting a capture net

We returned to our co-starters work and identified leadership styles and obstacles to implementing the river action ideas. The storms held off until after we had eaten the wonderful chili dinner prepared by Sunshine from Outdoor Chattanooga.  

TNRGT bird banding lab 

We were able to get a preview of the inside of the bird banding lab while we waited out storm #1 of the evening. While we were hoping for relaxing nature sounds to help us sleep, we instead slept lightly as we were ‘serenaded’ by barred owls, barge horns, intense thunder, lightning and rain. It was quite a night for those new to camping.