River Fellows summer experience- day 4 (by Kay H. and Wendy R.)

Hi , it’s Kay and Wendy here from The Tucker River Fellows to tell you guys about our Day 4 experience. First, we all met at 8:45. Then, we got on the bus and headed to tour the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute propagation facility. When we got there, our tour was led by Kathlina Alford, and Dr.Bernie Kuhajda, they were fantastic tour guides. They taught us about how the weaker fish had to be separated from the other fish so that they have a better chance of survival. We also learned about the different species of fish, the difference between the fish, and how they keep up with the fish after they’re released into the Tennessee river.

       Then, we drove out to Catoosa county in Graysville, Georgia and got into the South Chickamauga creek with Dr.Bernie Kuhajda and Dr. Anna George. 

We caught a bunch of different species of fish like log perch, darters, sculpin, chubs, bass,  minnows. We also caught some hog suckers. 

Daphne and Anna actually kissed the hog suckers for good luck ( Lol). 

It was so much fun and we learned a lot about the fish that lived in South Chickamauga creek. We also learned about mussels, crayfish and some extinct species of fish. 

     Later on that day, we were going to tour a wetland in construction, but instead, Scientist Kristy Smedley taught us all about it. We didn’t actually tour because it was raining. The wetland is being constructed to help collect storm water and because part of a wetland it is being impacted by the building Amazon and Volkswagen in Enterprise South off of Bonny Oaks Drive. They build 5 acres of wetland for every 1 acre of natural wetland that is impacted by development. The project will create 25 acres of wetland. 

River Fellows Summer experience- Day 3 (by Anna O. and Hannah P.)

Hi everyone! Today was our third day in the program and we toured the Chickamauga Dam and went paddle boarding. The tour of the dam was a great experience! We were even joined by some long-time employees of TVA who were interested in touring the dam.  We learned about and toured the huge turbines, the control room, and one of the generators.

We started out with a basic description of the dam, what it does and how it works from dam manager, Tony Townsend.  Annette Moore, a female engineer who is the manager of the Ocoee dam system, also joined us. She told us about dam operation and women in the field of engineering and science. Then we went down and got to see how big the turbines were and we got to look inside of one to see how they work. The tools that would be used on those things were HUGE!

When we walked outside over the dam, the water was pretty low. Then an alarm went off and we got to see them spill water through the dam, adding water to the head of the Nickajack Lake.  We watched the water churn and there were a lot of blue herons that would swoop down to get fish out of the water once the dam was opened. 

We walked around and got to see the new locks that they are trying to build for the dam, but at the moment it was not under construction and was filled with water. The concrete in the dam expands a little every year so they have to cut out slivers of it so the pressure does not build up too much. In the winter this year they cut out a 2 inch or so sliver from the dam and now it is all closed up. It must be cut regularly to keep up the efficiency of the dam.

We also learned that TVA supplies hydroelectric power to distributors like electric companies to give to the community. The power that you get in the Chattanooga area comes from a variety of different producers but some of it comes from the dam.

The dam tour was really a lot of fun, one of the best tours we did, and we had so much fun getting to see the inner workings of the dam in our hard hats and goggles. Thanks to Susan Malone who set up the tour for us and joined us in learning about the Chickamauga dam.

After our tour was finished we headed to Waconda Bay to try SUP (stand up paddle boarding). We went to One Joyful Yoga and started up the bay into the main channel. One Joyful Yoga is a wonderful yoga and paddle boarding retreat run by Jayne, our instructor and guide in the bay. 

We paddled out to Old Harrison. It is the original town of Harrison that was flooded in the early 1900’s when the Chickamauga dam was built. There are still remnants of it under the surface of the water including two staircases and foundations of a couple buildings. We stood on the stairs and saw the foundations still under the water. 

This old town is at the base of Harrison Bay State Park. The whole area was covered in a grassy plant called parrot feather. This plant is native to freshwater streams and lakes. It spreads like crazy. It has taken over the bay area and maybe the name for the marina.

Overall today was a great day and we all learned so much.