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.