blog comments powered by Disqus
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 14:11
Grant to restore migration in Little T tributaries
Written by Admin- By land and by water: Conservation merger will have positive ripple effect on Little Tennessee
- Twenty years and counting: Tracking the health of the Little Tennessee
- Needmore Road paving proposal once again draws a crowd
- Second public hearing set in Macon County for Needmore Road
- Environmental groups support Needmore Road improvements, but not DOT’s proposal
- Proposal to pave, widen Needmore Road met with skepticism
- Macon rallies to defense of river and wins
- Hearing set for Little Tennessee discharge permit
The Little Tennessee Watershed Association has received a $75,000 grant to help restore migration for aquatic species.
Two years ago, a study of creeks feeding the Little Tennessee River found several places where road crossings inhibited up and downstream movement by organisms. Roads across the creeks were acting as dams, either due to collapsed culverts or culverts not properly conveying the water in the stream.
The grant will come from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, thanks to federal stimulus money. The Little Tennessee River is a priority area for the Fish and Wildlife Service due to the presence of federally endangered species. The threatened spotfin chub is among the fish species whose migration each fall from the Little Tennessee into tributaries is being inhibited.
Grants were also awarded to the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and the Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council for the French Broad River watershed and the Upper Nolichucky River watershed.
“These grants will help local organizations and local people accomplish what really are some tremendous on-the-ground conservation projects,” said Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Anita Goetz.
Read 1983 times
Tagged under
The folks in the mountains of Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee share more than a common boundary, they share a deep appreciation for the wild, sometimes rugged, but always beautiful landscape they call home. 
