Wonders of Watersheds

Southeastern watersheds have exceptional biological significance, but their fate is in doubt. The U. S. Forest Service is currently in the process of creating new forest management plans for forests in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia; these plans will determine how the forests will be managed for the next 10-15 years. Our Southern Appalachian watersheds are the headwaters for some of the most significant aquatic diversity in the world, and the five national forests under review are critical to their protection. These forests belong to all Americans and now is the time for you to participate in the planning process; the Forest Service needs to know that the health of the watersheds is a priority for you.

In the Southern Appalachians:

Healthy and intact watersheds provide clean water to hundreds of communities.
The highest diversity of freshwater fish, crayfish, and snails in North America, and the highest diversity of mussels in the world are at stake in the planning process.
At least 33% of all freshwater species are at risk, including 50% of the mussels and 75% of crayfish.
Critical areas for the protection and recovery of these species occur on the Chattahoochee-Oconee, Sumter, Cherokee, George Washington-Jefferson and Talladega National Forests.
Your input into the planning process will help the Forest Service make watershed health a management priority.

Photo by Kathryn Kolb
Healthy Watershed at Risk

Jack’s River, a major tributary of the Conasauga River watershed.

Protect the Best, Restore the Rest

The best form of restoration is protection. The federal lands in the Southern Appalachians provide the best opportunity to protect the most intact areas of aquatic diversity in the region. Without them to provide the “anchor” for threatened systems, we will lose the life blood that supports the ecosystems on which life depends. It is essential that the new forest plans protect the most pristine areas and those which support high concentrations of unique and imperiled species, in order to give refuge to species while damaged watersheds elsewhere have time to heal. Protection should include not only the major rivers, but also their headwaters, tributaries, riparian areas (the vegetated areas bordering river systems) and flood plains. Protection of critical refugia, or “anchors” of diversity, along with other ecologically sound protection and restoration measures, constitutes a unified aquatic strategy.

Management at a Crossroads

Chief of the Forest Service, Mike Dombeck, has said, “There are few more irreparable marks we can leave on the land than to build a road.” Five decades of excessive road building -- in the service of logging -- has so criss-crossed every National Forest that areas of high ecological integrity are rare. Though the planning process is now underway, the Forest Service can begin to reverse injuries of past road building. They must fix the road problem by including the following management objectives.

Cease new road construction in currently roadless areas. The building of roads causes more damage to rivers and streams than any other source of pollution on the National Forests.
Prioritize all road repair and removal work on a biological basis. Sediment from roads degrades water quality and riparian conditions by reducing oxygen, limiting habitat for aquatic species and increasing the water temperature and acidity.
Remove existing roads from the least damaged and most sensitive areas first.

Key Watersheds That Will Be Affected by Forest Planning Decisions:

Brasstown Creek, Betty Creek, Chattooga River, Chauga River, Childers Creek, Choccolocco Creek, Citico Creek, Clinch River, Conasauga River, Coosawattee River, Cowee Creek, Craig/ Johns Creek, Etowah River, Lower Hiwassee River, North Fork Holston River, South Fork Holston River, Linville River, Middle/Upper Little Tennessee River, Nolichucky River, Pedlar River, Poor Fork Cumberland River, Possum Creek, Powell River, Shoal Creek, Sipsey Fork Black Warrior River, South Toe River, Stony/ Little Stony Creeks, Tallapoosa River, Toccoa River/ Suches Creek, Vengeance Creek, Whitetop Laurel Creek.
These watersheds represent a total 8,495,075 acres.

Watersheds in Your Neck of the Woods

A critical opportunity for protecting some of the most diverse watersheds in the Southeast is available now through the forest planning process. Some highlights of the diverse watershed systems on or affected by management of our National Forests is below. The Forest Service must seize the opportunity to reduce threats such as logging and sedimentation from roads and make the protection and restoration of watersheds a priority on our National Forests.

Chauga River: Geographically parallel to the wild and scenic Chattooga River, South Carolina’s Chauga river in the Sumter National Forest is renown as a diversity center for caddisflies, and is home to the “Chauga crayfish.”
Citico Creek: Ninety-five percent of this watershed is on the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. It is the last remaining habitat for the “smokey madtom” mussel, with only remnants of the former mussel diversity remaining.
Clinch-Powell River System: Virginia and Tennessee’s Clinch-Powell River System is home to over 60 imperiled species. More at risk species are found here than are found anywhere else in the Southern Appalachians and the Jefferson National Forest plan will help protect them.
Conasauga River: With its headwaters in the Cohutta wilderness in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest, this nearly pristine river and its tributaries are home to 92 species of fish, many of which are at risk.
Little Tennessee River: The Little Tennessee River is home to the Appalachian elktoe, a mussel which is listed as endangered.
Shoal Creek: Shoal Creek is a critical refuge for snails and many other endangered aquatic species in Alabama’s Coosa River system on the Talladega National Forest. This system has already lost four genera of snails this century, and this important refuge must be protected to prevent more species from being lost.

Forest Planning Primer

This is a crucial decision making time. The Southern Appalachian National Forests belong to all of us, and citizen owners now have an opportunity to tell the Forest Service how to manage these unique public lands. In the forest planning process, land management “prescriptions” are adopted. Good prescriptions will protect and restore watersheds, inadequate prescriptions will not. We must support the following prescriptions to achieve our goals.

Goal 1: Maintain the “roadless” integrity of all inventoried roadless areas and uninventoried roadless areas greater than 1000 acres in size. Reduce the negative impacts of existing roads.

Cambarus speciosus, Coosa River System

~by Guenter Schuster

We expect prescriptions that will protect and restore roadless areas:

All roadless areas adjacent to existing Wilderness Areas must be recommended as Wilderness Additions— Prescription 1.B.
All roadless areas that are eligible for Wilderness designation must be recommended for Wilderness designation—alsoPrescription 1.B.
All remaining roadless areas will be managed by a prescription that will prohibit the construction of new roads and encourage the decommissioning of existing roads or converting them to trails— Examples include Prescription 6.A. (Old Growth); 12.B and 12.C. (Backcountry Recreation and Remote Areas).

Goal 2: Maintain the best examples of healthy watershed ecosystems and restore priority degraded watershed ecosystems. The emphasis of land management activities in these watersheds should focus on maintaining or restoring the integrity of the waters of the forest as well as ensuring healthy and resilient riparian and upslope conditions.

We expect prescriptions that will protect high quality habitats:

All watersheds that serve as drinking water sources for communities must be managed under Prescription 9.A.1—Source Watershed protection.
The best examples of intact, healthy watersheds throughout the forest must be managed under Prescription 9.A.2—Reference Watersheds.
A number of selected high priority watersheds must be managed under a Prescription that will emphasize their long term restoration— Prescription 9.A.3.
All watersheds that contribute flow to biological “hot spots” that support aquatic and terrestrial species that are threatened, endangered, or sensitive will be managed under Prescription 9.A.4—Aquatic Threatened and Engandered Species (TES) Watersheds.

Goal 3: Maintain or restore the long term integrity of all riparian resources throughout the forests. Riparian areas provide a variety of ecological benefits ranging from sediment control to habitat niches for a number of wildlife species.

We should let it be known that we expect:

Standards and Guidelines that require precise field delineation of riparian areas. Riparian ecosystems are the vegetated areas surrounding all stream channels as well as seeps, springs, wetlands, bogs, ponds, lakes and reservoirs.
Standards and Guidelines on lands adjacent to delineated riparian areas that ensure upslope conditions that contribute to the integrity and resiliency of the riparian area.
Standards and Guidelines that provide more rigorous protection of riparian values in management areas designated for more intensive management activities.
Standards and Guidelines that recognize and protect the contribution of ephemeral channels (or “headwater transition zones”) to the stability of lower elevation aquatic resources.

The Changing Face of the Forest

In the past, forest plans allotted the majority of funds to resource extraction activities such as timber production and road construction, while watershed protection and restoration were relatively neglected.

Today, we know better. It is in the best interest of the forests, the regional economy, and most forest users to reverse the emphasis once placed on logging, and instead focus on maintaining and restoring critical biological and watershed resources.

Forest Facts

Regional Jobs from the Southeastern National Forests - Recreation: 78%, Fish & Wildlife: 20%, Logging: 2% (1)
In 1996 the economic output (or value) of fishing on National Forest lands in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia is almost $482 million annually. (2)
The total revenue from recreation-based tourism on federal lands in the Southern Appalachian region is nearly $6 billion per year, almost as high as the combined revenue from agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries. (3)

(1) - U.S. Forest Service, The Forest Service Program for Forest and Rangeland Resources: A Long Term Strategic Plan, Draft 1995 RPA Program.
(2) - The economic impact of fishing, hunting, and wildlife viewing on national forest lands. American Sportsfishing Assoc., 1999.
(3) - Regional Economic Effects of Outdoor Recreation Visitors to U.S.D.A. Forest Service Sites, Technical Report by Outdoor Recreation and Assessment Group, SE Experiment Station, U.S.D.A. Forest Service.

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