Restoration

http://clinchriverva.com/clinch-river-action-groups/connect-downtown-revitalization-and-outdoor-recreation-efforts-along-the-clinch-river-and-expand-entrepreneurship-and-marketing-opportunities/

  
The Restoration of the Clinch River is a collaboration of various universities and local advocates who have created initiatives as well as the agencies, which are working toward improving water quality. The following agencies, which administer the Clean Water Act and corresponding state laws, have established a formal working group to coordinate efforts to protect and restore the Clinch River. These include: Regions III and IV, U.S. EPA; Tenn Dept of Env. and Conservation; Va Dept of Conservation and Recreation Va Dept of Environmental Quality; Va Dept of Mines, Minerals, and Energy. The following are involved through leadership roles within the initiative: Alpha Natural Resources; Arch Coal; Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Geologic Survey; U.S. Office of Surface Mining; Va Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries; Virginia Tech; The Nature Conservancy (White, 2011).

Who is Involved- Stakeholders

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is involved with the restoration of the Clinch River in numerous facets. Specifically, they have worked to restore natural resources after the Certus Spill in Cedar Bluff, VA (Restoring the Clinch River Watershed). Since then they have released 13 species of hatchery-reared juvenile mussels into the Clinch River. They have monitored this release and hosted several community outreach events with partnering agencies to raise awareness from the community (Restoring the Clinch River Watershed).

The Clinch River Valley Initiative

The Clinch River Valley Initiative is a broad coalition with the goal of creating an action plan for outdoor recreation and downtown revitalization along the Clinch River in Virginia. Participants represent many Clinch River communities, regional and state officials, and outside experts. Advocates for small business, industry, farming, education, environmental protection, and other interests are all active voices in this coalition. I was fortunate to be able to interview Lou Wallace who provided me background information regarding the CRVI as well as the Clinch River. Ms. Wallace originally worked for the nature conservancy and managed a lodge in Scott, County Virginia. She was on the St. Paul town council in the 1990’s, she holds a Russell county elected position and is a member of the CRVI and specifically services on the Downtown revitalization committee. Ms. Wallace informed me that in Fall 2010 UVA Wise, VT, Senator Wamplor, Senator Puckett and Frank Kilgore got together and had a meeting at UVA wise for creative economy playing on natural assets. The Institute for Environmental Negotiation, at the University of Virginia, is supporting this effort with meeting facilitation and research assistance. After several meetings, CRVI has refined five key goals: 

                         Goal 1:Develop a Clinch River State Park;

                         Goal 2:Develop and Integrate Access Points, Trails, and Campgrounds along the Clinch River; 

                         Goal 3:Enhance water quality in the Clinch River; 

                         Goal 4:Develop and enhance Environmental Education opportunities for all community members in the Clinch River watershed; and

                         Goal 5:Connect Downtown Revitalization and Outdoor Recreation efforts along the Clinch River, and expand entrepreneurship and marketing opportunities.

As it relates to CRVI’s goal four (Develop and enhance Environmental Education opportunities for all community members in the Clinch River watershed), Wetland Estonoa is an excellent area resource that is actively and meaningfully engaging local youth in water testing and a variety of additional environmental education aspects related to the Clinch River. This is a great model and an area they (SWVA) are hoping to expand to offer summer camps and workshops targeted at all age groups.

Goal five deals with connecting downtown revitalization to the river. More and more cities are realizing the human health and aesthetic benefits of having biophilic elements within city boundaries. This is discussed further in regards to economic impact.

Speaking further with Ms. Wallace she discussed the impact of Southwest Virginia being such a large part of Coal County. Coal is one of the biggest parts of our economy and unfortunately it is boom or bust. She believes that there exists potential tourism and recreation opportunities to the nation through the Clinch River. All over Soutwest Virginia there are ecological wonders. For example, in “the cuts” in Claypool Hill, Virginia, people travel for hundreds of miles just to look at the geology that VDOT has made viewable by cutting through the rock formation to make roads. This area is a “hotbed for aquatic life, flora and fauna”(Lou Wallace). The Clinch River is one of the last undamed rivers in the nation. As we now know, dams can harm Mussel life and this is one of the reasons they are so abundant in the Virginia portion of the Clinch River. Once the Clinch River reaches the Tennessee line there are dams at the Norris and Cherokee lake. It is important to Lou Wallace not to leave the St. Paul area and she has chosen to build her home there above the Clinch River while many of her peers have moved away. She was on the Town council in the late 1990’s and contacted a friend at the nature conservancy in order to put together a plan. Through her own work effort she was able to make the plan for St. Paul Tomorrow. This is a non-profit organization and helped St. Paul to be one out of five towns in the United States to get a $10,000.00 grant. The St. Paul Tomorrow strategic plan incorporated value of the river with how to use it by improving water quality. One of the biggest challenges to creating a more stable economic future for the area was to improve the water quality of the Clinch River. Lou Wallace stated that she has personally seen much improvement in the water quality in her area since the 1970’s. Large problems in her area were the straight pipes that were located in Daunte, Virginia. Frank Kilgore worked through a non-profit called Mountain heritage in order to install septic systems in Daunte and at the present times there are no straight pipes located in Daunte.

Lou Wallace holds a position that was elected out of Russell County, Virginia to steward their water. She was elected to the Board of Soil and Water Conservation for the Clinch Valley District. In her Russell County elected position she works with many farms to keep agriculture sedimentation out of the river and waterways. Mussels can digest most sewage and organic matter but not chemicals or waste from power plants, coal or sedimentation. Sedimentation is the mussels worst enemy in our area and actually occur in high volumes due to agriculture. Cows are allowed in creeks, the break off parts of the bank causing erosion as well as mixing their waste in the river, which can kill the mussels (Lou Wallace). Lou Wallace has the belief that agriculture does not need regulation but compromise. Allowing agriculture to meet with officials to discuss the needs of each entity co-existence can be achieved.

To access the CRVI website click here

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is another stakeholder that plays a large role in the restoration of the Clinch River. The Nature Conservancy has a specific division, the Clinch Valley Program, that is located in Abingdon, Virginia and headed by Brad Kreps. Mr. Kreps realized the need to bring two interests together. The first ever “Coal mining and the Aquatic Environment” symposium, was held and Alpha Natural Resources hosted a field trip of active mines and reclamation projects while mining officials and regulators canoed the Clinch River, visited a hatchery in order to learn about imperiled freshwater mussels and other inhabitants of the Clinch and Powell rivers (Symposium Addresses Mussels and Mining, 2010). Some of the world’s most diverse natural systems, from rivers to forests, overlap major coal sources throughout the Central Appalachians and this is specifically apparent in the Clinch Valley. The very survival of 19 rare fish species and 28 globally rare mussels, 43 varieties in all, is a testament to the quality of the Clinch River system (Symposium Addresses Mussels and Mining, 2010). Their existence is in fact more tenuous than ever, as recent trends show mussel declines in significant stretches of river. During the concluding panel discussion, Dr. Richard Neves, a mussel expert from symposium co-host Virginia Tech, says, “The mussels have been drinking river water for the past 30 years, and they’re dying out” (Symposium Addresses Mussels and Mining, 2010). The participants concluded that the complex causes behind the mussel declines go beyond historic and active coal mining. Accidental spills along transportation corridors, urban runoff, illegal dumps and poor land management also stress the fragile Clinch system.

On October 28, 2009, The Nature Conservancy announced the purchase of 25 acres along Indian Creek in the town of Cedar Bluff, Virginia (Cedar Bluff Purchase, 2009). The property will help protect habitat for the globally rare Tan Riffleshell mussel and expand efforts to create a new nature trail(Cedar Bluff Purchase, 2009). Indian Creek is one of the only places in the world where the Tan Riffleshell mussel exists and is the only place it is found in Virginia. Many of this specific species of mussels was destroyed in the tanker spill that occurred off Route 460 in 1998 (Cedar Bluff Purchase, 2009).

The Nature Conservancy’s purchase of this critical property was made possible by financial support from The Virginia Department of Mines, minerals and Energy (DMME) and a grant from Spectra Energy. The Conservancy also worked closely with the town of Cedar Bluff to complete the protection of the property. Long-term plans for the wooded creek-side property are to transfer ownership to Cedar Bluff, which will link the property into a new public trail system. When finished, the trail will include interpretive signage highlighting the unique natural features of Indian Creek and the Clinch River valley. 

The Virginia DMME and The Nature Conservancy have partnered on several projects to improve and protect aquatic habitat in the Clinch River watershed. The DMME maintains a consistent and sharp focus on efforts to improve and protect aquatic habitat for the globally significant biodiversity in these two river.”(Cedar Bluff Purchase, 2009). It is a source of pride for Cedar Bluff to be a steward of good water quality and to help provide a habitat that is capable of supporting the last remaining viable population of the Tan Riffleshell mussel.” said Cedar Bluff Town Manager Jim McGlothlin. 

Indian Creek is a tributary of the Clinch River as it flows through Cedar Bluff. Further downriver sits the regional water treatment plant, which draws water from the Clinch. This water eventually comes out of the faucets for people living in Cedar Bluff, Richlands and other western Tazewell County locations.

The purchase comes on the heels of Cedar Bluff signing a 10-year contract with BMP Service and Supply to inspect, maintain and service two storm water treatment units located near the Cedar Bluff Post Office, at the intersection of Birch Lane and Old Kentucky Turnpike (Cedar Bluff Purchase, 2009). These units were recently installed in a cooperative effort to help protect the water quality in Indian Creek and the Clinch River. 

Clinch-Powell-Clean Rivers Initiative

The Clinch-Powell-Clean Rivers Initiative aims to incorporate mussel data into processes such as Clean Water Act enforcement (White, 2011). A freshwater mussel actually feeds by filtering small particles out of the freshwater rivers. They provide a service by cleaning out river water of bacteria and algae. Evidence indicates that even sporadic lacing of pollutants in their diet may hasten the extinction of mussels. This is the second decade that The Nature Conservancy has worked with its partners to keep the Clinch River system healthy for mussels and other life (White, 2011). One important goal for the Clinch-Powell initiative is getting reliable mussel data incorporated into decision-making processes such as Clean Water Act enforcement (White, 2011). Virginia Tech is part of the Clinch-Powell River Initiative and is doing there own part toward restoration effort (Sustaining an American Natural Treasure).As one project to collect data about the mussel population Joe Ferraro from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries gets involved by combing the cobbles in the river to measure and record each mussel that he finds. This requires special gear and they comb along the river with a heavy metal frame and survey plots within sampling grids (White, 2011). Jess Jones, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mussel specialist helped to spearhead this survey, which was dubbed “Musselrama” which was conducted at Cleveland Island, which is considered one of the last stronghold for mussels (White, 2011). Cleveland Island was selected for an experimental restoration project because of the quality of the habitat, combined with the Conservancy and state owning most of the surrounding land. This project was started by the FWS. One channel was seeded with 8,000 juvenile oyster mussels.

Two Propagation Facilitations in Virginia 

The Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center (FMCC) at Virginia Tech is a cooperative research and propagation facility to restore and recover endangered freshwater mollusks in Virginia and adjacent states (FMCC). The Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, U.S. Geological Survey, began life history research on a suite of recently listed endangered mussels around 1978 (id.). Numerous graduate student theses and dissertations over roughly a 20-year period provided the knowledge and expertise to implement a propagation program. In 1997, the first propagated juveniles of a federally endangered species were released to augment reproduction in that population. In 2000, a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and matching funds from other agencies, allowed us to construct a 2700 ft building and pond complex to enhance our conservation work (id.). Over the last 10 years, the annual production of juveniles has gradually increased, such that we typically produce roughly 10,000 or more juveniles of 6-10 species each year for release to natal rivers (id.).

The addition of a grow-out building in 2007 that uses recirculating pond water has allowed us to produce larger juvenile mussels for the recovery effort. Staff at FMCC includes a research scientist, 3 salaried employees, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist, and several undergraduate employees each summer (id.). 

Located near Marion, Virginia, the Aquatic WildlifeConservation Center (AWCC) was established in 1998 by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to actively recover Virginia's freshwater mussels (AWCC). Over the past ten years, 2,618,500 juvenile mussels of 24 species have been propagated, with over 638,000 being released back into the wild (AWCC). The AWCC has also begun work with other aquatic wildlife, including: the spiny riversnail and the eastern hellbender. 10,960 juvenile spiny riversnails from the Clinch River have been released between 2005 & 2008 (AWCC).

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/awcc/freshwater-mussel-restoration/