The Little River Chapter was recognized at the TU Tennessee Council Coldwater Resources Meeting by Jeff Wright, Trout Unlimited Southeast Project Coordinator, for their accomplishments on Stream Barrier Surveys in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This project quantifies and ranks the severity of stream barriers associated with culverts, bridges, and fords; and the barriers effect on aquatic organism passage. This is the first project of its kind conducted in a National Park by Trout Unlimited and the first-time volunteers have been granted authority by Trout Unlimited to train team leads. The stream barrier assessments which support the Aquatic Organism Passage Study is one of three high priority projects for the TU Southeast Region this year. For more information or if you are interested in participating in this program, see Bernie Maloy’s article in this newsletter.
If you would like to learn about opportunities to support the GSMNP Fisheries Department, please attend the annual volunteers meeting lead by Matt Kulp at Twin Creeks Science Center on February 18 at 9:00 a.m. Matt will present a summary of last year’s accomplishments and the plan for volunteer support this year. Matt is also the featured speaker at our Chapter Meeting on February 23.
A link has been added to our Chapter website (lrctu.org) that provides an easy and consistent method for reporting your volunteer hours. Please start entering your volunteer hours including those performed in January 2023. For additional information and details see Harry Fetterman’s article in this newsletter.
Bob Bishop
