Appalachian Highlands I&M Network Newsletter September 2024

Going with the flow. APHN Hydrology Technician Rhea Hester operates a FlowTracker across a stream cross section. These flow data are used to adjust for the amount of water in the stream when comparing measured values from discrete water quality samples.

NPS photo / Briley Bledsoe

APHN Biologist Evan Raskin (left), and Cumberland Piedmont Network Ecologist Bill Moore (right), work diligently to identify grass species at Highlands Biological Station in North Carolina.

Photo by Adam Bigelow

Monitoring Activities in August

• The APHN water quality team serviced all five data sondes and sampled 15 discrete sites at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River in August. Data from APHN sonde devices are available in real-time via USGS gage sites (https://waterdata.usgs.gov/). Discrete water samples are collected on a rotational basis across APHN park units and provide critical data about aquatic health such as oxygen content, bacteria load or metals from mine drainage.
• Vegetation intern, Garrett Billings, assisted Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area with Platanthera integrilabia monitoring. He also assisted Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network and Cumberland Piedmont Network with forest health monitoring at New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. This is part of a larger effort to monitor forest health across many NPS units in the eastern U.S.

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Monitoring Activities Planned for September

• The APHN water quality team will collect discrete water samples and service sondes at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River during the month. They will also visit Blue Ridge Parkway to collect the next rotation of stream and lake water samples.
• APHN staff plan to conduct annual monitoring of freshwater mussels at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. This is a long-term effort to monitor freshwater mussel populations in streams at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River. Staff also monitor sites in the same streams where endangered mussels grown and raised by the Center for Mollusk Conservation of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources are put in the streams to supplement and hopefully recover the species to locally sustainable numbers.
• APHN staff plan to complete annual monitoring of river scour prairie on cobble bars at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River. River scour prairie is a rare vegetation community that occurs on cobble bars along the rivers. The open, grassy vegetation is maintained by frequent large floods that remove most trees and shrubs. Changes in flood frequency and exotic plants threaten this community and the rare species found there.

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Other Notable Activities

• APHN Biologist Evan Raskin provided GIS support to READs (NPS Resource Advisors) on the Coffee Pot Fire at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California.

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For more information, check out Appalachian Highlands Inventory & Monitoring Network (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)