This article was written for and published in the Cherokee Scout’s “The Far Blue Mountains” column on Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Tom Bennett, writer of “The Far Blue Mountains” is also the writer of the “WATR Column”.
By Tom Bennett
Murphy, N.C. — There were patches of snow in the shaded places, and a few flakes were blowing around. Shuler Creek, a hatchery supported trout stream above Lake Apalachia near the Tennessee line, was swollen. It was in a hurry to get down from its headwaters on 3,600-foot Cantrell Top.
“This creek is up two or three feet,” Larry Hummel said. He was standing with Dennis Hammond and Glen Harker, all protected by waders and extra layers of clothing, in the 42-degree water.
“We need those tweezers in here right now!” Hammond said. With that, Glendon Gale, their fellow member of the Mountain Country Rod and Gun Club, came scurrying along the bank from his vehicle. He delivered that and other tools these volunteers use to determine if there are enough bugs for trout to eat in Shuler Creek.
How? One member gently stirs with his boots rocks on the creek bed. Another braces him in the current. A third nets bugs washed from beneath the rocks. And a fourth completes an official record. They empty their catch in creek-water they scoop with a white plastic margarine tub. Then Hammond uses the tweezers to carefully pluck and identify bugs (“One stonefly!”) and then return them to the stream. Their monitoring sites are at the Joe Brown Highway Bridge and two other locations upstream.
The volunteers’ Feb. 3 total counts were 170 stoneflies, 106 mayflies, 22 craneflies, 8 watersnipes, 6 water pennies, 5 gilled snails, 4 dobsonflies, 4 caddisflies, 4 clams, 3 salamanders, 2 dragonflies, 2 redline darters, 2 worms, 1 crayfish and 1 sculpin. That’s about average for a Shuler Creek bug survey, Glendon Gale said.
I studied up close the fragile life forms of a profuse (for now) Nantahala National Forest ecosystem. “They look healthy,” I said. “Yes, they do,” Larry Hummel replied. “When you find healthy water, you’re going to find healthy bugs and healthy fish.”
I asked, “But what harms water?” Dennis Hammond spoke up. “Pollution, acid rain, runoff from roads, fertilizers from golf courses and people’s yards, erosion, all kinds of things,” he said.
The members have the Izaak Walton League’s guide, “Stream Insects and Crustaceans.” Their kits for measuring dissolved oxygen levels are from the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition. (Trout Unlimited has a stake here, too.) The county’s nine other hatchery supported trout streams need care like this by other volunteer and student science-class groups. When can you start?
The Shuler Creek counts go to the U.S. Forest Service and the N.C. Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources’ Stream Watch program. Trout (40 percent brook, 40 percent rainbow, and 20 brown) are trucked from N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Hatchery at Brevard and put in at the aforementioned bridge.
Teamwork like the Rod and Gun Club’s is what’s needed to protect our watershed. Happily, there’s an annual event celebrating this very ideal, bringing everyone together. It’s the Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award Banquet. This year’s is set for March 12 at Brasstown Valley Resort. Call Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition for reservations at 828-837-5414.
Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek community near Murphy, N.C., was a retired newsman, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member/volunteer/donor and recipient of the 2015 Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award. Tom died on December 28, 2020.