Southern Appalachian Watershed Protection Project

PRC's past work in southern Appalachian watersheds has translated into significantly increased protections for rivers and native aquatic species in the region. While we remain concerned for certain watersheds where our recommendations have been ignored, achievements made included significant improvements in forest plans.

Additionally, our successful outreach efforts to the public and grassroots organizations have brought aquatic ecosystem issues to the forefront of conservation planning. Although we no longer have PRC staff in the southern Appalachians, our issues are being carried forward by local environmental groups, which, in many ways, was our primary goal.

Project Background

In the southern Appalachian region, the number of federally listed threatened and endangered fishes and the number of imperiled fishes recognized by specialists has increased significantly in recent years.  A more serious decline is reported for freshwater mussels, and similar imperilment is also noted, but not as well documented, for crayfishes. Approximately 90 percent of the known occurrences of imperiled species are located on or immediately downstream of National Forest and National Park System Lands. The threats to freshwater ecosystems are familiar, and while they are not unique to the southeast, the lack of biological knowledge critical for the conservation and recovery of these species exacerbates those threats.

The goal of our Southern Appalachian National Watershed Protection project was to achieve land management standards that will protect the region's globally significant aquatic resources through involvement in the development of new forest plans for five national forests. Our effective partnership with activists in the region built a credible scientific and legal baseline that is difficult for the Forest Service to ignore.

While there have been some successes in recovery efforts for aquatic species, these successes are usually associated with local-site streambank restoration projects augmented with captive propagation and reintroduction of species. These efforts are encouraging, but they are insufficient to ensure long-term survival and recovery of species. They also fail to address critical watershed and aquatic ecosystem processes.

PRC offered a major change in philosophy and assumptions regarding habitat and fish protection and recovery strategies. Our approach, founded on principles of watershed function, ecosystem processes, and conservation biology, focused on full protection for a network of remnant, diverse, and relatively unimpacted habitats. This new strategy sprung from a number of principles established through research in western aquatic ecosystems. Our task was to translate those principles into application appropriate for southeastern aquatic ecosystems.

Forest Plan Revisions

In the southern Appalachians, approximately 90 percent of the known occurrences of imperiled species are located on or immediately downstream of National Forest and National Park System Lands. Consequently, PRC concentrated on public land management activities, primarily working through the Forest Services plan revision process. Working with our partners in the region, including the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition and the Southern Environmental Law Center, PRC also successfully defended against unsound management proposals in two key aquatic diversity watersheds.

PRC worked to incorporate sound aquatic ecosystem science into the standards developed for the revised forest plans. In June of 2003, we submitted extensive official comments on the forest plans and draft EISs for the Cherokee, Jefferson, and Sumter national forests, and worked with our colleagues from Georgia Forest Watch and Wildlaw to submit comments on the Chattahootchee-Oconee and Alabama forests. These comments focused on the inadequacy of the proposed plans in light of the best available scientific literature. We also raised claims concerning the inadequacy of the Roads Analysis for each forest.

Our analysis of the draft plans indicated that watershed and aquatic conservation values would be protected on approximately 1.5 million acres (81% of our target). This includes .79 million acres of protection for key watersheds (66% of our target for key watersheds) and .75 million acres for riparian areas outside of key watersheds. These percentages represent significant improvements over the protections afforded to these areas prior to our involvement in the revision process.

Stream Survey Protocol

In addition to our extensive work on Forest Plan revisions, we designed a stream survey protocol to help activists provide critical information to Watershed Analysis teams in their area, in an effort to provide quality data on the actual and functional conditions of each watershed in the region. Local activists in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia were trained in the process of conducting the Riparian and Stream condition surveys that we developed. Information from the surveys was designed to inform the process of completing the Watershed Analysis directed by the region.

Download our Stream Survey Protocol and accompanying instructions.