Published: July 02, 2008 02:11 pm            

Girl Scouts get aquatic education on Conasauga

Girl Scouts from the West Side community learned firsthand Monday how striving toward a worthy goal can reap benefits.

Members of Troop 21840 have been working with the Conasauga River Alliance on the historic Varnell Springs park beautification project. They laid out a trail through the park area, to be finished later this year, and eventually will identify the plants of the area to lend an interpretive facet to the endeavor.

To reward the girls, the alliance got together with the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy to provide a snorkeling expedition downstream from where the Conasauga River meets with the Jacks River just over the state line in Bradley County, Tenn.

Monday’s outdoor education was on the banks of America’s most aquatically diverse waterway, the Conasauga. The 90-mile river that stretches from the Blue Ridge mountains through Murray and Whitfield counties to Calhoun flows through two states and six counties, and is home to 76 native species of fish.

By contrast, the expansive Columbia River and Colorado River watersheds out west encompassing thousands and thousands of square miles contain only 33 and 25 native fish, respectively.

“Since they have just gone through their spawning season, you’ll literally see 10,000 fish today,” Jim Herrig, an aquatic biologist with the Forest Service, told the 12- and 13-year-old scouts. “If you put your head down in the water, you can hear the drum (fish) and redhorse ‘singing.’ It will be a clicking noise like the dolphins make. They’re breeding right now.”

Also included in the 200-meter stretch between sets of rapids were redbreast sunfish, minnows, bronze darter, redeye bass, the holiday darter with its red and green Christmas coloration, and the Coosa darter with its red, white and blue dorsal fin, to name a few. Some of the endangered species living in the watery environment are the blue shiner, cerulean colored Alabama shiner and the Conasauga log perch, found only in the Conasauga River.

Rainbow and other trout reside primarily upstream, Herrig said.

“The fish are more brightly colored during the spawning season,” he explained. “Now most of them are beginning to lose their colors.”

May and June are the months for breeding. Several springs feed the Conasauga, making the water cooler. The river also becomes more acidic as it flows out of the mountains and into the Alaculsy Valley of northern Murray County, gathering rock and plant materials along the way.

Sunday’s rain made the water more cloudy with organic materials washing downstream, but the girls still saw plenty of fish.

“They’re so excited to be here,” said Mary Wood, director of Troop 21840. “They’ve never been snorkeling.”

Members of the Conasauga River Alliance on hand were watershed director Frank Sagona, Greg Jones, Rick Pritchett (who also served as lifeguard) and Robert Dotson, who was taking underwater photos.

At one point Dotson surfaced with a photo of the elusive Conasauga log perch.

“I watched (the perch) take its two front fins and dig them down in the river bottom to hold on against the current,” Dotson said while showing the photo.

Afterwards the girls and their leaders were treated with a picnic lunch.

“The aquatic education program is a springboard for us to communicate awareness through the snorkeling,” said Sagona. “The kids and adults get to see how clean (the river) is on the upper end, and how clean water is a valuable resource.”

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.