College Students Join The Nature Conservancy and Dalton Utilities to Protect Conasauga River Watershed
ATLANTA—February 27, 2004—Alternative Spring Break college students will be assisting The Nature Conservancy and Dalton Utilities in a planting along the banks of the Conasauga River from March 1 to 3. The students, along with volunteers from various agencies and local communities, will plant over 400 mixed hardwood trees and 400 native shrubs on a one-mile stretch of river frontage on land owned by Dalton Utilities to create a forested riparian buffer zone.
Support for the planting is provided by The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners in Wildlife Program. The planting will be performed on farmland owned by Dalton Utilities in northwest Whitfield County. The farmland is adjacent to the Utility’s Spring Creek Wetlands Preserve and was purchased for the purpose of creating a riparian buffer zone along the one mile of river frontage on the farm land. The hardwoods and shrubs will ehance the conservation value of the current grass buffer. Additional supplies for the planting were donated by the Regional Solid Waste Management Authority.
“We cannot protect a wonderful resource such as the Conasauga River, without the community coming together as a partnership,” said Shawn Clouse, Conasauaga River project director for The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. “The benefits of community-based conservation is that not only are we working to protect species from extinction, but we are also protecting a priceless resource and our very quality of life.”
Alternative Spring Break college students will be among the volunteers helping with the planting. The Alternative Spring Break program places teams of college students in local communities around the country to promote positive social action and education. The students' goals range from increasing cultural awareness to creating a life-long community service ethic.
By participating in the planting along the Conasauaga River, the students are helping to create a riparian buffer zone - an essential element to conserving a water system as vital and biologically diverse as the Conasauga. A riparian buffer zone reduces pollution into waterways by slowing and filtering nutrients and sediments out of stormwater before it reaches the waterway. Additionally, buffer zones stabilize stream and riverbanks, reducing erosion. The cool stream temperatures maintained by riparian trees are essential for the survival of many fish and other aquatic species. Leaves and fallen logs and branches provide food and habitat for many organisms that are critical to the aquatic food chain. Buffer zones also attract birds and wildlife, providing important habitat and migration corridors for many species.
“The Conasauga River has 92 species of fish and 28 species of freshwater mussels and several of those are federally protected. It is one of the six most biologically diverse streams in the United States,” said Don Cope, president and CEO of Dalton Utilities. “There are more native fish in the Conasauga River watershed than the Columbia and Colorado watersheds combined. The importance of this river goes far beyond our drinking water.”
For more information about volunteer opportunities with the Nature Conservancy, call 259/2218 or visit the website at nature.org/georgia.
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