Watershed Organization Research --- The United States Forest Service (USFS) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

 

Two large and important organizations are conducting watershed stewardship in the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed.  They are the United States Forest Service (USFS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the non-governmental organization, The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

Following the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in late 2024, the USFS partnered with TNC and other organizations to begin a comprehensive watershed restoration program in the storm damaged areas across the Southern Appalachians.   The initial focus in southwest Virginia is to conduct watershed conditions surveys and prioritize recovery efforts in the South Fork Holston River watershed.  The Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed is one of the four targeted South Fork Holston River watersheds included in the initial focus.

The USFS and TNC agreed to use the USFS National Watershed Condition Framework as a starting point for developing assessments and prioritizing recovery efforts.

Quoting from the USFS website  Watershed Condition Framework,

The Watershed Condition Framework … provides a consistent, comparable, and credible process for improving the health of watersheds on national forests and grasslands. This framework helps focus our efforts in a consistent and accountable manner and facilitates new investments in watershed restoration that will provide economic and environmental benefits to local communities. When integrated with other Forest Service objectives, the Watershed Condition Framework is a tool that can inform shared stewardship activities and focus investment planning.

 Goals of Watershed Condition Framework

1.         Enhance coordination with partners and stakeholders in watershed management and aquatic species recovery efforts.

2.         Strengthen the effectiveness of the Forest Service to maintain and restore the productivity and resilience of watersheds and their associated aquatic systems on National Forest Service land.

3.         Establish a systematic process for determining watershed condition class that all national forests and grasslands can apply consistently.

4.         Foster integrated ecosystem-based approaches for prioritizing restoration of watershed condition and aquatic ecosystem.

 Watershed Condition Framework Process

The Watershed Condition Framework is a six step process to assess watershed conditions, identify and implement essential projects to restore watershed condition in priority watersheds, and monitor the results of those projects, as shown by this diagram:

 

 The core national watershed condition indicators or metrics are:

Using the Watershed Classification Interactive Map Viewer from the Watershed Condition Framework,   (https://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=f4332e5b80c44874952b57e1db0b4407), the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed is shown as Functioning At Risk.

The current condition indicators for the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed are:  

Aquatic Biota Condition	Fair
Riparian/Wetland Vegetation Condition	Good
Water Quality Condition	Poor
Water Quantity Condition	Fair
Aquatic Habitat Condition	Fair
Road and Trail Condition	Good
Soil Condition	Fair
Fire Effects/Fire Regime Condition	Poor
Forest Cover Condition	Good
Forest Health Condition	Good
Terrestrial Invasive Species Condition	Fair

 

In order to assist TNC in supporting the USFS recovery efforts, the USFS provided TNC with sufficient federally allocated disaster recovery funding to begin building a team to help with surveying watershed conditions, developing and prioritizing recovery efforts across the National Forests of Virginia, including the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed in the South Fork Holston River watersheds. 

With this partnership funding, TNC is currently advertising for a new position to direct these efforts.  The link to the job posting and a brief summary of the job description are: 

Job Posting:

https://careers.tnc.org/us/en/job/JR100948/Allegheny-Highlands-Freshwater-Recovery-Director

Position Description:  Allegheny Highlands Freshwater Recovery Director

 The Allegheny Highlands Freshwater Recovery Director will build and oversee a team of 2 and a budget of over $2 million/year to deliver freshwater projects in collaboration with the US Forest Service on recovery from Hurricane Helene. Their work will be focused on delivering on a freshwater scope of work under a 10-year Hurricane Helene Disaster Recovery award with the US Forest Service. …

Projects will be focused on improving Helene-impacted watersheds through aquatic and wetland restoration, including dam removals, undersized culvert replacements, instream habitat improvements, streambank stability enhancements, sediment abatement BMPs, and riparian restoration. … TNC’s goals for freshwater work in this region are to increase the resilience and connectivity of mountain streams, conserve and increase the quality of aquatic habitat critical to the amazing biodiversity in the Southern Appalachians, and to increase the resilience of downstream human communities to climate change impacts including flooding.

 

 

The USFS and TNC are well positioned to affect positive change and contributions in the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed.  It is my hope that these efforts will be successful in helping all affected communities and habitats recover from the devastating adverse effects of the damages done by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024.