The Plan for Future Products for the Big Laurel-Whitetop Laurel Creek Watershed Study Blog

At the end of the Fall 2025 semester, this is my final post for Virginia Tech’s NR 5264 Watershed Stewardship course.

I think that my Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed blog stands on its own as "the final product" for this course, but there are several future plans and goals that I hope to pursue with additional blog posts in the future.

1.  I hope to add several more future blog posts that I mentioned in previous blog posts. 

a.    One planned post is to create a catalog of photographs of the Big Laurel-Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed at various locations within the watershed.  I took many photographs earlier in the semester but never found the time to create this post during the semester.  

      Several of these photographs are: 

A tree trunk with leaves AI-generated content may be incorrect.
Headwaters of Big Laurel Creek, at 36.689271, -81.543411

 A stream running through a forest AI-generated content may be incorrect.
Confluence of Little Laurel Creek (left) and Big Laurel Creek (far ground) 
which becomes Whitetop Laurel Creek (foreground), at 36.67518, -81.59642

 A stream in a forest AI-generated content may be incorrect.
Headwaters of Green Cove Creek, at 36.6193, -81.62005

A stream running through a forest AI-generated content may be incorrect.
Confluence of Whitetop Laurel Creek (left) and 
Green Cove Creek (far ground) at 36.647938, -81.672393

 A river running through a forest
Whitetop Laurel Creek in the lower part of the watershed, 
along US Highway 58 at 36.636782, -81.750579


b.     Another planned post will demonstrate how to create a digital elevation model (DEM) from publicly available laser imaging, detection, and ranging (LIDAR) data and a shapefile to a finished raster tagged image format file (*.tiff) using the watershed delineation tool from the USGS StreamStats site, similar to the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek terrain model presented previously.


A map of a mountain range AI-generated content may be incorrect.

 

c.    More possible posts will document the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in the fall of 2024 and the on-going recover efforts within the watershed, and others will highlight various ecological concerns within the watershed.


2.  In addition, I hope to use the blog to advocate for the improvement and sustainability of the Big Laurel Creek – Whitetop Laurel Creek watershed and other watersheds.  My professional goal is to use this blog to assist my future efforts as a professional engineer, consultant, educator, and non-profit volunteer to showcase skills and products that are useful for watershed conservation, advocacy and stewardship.

3.  Finally, I hope to transition into a career in higher education after retirement.  My goal is to be able to teach watershed and water resources engineering, planning, management, and conservation at the undergraduate level, at a local college or university.  I will use this blog as a teaching tool for my future coursework and to disseminate knowledge, skills and abilities that would be helpful to my future students. 


In addition to this blog, Dr. James A. (Jim) Egenrieder, the instructor for the Virginia Tech’s NR 5264 Watershed Stewardship course, maintains a watershed advocacy blog (South Branch Science Consortium) where you can find a great deal of information on watershed stewardship.  A list of watershed stewardship advocacy blogs created for this course this semester is available on the Wednesday, December 3, 2025 .


It is my hope that some of the products shared with you through this blog will be of assistance to the Southwest Virginia (SWVA) community both to help recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in the fall of 2024, and to gain an appreciation for watershed conservation, advocacy and stewardship.

Location: Whitetop Laurel Creek near Damascus, VA, USA

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