Introduction

Hi Everyone! My name is Lucinda and I am studying the Holston River watershed (HRW). The Holston River flows through southwest Virginia into Tennessee, and the watershed is approximately 3,776 square miles. The attached map (figure 1) from the EPA gives an overview of the entire watershed, but I also decided to map a much small watershed within the HRW. Cressy Creek (figure 2) was selected because the Round Leaf Birch, which I will discuss in detail later, is endemic to Marion, VA.


I look forward to sharing more information on the HRW in the months to come!

Figure 1: Overview of the Holston River Watershed
Figure 2: Cressy Creek Watershed, home to Round Leaf Birch trees


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Land Use in the Holston River Watershed

The Holston River watershed provides many benefits for humans, but human impacts can lead to damage being done to the environment. This week, I took a closer look at the primary land uses within the watershed and learned about some aspects that can be damaging, and in some cases, what organizations are doing to help.
Read more

Common Trees in the Holston River Watershed

This week we'll be discussing one of my favorite things: Trees! Over the last few months I've been keeping an eye out for tree species while exploring the watershed. Some of them, like tulip poplars and black cherries, can be spotted almost everywhere. Others, like the eastern hemlock, were very common in some places but rarely seen otherwise. I hope if you find yourself out and about in the Holston River watershed you find that some of these trees look familiar.
Read more

Special Threat: Mining

This week I decided to focus on how mining has effected the Holston River Watershed. While the economic stability of the area is important, protecting the precious resources and beautiful, ecologically diverse environment is as well. Mining has occurred for a long time in the watershed, but laws were not put into place until around 50 years ago. While mining still occurs, the requirements are stricter now, and more remediation efforts have been required to help mitigate the environmental damage that mining causes. An additional reference: All photos are stock photos provided by Microsoft 360.
Read more