Upper Tennessee River Roundtable

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable will again offer an SOS training course. Credit will be available for this course from Southwest Virginia Community College.

Biological Monitoring: – September 26 and 27 - Learn the Virginia SOS method to identify benthic macroinvertebrates and become a certified monitor. Instructor: Tony Pane, VA DCR. Location: Riverside School in Chilhowie,VA ; 9am-4:30pm both days.  1 CREDIT

Directions: Take Exit 35 from I-81. Head South on 762 (away from Chilhowie). After traveling South on 762 for approximately 3 miles, turn left on Old Airport Rd. at the flashing yellow light. In less than a mile, turn right on Riverside Rd. Look for bridge at intersection of Redstone Rd. (645) and Old Airport Rd. and turn right. Riverside Community Center is on right immediately after making turn. Park in gravel lot behind the community center.

Cost: $87.65 per credit for in state students.  There are limited scholarships available, please contact Tony Pane if scholarship assistance is needed: 276- 676-5418;
Non Credit option: $25 for 15 hours of training.

To Register:  Go to https://apply.vccs.edu/app/app.htm and fill out the online application for Southwest VA Community College. Make a note of your assigned student ID number. You must also pre-register for this class by calling the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable at 276-628-1600. Please have your student ID number available when you call (unless registering for non-credit).

Need assistance?  Contact Upper Tennessee River Roundtable at 276-628-1600.

You can now print a postage-paid cell phone mailing label online and make sure that KSVB gets credit! Just go to: http://recellular.com/kab/, then select Virginia and “Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful.” You can then print the label and drop your phone in the mail. It’s as simple as that!

Kids, parents, teachers are encouraged to attend a stream pollution workshop Thursday, July 31, at White’s Mill as part of the Virginia Highlands Festival. The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable is planning this workshop in partnership with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the Holston River Soil and Water Conservation District.

The workshop is free and will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 11:45 a.m. Pre-registration is required by July 25 to participate in the workshops, as only 20 slots are available.

Tony Pane of DCR will show participants how to catch and identify micro and macro invertebrates, or the tiny bugs, that live in streams. Aquatic invertebrates are pollution sensitive and are indicators of healthy streams. Participants will recognize some invertebrates, but will likely be exposed to several “new” ones.

“Learning about aquatic micro and macro invertebrates is great even for those who aren’t interested in water quality monitoring. It opens your eyes to a different world and makes you think twice about the choices you make and how they affect water quality,” said Carol Doss, Roundtable coordinator.

Environmental Educator Christine Smith of the Holston River Soil and Water Conservation District will involve kids in a fun, hands-on educational activity about water pollution.

The workshop will take place at on Toole’s Creek at Historic White’s Mill, which is located on White’s Mill Road. Rain date will be the following day, Aug. 1, at the same time.

Take advantage of this opportunity contact the Roundtable office at 276.628.1600 by July 25.

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable is a non-profit organization striving for clean water in the Upper Tennessee River watershed, which stretches from Lee County toward Wythe County in Southwest Virginia.

The Roundtable is interested primarily in water quality issues in the Clinch, Powell and Holston rivers, especially those issues that affect biodiversity.

For more information, contact the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable at 276/628-1600 or visit <http://www.uppertnriver.org>.

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable and Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful are participating in a cell-phone recycling program sponsored by Keep America Beautiful, ReCellular, and Sprint/Nextel.

This program, which is called “Wipe Out Wireless Waste,” collects and recycles any and all unwanted cell phones, batteries, accessories and connection cards.

Cell phone envelope mailers can be picked up:
Smyth County: Main Branch of Bank of Marion, or Radio Shack (both in Marion, VA)
Washington County: Petro Shopping Center, (Glade Spring, VA)
Tazewell County:  County Administrator’s Office, County Landfill, Tazewell Town Hall
Scott County: USDA Service Center, or Public Library (both in Gate City, VA)
Buchanan County: King Mountain Transfer Station

Postage-paid mailing labels can also be printed at any time from Keep America Beautiful’s cell phone website at www.thecellphoneroundup.com. All phones are cleared of any remaining personal data.

According to a study by Inform, harmful chemicals such as arsenic and heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium may also be present in old phones. This especially becomes a problem when thousands of phones, and thus thousands of traces of harmful chemicals, accumulate.

Another consideration is handling of phones in landfills that rely on incineration. Burning phones and poses additional risk to localities, due to these harmful chemicals. Phones that aren’t burned leach these harmful chemicals into soil and groundwater.

Wipe Out Wireless Waste ensures that every cell phone submitted will be recycled. Keep America Beautiful assures that the program complies with all applicable environmental laws and affirms that no phone submitted will end up in a landfill. KSVB will receive a small amount of money from each recycled cell phone. This money will be used to fund KSVB’s beautification efforts in Southwest Virginia.

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable has produced three note card designs featuring artwork from local artist Tony Pane. Click here to view the note card designs.

Tony lives and works in Abingdon, Virginia and uses the complexity of nature as his inspiration. Tony is very pleased to be able to provide his artwork to support the Roundtable and its conservation efforts.

Note cards are available for $2.00 each, or $20.00 for a pack of 12 cards and envelopes. All proceeds benefit the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable. To order, call the Roundtable office at 276-628-1600 or send a check or money order to PO Box 2359, Abingdon, VA 24212. Please specify your design preference.

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable and Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful recently received a $1,500 grant to construct a campaign against cigarette butt litter.

Despite nationwide public awareness efforts over the past few decades, cigarette butts remain the #1 littered item in America. This fact is evident in Southwest Virginia.

The Roundtable and KSVB will complete a campaign including distribution of pocket ashtrays, public cigarette butt receptacles, media coverage, and display of posters encouraging citizens to “put their butts in the right place” or to “get their butts of the sidewalk.” Several of the Roundtable’s localities have agreed to participate in this program.

To measure the success of these outreach efforts, the Roundtable and KSVB will be undertaking “cigarette butt litter scans” in which volunteers will actually count the number of cigarette butts found along certain city blocks. Pre and post program scans will be completed to provide real data about this program’s effectiveness.

Acid Mine Drainage is a serious problem that commonly results from abandoned mine land areas. It lowers the pH of river water thus increasing the water’s acidity. This can kill fish and other aquatic plant and wildlife. AMD also makes water (and the fish in it) unsafe for human consumption.

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable has sponsored, in cooperation with US Office of Surface Mining VISTA volunteers, public outreach events to raise awareness about AMD. These events have included the widely-popular AMD t-shirt tie-dying, which uses real AMD for coloring t-shirts.

An AmeriCorp summer associate for the Roundtable recently created a flier to highlight the damaging effects of AMD. The flier also serves as a field guide to identifying AMD in river water.

This brochure is available for download in PDF format from the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable’s website. Download it here: http://www.uppertnriver.org/AMD.pdf. You may freely print and distribute this PDF in it’s original form.

 The second annual “Round for the Rivers” disc golf fundraiser is being organized by the UTRR outdoor recreation committee and will benefit the roundtable. The purpose of the event is to get individuals outdoors to enjoy our beautiful watershed, raise awareness about our organization and mission, and to continue the good work of the roundtable by donating to a worthy cause - clean water! By getting concerned citizens involved in protecting their clean water we are sure to have the greatest success achieving out mission. The outdoor recreation committee seeks to improve and increase the amount of river based recreation opportunities within the watershed. Warriors Path State Park is located along a cove of the Holston River in Kingsport, TN.

For more information, click here to download a brochure about this year’s disc golf tournament.

The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable will again offer monitoring and habitat assessment classes. These classes are available for credit from Southwest Virginia Community College, or can be taken as non-credit.

These courses are excellent for those who need certification in water quality monitoring, are interested in preventing land erosion, or are just curious about what lives in creeks and how that relates to water quality.

Consider signing up for one or more of these courses:

June 13 and 14- Chemical and Bacterial Monitoring – Learn how to collect basic water quality samples including dissolved oxygen, pH, and E. coli while learning about the importance of quality assurance and communicating your results to the community and government officials. Instructor: James Beckley, VA DEQ. Location: Wolf Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility (tour included) in Abingdon, VA; 9am-4:30pm both days. 1 CREDIT

June 27 and 28 - Biological Monitoring - Learn the Virginia SOS method to identify benthic macroinvertebrates and become a certified monitor. Instructor: Tony Pane, VA DCR. Location: Riverside School in Chilhowie,VA ; 9am-4:30pm both days. 1 CREDIT

Aug 1 and 2 - Habitat Assessment - Learn how to evaluate the physical characteristics of a stream using three different methods and learn what to do following your assessment. Instructor: Justin Laughlin, VA DGIF. Location: Wolf Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility in Abingdon; 9am-4:30pm both days. 1 CREDIT

Registration for credit is $81.65 per credit hour for residents of the commonwealth of Virginia (at least 12-months continuous residency). Each course can be taken as non-credit for $25 for 15 hours of training. Call (276)628-1600 for more information, or to register.

Hello and welcome to the new blog for the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable! This blog will be updated with upcoming events, accomplishments, and a bit of fun from time to time. Please check back soon for a new post!