Clematis cumberlandensis got its scientific name a few seasons back. It has been identified in Daddy's Creek and Whites Creek gorges. The process for naming a new solidago has regained steam. Originally identified by Dr. Larry Pounds, it has been somewhat mired in bureaucratic mud for a couple of decades. DNA studies are in the works and it looks promising. 

Winter at the Big Rocks

 

Life is a bit cooler this winter. I'm loving this but the hiking is treacherous.

Fall 2022

Sorry to have been otherwise occupied for a time and haven't been posting. Here's a photo from a couple of days ago of Whites Creek just below where the narrow gauge railroad bridge was back before the civil war.

 

Where we are Earth Day 2021

 We now have over 800 acres along Whites Creek and its tributaries in conservation easement. A huge thank you to Tenn Green Land Conservancy and the Open Spaces Institute who made it all possible. 

Granddaughter found a young Softshell

Cobble Bar Leather Flower

The Austin Peay Arboretum seems to be very interested in the plant life in Whites Creek Gorge. We have a leather flower that grows on cobble bars that has their attention. Cobble bar prairies are riparian stream side areas that get flooded often enough that it takes special abilities for a plant to survive. We have a solidago that is still being argued about and now this beauty: I flagged it so we can find it easily when it's not in bloom. There are other species that grow at higher elevations. We have those flagged as well. It's a wonderful world out there! Whites Creek Palooza is Saturday June 29, btw! Here's the Facebook page: Palooza

260 million Year Old Sand Painting

And other things we saw on our walk today. It was one of the more strenuous 2.5 mile hikes I've done lately. From the creek up to the rim of Whites Creek Gorge and back. Over 800 feet of vertical and most of it a bushwhack. Lost a glove but well worth it. What do you like?

I don't know why it is called Whites "Creek" either

We released beetles at three locations today. Water was still high but not what it was yesterday (First two pics)

Season's Greetings from Whites Creek Gorge with Beetles

Lots of things are happening this time of year. One thing we are keeping a close eye on are the Hemlock Woolly Adelgids, HWAs for short. Left to their own devices they will exterminate Hemlocks in the eastern United States. The only long term solution is to develop populations of the predatory insects that keep the adelgids under control in other parts of America. In the Pacific Northwest they have hemlocks and adelgids co-existing nicely. This is because even though the adelgids are invasive, originally from Asia, strains of predatory beetles have grown to love them andprey almost exclusively on the adelgids, leaving all the other arboreal fauna and flora alone. We started releasing the Sasajiscymnus tsugae beetle nearly three years ago. They feed mainly in the summer and seem to be doing a good job where they are but they spread really slowly. Yesterday we started releasing a different beetle that has seen great success where it has been inoculated. We would like everyone to join us in welcoming Laricobius nigrinus to Whites Creek Gorge!

We released about 300 beetles in four locations and on both sides of Whites Creek. They aren't cheep by by means. $1500 worth of them came to us in a little bait cup. We will release all we can get tempered by what we can afford. There seems to be a lot of grant money for chemicals that are temporary treatments at best and some other things that aren't working all that well. Last big word on Laricobius, affectionately called "Larry", is that they get the job done, eating ravenously and reproducing joyously and copiously. Best of all, they spread out much faster than the other beetles. We need all we can get asap, but so does the rest of the world. Wish us and the Larries lots of love and luck. Cheers!

Judge's Ruling That Land Under Non-Navigable Waterway Belongs to Property Owner

There is a great degree of misunderstanding where streams are concerned. I post this Signed Judge's Order regarding Whites Creek hoping that sensible people will understand the nature of private property. The short version:

  Private property is private property even if water is flowing over it.   

The effect of this Tennessee state law is to protect property owners, even as it allows floating recreation on our streams. 

Let's say a kayaker puts in at a public access point on a waterway. The water belongs to the state of Tennessee and as long as the kayaker is floating in the water, all is well. This allows whitewater recreation during high water and protects landowner privacy during other times. 

On creeks where county roads cross at bridges, paddlers have the right to put in the water and paddle the waterways. They do not have the right to get on the private land along the bank or even technically rocks or islands in the stream without landowner permission, but as long as no trace is left and no harm done, most landowners are quite permissive and it's no big deal. A paddler can legally put in at Possum Trot bridge and paddle Whites Creek to Highway 27 and take out there. Hundreds of paddlers do so every year. 

Once the water gets too low to paddle, it is trespassing under Tennessee law to wade or walk upstream or downstream without the permission of the landowner who owns the land under the water. Here's the ruling that acknowledges this fact of law. I hope this clears up some misconceptions and keeps folks from needlessly getting in trouble. Simply put, You must ask permission and you must take "no" for an answer if that's what you get. Most landowners are reasonable. None of them like to be taken advantage of.

To: patrol supervisor's >

Just so that everyone is aware, Old Stage Road that runs off of Black
Creek Road is private property owned by Steve Scarborough. His
address is 680 Black Creek Road Rockwood. There is a Court Order
stating this property is not public property and is privately owned by
Scarborough. There is also an order in place designating the actual
Whites Creek as non navigational, meaning that someone cannot walk up
the creek across this private property.

Roane County Sheriff's Office
230 N. Third St.
Kingston, TN 37763
Office: (865) 717-4700
Fax: (865) 717-4766

March of the Salamanders

http://www.tnaqua.org/blog/entry/march-of-the-salamanders-tennessee-aquarium-collaborating-on-study-of-springtime-salamander-mass-migrations

Perfect Weather for...Spotted Salamander Love

Saw this little guy Saturday morning. We've had a lot of rain and continued drizzle so the puddles are full. This one is spring fed and will continue to have water well into the summer. So far we can see chorus frogs and spotted salamander eggs.  I have no idea what the solitary eggs are. 

1-1-2018

More photos as I get to them. Check out the drooping and curling rhododendron hanging out over the left side of the falls. They droop at 25 degrees F and curl tightly by 20 degrees F. The technical name for this movement is thermonasty. There is a whole study of "nastic" movement in plants. It's complicated.

Walk Around the Yard

We took a tortuous route along the bottom of the highest wall above Whites Creek Gorge. I had wanted to take a photo of this little rock house that may have been used by coal miners, moonshiners or both. We have located several of these primitive dwellings but this one is unusual in that the hearth is against the cliff instead of the colder exposed side. Smoke darkening can be seen above on the rock wall, though the holly tree is beginning to hide it. I wish I could go back in time and take a photo of it in it's days of usage. There are some old boards and metal pipe along side it and a water supply from a falling spring just a few yards away.

These formations always fascinate me. I'm curious as to the geological mechanism that creates them. This one is in a cavity in the cliff.

Just playing with the panorama feature on our little walk around camera. It was around 28 degrees at this point in the late afternoon. With the cold weather ahead, I'm really looking forward to some icicle hunting along Ford Branch.

Why We Must Protect Whites Creek

Merry Christmas Gerry!

See if these small files tell you enough. I can send the full size file if you need them. They were washed onto the cobble bar about 100 yards above our pavilion site on Whites Creek. They were very fresh with remnants of flesh still attached. I suspect some lucky bird found his dinner right before we go there. 

Cheers,

Steve

Hey Steve:

Those are Villosa vanuxemensis, Mountain Creekshell. A few years ago during a fundraiser at your creek for CFI, Peggy Shute found a live individual of this species near on your place, and it was the first record for Whites Creek. We put it back and I made a note that the species was found there, and was hoping someday to come back and look some more because there could be other species there. Any chance you could donate these shells to the UT mollusk collection?

Gerry

By the way, one of those is female the other is male.

Today at the Creek

The water level has dropped enough to see the posted sign again. Glad it survived.

From Today's Walk

Whites Creek

The grand old hemlock hugging tree...

Roan County on the right and Rhea County on the left at Piney Creek...

Eclipse 8-21-2017

We were at our friend Elizabeth's Home with a few friends for this epic bucket list event. She had her Air BNB guests well taken care of and the rest of us had a spectacular time on Walden Ridge, high above Rockwood, TN. WOW! Lucky you if you get to stay here.

Yeah...We posed it but everybody had an awesome time.

Totality was totally awesome!

The moon shadow moves over the Tennessee Valley.

For two minutes and 32 seconds Rockwood's lights turned on.

Vandalism at Whites Creek

Someone sprayed a very potent herbicide along the bank of Whites Creek in Roane County. It hurts my soul to think someone has such little regard for the creek that they would do something like this. Here it is from last evening:

Here is the creek from just a few feet away from the destruction;

Herbicides have long term devastating effects in a wetland.