Watauga River Basin

Watauga River Basin

Protecting the river basin for the future.

The Watauga River Basin Beside a Moutain

By: Sherlly G. , Bryan R. , Iyana T. , Anastaja T. , Cinthia M. ,Crystal R.

Cleaning the river......

---The town is using constructed wetlands and other innovative techniques to help detain and cleanse runoff from the streets. This will help because it will prevent runoff to happen on streets.

Protecting.......

The Watauga River near Valle Crucis, North Carolina

The Watauga river basin

---Get involved in basin wide planning or a local organization interested in rivers and streams in the river basin in this way they will all cooperate in protecting the river.

Wildlife

Protecting.......

Some animals that live there are the Carolina northern Flying Squirrel and a Virginia big-eared bats

Several high quality mountain bogs throughout the basin contain many rare plants and animals like the bog turtle

eight aquatic animals in the Watauga River Basin are state listed as endangered

rare aquatic insects species including, stoneflies and canddisflies

Flying Squirrel

---The residents can participate in public workshops, public meetings, and in the public comment period.During these sessions people go and share ideas to protect the Watauga river basins and then do them.

---They can also try to reduce the sediment pollution that way the river won't be polluted.

Vegetation

Threats To Water Quality

Profile & Map

Current Water Quality

• The Watauga Basin includes the Watauga and Elk Rivers and their tributaries. Overall, water quality in this basin is very good, with the majority of sites having a bioclassification of Good or Excellent.The entire Watauga River was classified as High Quality Waters in 1990. The benthos site on Boone Fork above Price Lake maintained its Excellent bioclassification and the lower site rated Excellent in 2004 after rating Good in 1999.

Different threats to water quality

• Bacteria- carried in inadequately treated sewages from storm water, drain septic systems livestock pen runoff and dumps from boats
• Metals- from industrial discharges and in runoff from roads ,urban streets, mining activities, and land fields
• Organic materials- from sewage , leaves, grass clippings and pastures

• The Watauga River Basin has rare plants and animals
• a type of wetland that the watauga river basin has is called Bog ; about 90% of the wetland is already disappearing
• the wetland is partly covered with moss
• there agriculture is Christmas trees
• Two places you can visit at the Watauga river is:

you can go to is the Watauga lake in Tennessee

The Watauga River near Valle Crucis, North Carolina

River Basin Characteristics

---Watauga river basin located in the northwest corner of North Carolina. This small river basin, the second smallest in North Carolina, encompasses only 205 square miles of mountainous terrain.

---There are approximately 283 miles of streams and rivers.

In 2000 the Population 23,676

---These two rivers flow northwest into Tennessee, and their waters eventually empty into the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River.

Humans Impact The River Basins

• Humans impact the river basin in various ways. 95 percent of the Watagua river basin is clean water and only 5 percent is bad. This is because of construction work. Humans have also tried to help the river basin by keeping water clean and giving homes to endagered species.

One Major Threat To The Future

• Runoff is one major threat to the Watauga river basin. This is a threat because runoff carries pollutants which affects the water quality. This mainly occurs due to fertilizers in the soil.

Vegetation

There are 4 types of land covers:

a land cover is the surface of the earth

The first is Urban: it has 50% coverage of land

Cultivated Cropland: they are areas of land that are covered with crops

Pasture/Managed Herbaceous: they are areas that are used for production of grass and other foreign crops

Forest/Wetland:

Includes salt and freshwater marshes, hardwood swamps, shrublands and

forested areas (i.e., needleleaf evergreens, deciduous hardwoods