18th Annual Coal Creek Health Day
This year, known as
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Our new Beaver friend "Red" |
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Event sponsored by
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Students from Briceville Elementary School assess the health
of Coal Creek at this annual event by documenting what lives in it. They
have caught all sorts of critters over the past 17 years, but this was the
first year they caught a beaver—students nicknamed him, “Red.” As in the past, this year’s event was led by world-class experts from TVA, UT, and Clinch River Chapter Trout Unlimited. The creek that gives the area its name, Coal Creek, runs beside Briceville School. It's a living laboratory!! Each class took a turn participating in a bioassay of Coal Creek. An aquarium was filled with different species of fish collected today, along with an assortment of aquatic insects displayed in separate trays. Inside the gymnasium, students participated in fly tying and casting instructions. |
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Do you know which elementary school in Tennessee has participated in a fish restoration project? We do, it’s called Briceville. Bioassays conducted in the past show that Coal Creek rates as good in its diversity of aquatic insects, but only fair in its diversity of native fish species. Insects can fly to repopulate Coal Creek as water quality has improved, but not fish. The cold water of the Clinch River tailwater below Norris Dam appears to impede the natural recruitment of some missing warm-water species.
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In 2007,
Briceville students participated in an effort by aquatic biologists from UT,
TVA, and TDEC to introduce rainbow darters, which should be present based on
current water quality conditions as described at
www.coalcreekaml.com/CoalCreekRestoration.htm.
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With so many activities taking place at once, we always worry about having enough volunteers. As always, the Clinch River Chapter of Trout Unlimited stepped up to the plate, along with our friends from UT and TVA. VIEW OVER 450 FABULOUS PICTURES AT: https://www.flickr.com/gp/95516223@N08/D16bD5
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Thanks so much to Briceville School Principal Travis Hutcheson, Tonya Roldan, and all the teachers for allowing us the pleasure of spending the day with their well-mannered students. And, don't forget the cafeteria ladies who fed us lunch and Bobby McCoy and Kippie Leinart whose famous shiny floors we got wet and muddy.
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Coal Creek Scholars at Anderson County High School tell us that collecting fish and insects from the creek on Coal Creek Health Day remains their fondest memory of Briceville Elementary School. Our fondest memory is seeing Briceville students excel in elementary school, middle school and high school, so they can go to college and become productive members of society. We call it Briceville School’s unbroken circle of success!!
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Here is the list of species found in Coal Creek this year:
Bullhead Minnow
DOCUMENTED BY VOLUNTEER |
List of Volunteers:
Alford, Brian – UT Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries |
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![]() Terry Douglas making a "Girdle Bug"... the story is that men would steal their wives' girdles and pull the small elastic threads out of them to use to tie themselves a "girdle bug" |
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Creek Watershed Foundation, Inc. 2000 through 2021
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