HealthDay2018

18^th Annual Coal Creek Health Day This year, known as “Leave it to Beaver” Day! 26 October 2018 VIEW OVER 450 FABULOUS PICTURES AT: https://www.flickr.com/gp/95516223@N08/D16bD5	Our new Beaver friend "Red"
	Event sponsored by Schnabel Engineering and the CCWF
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.
	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.
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. Right on cue, young rainbow darters were again collected this year, indicating that natural reproduction is occurring.
	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
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.
	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!!


Here is the list of species found in Coal Creek this year: Bullhead Minnow Striped Shiner Central Stoneroller Rock Bass Smallmouth Bass Greenside Darter Snubnose Darter Redline Darter Rainbow Darter Black Redhorse Golden Redhorse Bluegill Green Sunfish Northern Studfish Northern Hogsucker Scarlet Shiner Bigeye Chub Blacknose Dace DOCUMENTED BY VOLUNTEER J. Brian Alford, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Fishery Conservation & Management The University of Tennessee Dept. of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries	List of Volunteers: Alford, Brian – UT Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Brown, Steve – Clinch River Trout Unlimited Coombs, Joyce – UT - Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Douglas, Terry – Clinch River Trout Unlimited Ferguson, Jim --- Clinch River Trout Unlimited Fisher, Grant, -- UT Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Geiger, Dick – Clinch River Trout Unlimited Hecke, Kyler, UT Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries McMahan, Denny - Clinch River Trout Unlimited Mollish, Jon Michael -- TVA Fisheries Moore, Carol – Coal Creek Watershed Foundation and Schnabel Engineering Oates, Frances – Clinch River Trout Unlimited Thacker, Barry – Coal Creek Watershed Foundation and Schnabel Engineering Ward, Larry -- Clinch River Trout Unlimited www.crctu.org
	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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