Lunch and Learn
Help needed sampling Union County streams

The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition is hosting a free ìLunch and Learnî event on Saturday, March 17th from 12:30-2:00 at the Cadence Bank Community Room in Blairsville. For more than three years, volunteers throughout UnionCounty and the upper HiwasseeRiver watershed have faithfully collected monthly water samples from 10 locations on streams flowing into LakeNottely as part of a Coalition program to restore and protect the lakeís water quality and habitat.

Volunteers go out to their assigned location on the third Saturday of every month, fill six small plastic bottles with stream water, record the air and water temperature, make some notes about the weather, color, clarity and flow of the stream, and conduct a dissolved oxygen test. After spending about 30 minutes at the site, they bring their samples to a centralized dropoff location. On the following Monday, all samples are driven to a certified laboratory at the Univ. of North

C a r o l i n a - A s h e v i l l e (UNCA) for analysis. The samples are tested for a wide range of possible contaminants like suspended sediment, excess nutrients, and metals and the results are sent back to the Coalition. Every year, UNCA produces a report summarizing data collected in the watershed and comparing it to other streams throughout the southern Appalachian region.

At the March 17 event, Coalition Executive Director, Callie Moore will be presenting the results (and reports) for the third year of sample collections and discussing what weíve learned about LakeNottely by collecting these data.Just prior to the Lunch and Learn, volunteers from Union county will have finished collecting the March samples and many will be at the event to share their excitement about the program with those who might be interested. Lunch is provided free of charge and an RSVP is requested.

Please RSVP by March 15th for the Lunch & Learn to Leslie at the Coalition office: hrwcleslie@brmemc.net or toll free: (866) 863-7388. Or, if you think you might want to become involved with the volunteer monitoring program but canít attend this event, you may contact HRWC Assistant Director, Nicole Kelley at hrwcnicole@brmemc.net or the above phone number.