Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 18, 1993 TAG: 9308200073
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FORT BLACKMORE LENGTH: Long
A passerby might have run for the rescue squad but for the snorkle protruding a few inches above Kittrell's half-submerged head - and the fact he was using his hands to move upstream against the current.
For Kittrell, groping along the rocky bottom of this shallow Southwest Virginia river is all in a day's work.
He manages the Nature Conservancy's Southwest Virginia field office in Abingdon and its Clinch Valley Bioreserve, whose borders stretch from the Bland-Wythe county line to Virginia's western tip in Lee County.
The Conservancy set up the field office - a satellite operation of the Conservancy's Virginia headquarters in Charlottesville - in 1990 because of the importance of the Clinch River and other natural communities in far Southwest Virginia.
The region has an international reputation for its biological diversity.
Although it contains only 7 percent of Virginia's land mass, Virginia's far western counties have 24 percent of the state's globally rare species, more than 400 rare plants and animals.
The region is home to more than 20 federally endangered species, including the peregrine falcon, spotfin chub, shiny pigtoe mussel, Virginia big-eared bat and the Virginia round-leaf birch.
When the Nature Conservancy launched its $300-million "Last Great Places" fund-raising campaign earlier this year, it listed the Clinch Valley Bioreserve among 75 sites nationwide that have been targeted by scientists for conservation.
High mountains and low valleys, a wide range of soil types and a climate ranging from very dry to very wet are responsible for the large diversity of plants and animals in Southwest Virginia, explained Douglas Ogle, a biologist at Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon.
A hiker on the south side of one of the region's mountains will encounter species more common to the Southern and Western United States. He can then walk across to the north side and find himself among plants and animals found more commonly in cooler climates. Rivers aided the species movement into the region during the last ice age and the warming period that followed, Ogle said.
Within the broad boundaries of the bioreserve, the Conservancy has acquired or helped protect seven specific ecologically significant sites.
Near the Scott County hamlet of Fort Blackmore, where backwoodsman Daniel Boone once stood guard against hostile Indians, the attention is on a large diversity of freshwater mussels - aquatic invertebrates similar to clams or oysters.
In 1985, the Conservancy bought Pendleton Island (the collective name for three small islands) in the middle of the Clinch River just west of Fort Blackmore. Last year it added 25 acres along the south river bank to the preserve.
The Clinch River alone has 40 mussel species and most of them can be found in the rocky river bottom around Pendleton Island. By contrast the entire European continent has only 12 species.
On this lazy summer day, Kittrell searched the river bottom for mussel specimens to show the visitors he had brought to the island.
Occasionally, he would rise dripping from the warm water to show what he had found - gold and bluish-green shellfish that tend to have strange names: threeridge, spectaclecase, pigtoe and monkeyface.
The 200-meter stretch of water at Pendleton Island has more freshwater species of mussels than any comparable stretch of water in the world, according to Richard Neves, a research biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and faculty member at Virginia Tech.
But Neves and others are concerned that the mussels appear to be in trouble. They are not reproducing. While the waters around the island are filled with mature mussels, young mussels are noticeably absent.
Already, 20 mussel species have vanished from the Clinch River since the turn of the century. Concern about those remaining is not unfounded.
There's a certain irony in the push in this country to save the South American rain forest, when the highest diversity of mussels in the world is disappearing within our own borders, Neves said.
Other natural areas the Conservancy is working to preserve in Southwest Virginia include:
Beech Grove Cliff in Lee County, 100 acres of open woodland and limestone glades, carpeted in grasses and clovers more common to states to the north and west.
Unthanks Cave in Lee County near the Powell River, acquired by the Conservancy in 1987. The cave, one of the largest in Virginia, is characterized by massive rock formations and is home to a diverse community of cave-adapted animals, including a cave snail that is found nowhere else in the world.
Additionally, the Conservancy has worked with state and private agencies to develop a cave landowner registry program in the Clinch Valley. Thirteen biologically significant caves have already been registered.
The Pinnacle, a limestone gorge at the confluence of Big Cedar Creek and the Clinch River in Russell County. The area has 23 rare species, including one of the nation's best concentrations of calcium-loving rare plants.
The Russell County Board of Supervisors gave the 68-acre tract to the Conservancy, which, in turn, deeded it to the state for inclusion in the State Natural Area System.
Standing on a rock outcrop at the Pinnacle high above the Clinch River, Kittrell described his work as "real entrepreneurial," a term more often associated with business than environmentalism.
"You really have to be able to take into consideration some of the social as well as economic conditions to be able to accomplish some of the goals in Southwest Virginia," he explained.
It's hard to get across the concept of environmentalism to a subsistence farmer when they're more worried about where their next meal is coming from, he said.
"In a majority of cases it's a process of education," explaining to landowners the importance of water quality and that they have something that's unique throughout the world.
Unlike the heavily dammed lower stretches of the Tennessee River system, the Clinch and Powell rivers are free-flowing, but they still face threats from human activity, including siltation from poor construction, farming and mining practices; acid-mine runoff; and discharge from municipal wastewater treatment plants.
The Conservancy's "riparian restoration program" in Southwest Virginia is an effort to prevent the damage caused to the rivers by farming.
Working together with the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, the Conservancy helps landowners plan and pay for better water quality practices, such as the construction of buffer strips to keep dairy-farm manure out of streams.
Joe Wentz, a SCS agent in Lebanon, said working with the Conservancy, which gets its funding from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, helps his agency stretch its conservation dollars.
The program is only in its early stages, and he hopes it continues to grow, Wentz said. "We can do more conservation when we work together."
If farmers agree, the Conservancy will pay for fencing to keep their cattle out of the rivers and to find other water sources for them. Farmers, in turn, agree to maintain the fence for 10 years.
"River water and cattle don't mix," Jim Cox, whose farm adjoins the Conservancy's Pendleton Island preserve, said. The health of Cox's cow herd has improved since he fenced the animals out of the river.
The fencing protects vegetation along stream banks, helps prevent erosion and provides habitat for birds and small mammals.
Kittrell recognizes the limited ability of the Conservancy to protect the wildlife in the river and the importance of farmer's like Cox to the effort.
"The real goal is to instill something in the land owner other than just building a fence," Kittrell said. "When the river is 200 miles long, it's the people who live on the river who are going to be protecting the river."
Wentz said the Conservancy is more effective than many environmental groups and attributes that to the organization's "soft approach."
The Conservancy makes its case to farmers and lets them make up their own minds, Wentz said. "They're not pushy or anything."
Working with - rather than against - private individuals and businesses has helped his organization be effective, Kittrell agreed.
"Our goal is to become part of the community."
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by CNB