GEORGIA – On an early Saturday morning in May of 2024, a group of USDA Forest Service employees, volunteers with Trout Unlimited and local university students gathered on the side of a mountain road on the Chattooga River Ranger District. The group gathered their shovels, mallets and log peaveys and began clambering downhill towards a stream running underneath the road. Soon they were waist-deep in the cool water, rearranging fallen logs and installing wooden structures that improve habitat and the flow of the stream. 

Projects like these are one part of a wide-reaching strategy to maintain watershed health on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. 

“When watersheds are functioning properly, they sustain functional terrestrial, riparian, aquatic and wetland habitats,” said forest soil scientist Taylor Hughes. “[Functioning watersheds are] capable of supporting diverse populations of native aquatic and riparian dependent species.”

For example, the Emery Creek-Holly Creek watershed on the Conasauga Ranger District is considered a priority watershed. This basin is home to rare wildlife like the federally endangered blue shiner and the state endangered bridled darter. Just downstream, there are a number of federally endangered freshwater mussel species which are impacted by the watershed condition. Other wildlife, like local bat species, also rely on high water quality.

Experts on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest design maintenance and improvement projects to address specific threats to watershed quality on the Forest. 
According to Hughes, many challenges to maintaining healthy watersheds link back to infrastructure. Culverts, which are the pipes or tunnels that run underneath roads to allow streams to flow, and bridges have major impacts on waterways. 

“Most of our culverts on the Forest are undersized,” Hughes explained. “Undersized culverts lead to further incision of our streams, which in turn increases the amount of sediment in the stream.”

The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest is working to replace undersized culverts across the four ranger districts. Forest staff perform in-depth site assessments to ensure that projects like these will be safe and effective.

“It’s all about [understanding] land use history,” said natural resource specialist Jennifer Houts. “[We] try to figure out what the water wants to do. It wants to be connected to the floodplain, otherwise it’s going to keep incising [the streambank] and causing sedimentation.”

Watersheds encompass vital habitat for wildlife across the Forest, including many threatened and endangered species. But waterways can require careful maintenance to ensure they continue to support diverse ecosystems.

“Many of our streams do not have ideal habitat for various aquatic species and life stages,” Hughes said. “[They] lack Large Wood which help form important habitat within the stream.”

Large Wood refers to any wood, like fallen trees and branches, occurring in streams. These features provide vital services to aquatic and riparian ecosystems. 

LW has historically been removed from streams, due in part to public perception. Fallen logs may seem to some like an eyesore or even a safety hazard, when in reality, they make for cleaner, healthier waterways. The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest is restoring streams by installing LW in waterways when appropriate. 

Hughes emphasized that forest management practices are interconnected when it comes to protecting watershed health.  

“When we do vegetation treatments to open up the [tree] canopy, we are reducing the number of plants taking up water which leads to more groundwater,” she said. “When we [conduct prescribed burns] we have the same effect by reducing the fuels within the stand which also take up or intercept water. That’s why it’s so important that we take an interdisciplinary approach to our work.” 

Measuring success in the watershed program requires long-term thinking. 

“Everything here is pretty long term,” said Houts. “[We’re] creating the adaptability of our ecosystem for our evolving climate. A lot of our successes are getting things going.”