New River Assessment

Watershed Assessment

I've been working on my watershed assessment for the New River and realized that I never showed where my sample points were located!

I used three testing locations across four weeks. The first was on Shorts Creek that feeds into the New River. The second is where Shorts Creek enters the New. The final location is 1 mile down the New River Trail at Foster Falls and is a large recreational zone.

Coliscan Equipment

Trees of Southwest VA

Success!

I have had a busy busy schedule at work that has tied up weekends and nights with meetings, so I haven't been able to update much. However, I just looked at my first set of water samples and we have success!!! Well, success if you consider finding tons of E.coli. I will post my protocol that I'm using a little later this week because I believe I would like to tweak the areas that I collect sampling.

One factor to consider while examining these colonies is that it had been raining for about a week. Rain leads to flushing of surrounding areas and typically creates an elevated count for bacterium.

but check out these....

I took four samples on 10/12/2014 at 3:30 pm. 2 are E.coli using Coliscan and 2 are just bacteria growth using Total Count

Total Count of bacteria from the New River

Total Count of bacteria coliforms from a tributary of the New River

Purpe E.coli colonies from the Jackson Ferry area of the New River

Check out ALL of those E.coli colonies!!!

Rock Snot has made it to Virginia! Keep an eye out for this growth.

Rock Snot Clogging Rivers

Invasive Plants

A widespread problem across this region is Multiflora Rose. It was originally brought to be a type of erosion control but then worked its way into every type of habitat imaginable! A lot of invasive species are originally introduced with good intentions, like kudzu.