Conference Purpose:
*To address policy and management implications of environmental and cultural issues affecting ecosystem sustainability in the Southern Appalachian region.
*To provide a forum to discuss research ideas and strategies for maintenance of ecological integrity.
*To encourage interagency and multidisciplinary programs of research, education, and action on environmental, cultural, and economic issues.

Acknowledgments

The SAMAB Foundation greatly appreciates the outstanding assistance and cooperation of the following individuals and organizations who have worked to make this conference at success.

Karen Wade, NPS- Supt. Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
SAMAB Executive Committee Chair

Nancy Herbert, USDA-FS, Southern Research Station,
SAMAB Executive Committee Vice-Chair

Ninth Annual SAMAB Conference Planning Committee

Committee Chairman: Jack Ranney, Energy, Environment, and Resources Center
Debbie Bower, EERC
Harold Draper, TVA
Sherry Fisher, USDA-FS
Hubert Hinote, Executive Director, SAMAB Coordinating Office
Teresa Householder, TVA
Jennifer Knoepp, Coweeta Hydrological Lab
Jennie Martin, TVA
Ruthanne L. Mitchell, NPS-SAMAB
Niki Nicholas, TVA
Pat Parr, ORNL
John Peine, USGS-BRD
Anita Rose, TVA
Terry Seyden, USDA-FS
Charles Van Sickle, USDA-FS (ret.)
Sue Powell, NPS

Cosponsors
The SAMAB Foundation, George Briggs, President
The Energy, Environment, and Resources Center at the University of Tennessee
The Smoky Mountain Winery, Gatlinburg
The Chevron Corporation
The MEGA MAX Theater, Gatlinburg
The Glenstone Lodge, Gatlinburg

Southern Appalachian Man & Biosphere Cooperative
NINTH  ANNUAL CONFERENCE THEME
Think Clean, Think Native, Think Sustainable
DAYS INN GLENSTONE LODGE, GATLINBURG, TN
NOVEMBER 4-6, 1998

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1998 SAMAB ANNUAL CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Moving to an Operational Level: A Call for Leadership from the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Cooperative

A new book edited by John Peine was published by Lewis Publishers this summer entitled Ecosystem Management for Sustainability: Principles and Practices Illustrated by a Regional Biosphere Cooperative. The case study chosen to illustrate implementation of the principles is the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere program (SAMAB). The forward by Bruce Babbitt congratulates the accomplishments of the many people contributing under the aegis of SAMAB. Fifty people contributed to this 23-chapter volume (ISBN0-57444-053-5). Fifteen chapters were devoted to specific components of ecosystem management. Many included recommendations for leadership from the SAMAB Cooperative to deal with key issues being faced in the region. This presentation summarizes some of those recommendations to SAMAB such as the following:
· Conduct a peer reviewed integrated assessment of the resource conditions and risks.
· Institutionalize contributing agency commitment for updating key data sets.
· Integrate to a regional landscape scale ongoing resource monitoring initiatives.
· Invite the Southern Appalachian Black Bear Study Group to become a standing policy committee of SAMAB.
· If the red wolf repatriation effort continues in the southern Appalachians, establish a standing policy committee to aid in coordination of those efforts.
· For brook trout, formulate an integrated interagency management, research and monitoring plan for each distinct genetic strain.
· Evaluate the role of fire in sustaining biodiversity on a landscape scale in the southern Appalachian highlands.
· Institutionalize a program to integrate member agency programs concerning sustainable communities.
· Conduct an assessment of rare plant distribution throughout the grassy balds of the southern Appalachian highlands and devise an integrated management plan if deemed appropriate.
· Conduct an expert driven assessment of risk to the biota and built environment from climate change in the southern Appalachian highlands.
· Supplement on-going efforts in watershed restoration in the region such as the Clinch-Powell River Basin.
· Devise an interdisciplinary, multi-agency resource risk assessment, stabilization and where appropriate, recovery plan for elements of the high elevation spruce-fir ecosystem.

ABSTRACTS
November 5, 1998 Concurrent Session 3:
ENVIRONMENTAL COORDINATION

This talk describes Appalachia - Science in the Public Interest's (ASPI) 18-year experience of performing 152 environmental resource assessments in 29 states at non-profit institutions: colleges, religious headquarters, parish establishments, youth camps, community farms, retirement homes, and retreat grounds. Resource assessments cover far more than compliance with environmental regulations or traditional energy or other resource audits. They assess the potential and actual utilization of existing resources and the need to preserve certain resources from current or future exploitation. The goal is to make the property an ecological model and friendly place for residents, clientele and visitors. The place will hopefully become a demonstration of self-evident patterns of proper environmental resource management.

The areas of focus at each property are divided into management units so that the institution can focus each year of a ten-year period on a particular subject, e.g., The Year of Water. The ten-year plan is arranged in the order of the areas demanding attention: those areas needing greater attention are placed early in the cycle. The suggestions for management technique modification or initiation are meant to enhance the mission of the particular institution in the following subject areas: physical facilities and especially space utilization; land use (gardens and cultivated fields, recreation areas, cemeteries, lawns, parking areas and woodlands); energy alternatives and conservation; indoor environment; wildlife encouragement, conservation or protection; water management and conservation; air quality and transportation; waste management and recycling procedures; food preparation and preservation; and community relations.

Success stories amongst various assessed institutions will be exemplified. The talk will conclude by discussing regionalization of the Resource Assessment Program and introduction of training workshops for physical facilities managers.
 

The Office of Hydropower Licensing administers the non-Federal Hydropower program for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission). Nation-wide between the years 2000-2010 there will be about 220 hydropower licenses expiring. These projects have a total installed capacity representing twenty percent of the nation's installed hydroelectric capacity.

In these times of continued pressure for growth and development as well as conservation and preservation, how can we develop a sustainable resources strategy that reconciles the demands of developmental resources, such as energy, and nondevelopmental resources, such as recreation.

The alternative licensing approach expands participation of the federal and state resource agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and public in the FERC process and provides them an opportunity to resolve conflicts among developmental and environmetal resource interests and accommodate the interests of the participants. This approach involves a team of concerned individuals most affected by the license decision in NEPA scoping, consultation, and study analysis. This results in more local control and ownership of the licensing decision, and ongoing local participation during the term of the license. A local consensus based decision-making process is particularly important to local resource agency personnel who have to manage the affected resources on a day to day basis.

The Commission's commitment to the alternative licensing approach is spelled out in its Order 596, issued October 29, 1997. We believe it's in everyone's interest that the licensing team decide what role they want Commission staff to play in the process. This might vary from facilitating the team to providing insight into Commission practice and policy.
 

Wetlands-based treatment systems for remediating contaminated surface and groundwater sources are gaining in popularity because of their robust treatment capabilities and low operating costs. TVA's Environmental Research and Services Center has developed an innovative wastewater treatment system (patent application filed December 1996), based on recurrent reciprocation and subsurface-flow constructed wetlands technology. TVA's new generation of constructed wetlands have been successful in bench-, pilot- and demonstration-scale systems for treating mixed wastewater streams containing acids, recalcitrant organic compounds, heavy metals, explosives, and/or fertilizer nutrients. Because it is a subsurface-flow process, contaminated water remains below the surface of the planted rock filter, thereby minimizing problems related to odor, mosquitoes and exposure of personnel and wildlife to contaminants.

The robust nature of the treatment technology is based on a combination of factors including 1) the high specific surface area of the substrate for the attachment of microbial biofilms, 2) selection of specific substrate types for sequential alkalinity generation 3), selection of specific aquatic plant assemblages to augment treatment (phytoremediation), 4) the systems ability to cycle between anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic environments on a recurrent and controlled basis, and 5) the reciprocation cycle time is independent of the hydraulic loading rate.

Results from treatability studies and field-scale demonstrations will be presented for contaminants including explosives, acidity, trace metals, deicing compounds and municipal wastewaters. Discussion will also explore the use of native wetland plant species and issues of sustainability.

Sustaining the ecosystems and balancing economic development is a critical issue for the Southern Appalachians. This includes measuring the environmental impacts of existing, new, and future industries on the Southern Appalachians in this region. This can be accomplished through ISO 14001 environmental management systems or similar systems.

Effective environmental management systems provide a framework for shifting industries and organizations from strictly environmental compliance to continual improvement. Environmental management systems are important in sustaining the Southern Appalachian ecosystems by providing a:

1) Framework for an effective environmental management that integrates concerns and requirements of the NGOs, community, government (state and federal), including other requirements to which organizations subscribe,

2) Commonality in understanding and assists in improving communication and increasing effective environmental coordination between and among agencies, industries, and educational institutions,

3) Process to measure environmental performance and improvement,

4) Process to identify those activities, products, or services that can impact the air, water (resource and quality), while addressing land-use issues,

5) Process to identify and prioritize those factors with the most impact on the environment,

6) Process to baseline the factors critical in sustaining the Southern Appalachian ecosystem,

7) System to measure and improve those environmental impacts to ensure continual improvement.

ISO 14001 environmental management systems or similar environmental management systems can benefit all organizations, including civic, community, industrial, governmental, and non-governmental. It is applicable to all organizations, from large to small, and to all countries, both developed and undeveloped. It is the tool that can be used to ensure sustainable economic and industrial development, pro-active environmental management, environmental awareness, ecosystem protection, and sustainability of our natural resources, specifically the Southern Appalachians.

Extensive rainfall (>17 inches) in the Roan Mountain area of North Carolina/Tennessee on January 7 and 8, 1998, led to significant flood damage to properties along some high-gradient streams in Mitchell and Avery Counties, North Carolina, and Carter County, Tennessee. Local politicians complained to congressional representatives about slow response to clean out the streams. The Emergency Watershed Protection program is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. According to 7 CFR, Part 624.2, AThe objective of the EWP program is to assist in relieving imminent hazards to life and property from floods and the products of erosion created by natural disasters that cause a sudden impairment of a watershed.@ The EWP is not dependent upon a presidential declaration of disaster. NRCS may provide up to 100 percent of the funding to accomplish work at Aexigency@ sites and up to 80 percent at Anon-exigency@ sites; the applicant (in this case the counties) must provide the balance. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers permits EWP work that qualifies as an exigency situation under its Nationwide Permit 37, provided the District Engineer is notified in accordance with the Anotification@ General Condition. According to Corps regulations, the District Engineer will consider any comments from Federal and State agencies concerning whether the proposed activities are in compliance with the terms and conditions of the NWP and whether there is a need for mitigation. I provide an analysis of the EWP program as implemented following the January 1998 flood, as well as recommendations for development of a more efficient Ateam@ response to future floods.
 

Strip mining in the Southern Appalachians has a long history of creating conflicting emotions in people within and outside the areas where strip mining for coal proliferates.  Since the passage of the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the act being codified in 30 CFR, strip mining is better regulated.
However, there are many factors to be considered by individuals or land managing agencines who might oppose a part or a whole permit to strip mine an area.  Agencies who might be in opposition to the issuance near their boundary must develop a close liaison with specialists within their agency, neighbors, miner, state and other federal agencies if we are going to protect federal lands from environmental and aesthetic degradation so often associated with strip mining.  This presentation will focus on a case study at Cumberland Gap NHP
 

The Clean Water Act (CWA), as amended in 1977, is for the purpose of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of our nation's waters. The Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines concerning implementation of the CWA regulatory program identifies riffle pool complexes, wetlands, mudflats, etc., as deserving of special attention and protection. The Wilmington District Corps of Engineers' Regulatory Division over the last four or five years, has embarked on a program placing greater emphasis on the protection and restoration of stream resources. In 1996, the District attached a regional condition to nationwide permit 26 requiring mitigation for stream impacts exceeding 150 linear feet. Individual permit actions for a number of residential, commercial, and public projects are being conditioned to improve protection of on-site streams and require mitigation for such waters that are unavoidably affected by relocation or culverting. Currently, the North Carolina Department of Transportation is responsible for mitigating impacts to approximately ten miles of streams across the state. Sizable projects involving stream mitigation require the establishment of a multi-agency stream mitigation review team (SMRT). The SMRT is responsible for developing procedures and approving or disapproving mitigation sites. The public is provided an opportunity to voluntarily participate through an application process. Authorized channel construction and subsequent mitigation activities are based as much as is practical on natural channel design. The success of the stream mitigation program is highly dependent on a well-coordinated partnership between the Corps, Federal and State agencies, and the public.

ABSTRACTS
November 5, 1998 Concurrent Session 4:
APPALACHIAN SUSTAINABILITY

In spite of the current popularity of the term, there are many reasons to wonder whether the sustainability movement can be taken seriously. If achieving sustainability for future generations requires no significant change in the way our present generation makes decisions, then the whole issue is irrelevant. On the other hand, if the ability of future generations to meet their needs depends on our generation redefining progress in a way that cramps our lifestyle, how many of us are willing to give it serious consideration?

Many small Southern Appalachian communities truly need a more diverse economy that likely can never be achieved without economic and population growth, but many state and local governments promote wholesale growth regardless of the economic condition of individual areas. As a result, communities with the strongest and most diverse economies often out-compete poorer communities for additional wealth, aided all the while by state and federal programs. The possibility that the long-term living standards of individual communities might depend on achieving some optimum level of economic activity with a stable population is seldom considered.

The Agrowth=progress@ paradigm is so firmly entrenched that few recognize or question the conflicts of interest caused by government policies that deliberately promote excess growth of consumption and population. Ways in which governments use public resources to promote growth include the purchase and development of industrial parks and infrastructure, granting of special tax incentives, financing job training programs, issuing low interest tax-free bonds, and donating large sums of money to local chambers of commerce to support private growth agendas. Problems commonly associated with excess growth include traffic congestion, air and water pollution, land use conflicts and deteriorating infrastructure. Local officials= typical response to such problems is to try to attract additional growth to generate more gross revenue, in effect paying for today=s problems with tomorrow=s dollars. Laws designed to minimize impacts of growth on public resources and the property of other citizens (erosion control ordinances for example) are often not enforced because to do so would increase the cost of development.

Local governments in north Georgia typically justify pro-growth policies with two primary arguments that, although rarely substantiated with facts, are considered truisms. The first, Awe don=t want to be a bedroom community@, is based on the fact that industrial property generally produces more tax revenue than residential property. This argument is usually accepted, out of fear of tax increases, without analysis of trends or discussion of alternative tax options. A second purely emotional argument, Awe need jobs for our children@, tugs at the heartstrings of all parents who don=t want to see their children move far away from home. Obviously, in a stable economy with a diverse job base, jobs are created fast enough through retirement and local enterprise to more than meet the needs of young adults who choose not to move away from their hometown.

With the specter of global warming portending sweeping changes to the very ecosystem to which humanity is adapted, the world=s largest per capita producer of greenhouse gasses can no longer justify a growth-promoting policy, either to its own citizens or to the rest of the world.
 

Pending the ratification of the Kyoto Treaty which has already been signed by the U.S. President and which is being promoted by the current U.S. Administrative Branch, the CO2 emissions are targeted for reduction nationwide. Sulfate aerosol and its precursors are emitted by the same sources (such as coal-fired power plants) which emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). Because GHGs and aerosols have widely different residence times in the atmosphere, their counteractive effect on climate may result in net cooling or warming of different regions of the world. In the southeastern U.S., we have analyzed the regional patterns of climate change during the period 1949-94 based on the surface temperature records at 50 stations. The results show that direct and indirect radiative forcing of both natural (such as the ones emitted by Mount Pinatubo during its eruption on 15 June 1991) and anthropogenic (such as those transported to Mount Mitchell from the Ohio river valley) aerosols may be responsible for a slight net cooling in the Southeast. Under these circumstances, the enforcement of the Kyoto Treaty will be detrimental to the economy of the region. In this paper, we present the pros and cons of regional climate change and highlight the ramifications of the Kyoto Treaty.

I. What is green power and why is it important for the environment and consumers of power
II. Brief review of Green Power activities at the National level
· How have preliminary congressional deregulation bills treated green power
· What requirements are State Governments enacting for green power?
· Review of National research on desire to purchase and willingness to pay for green power
· Role of green power in utility deregulation pilots and the early evidence on customers' demand for green power when they have the power to choose
III. Discussion of TVA's comprehensive research to assess and understand the demand for green power in the Tennessee Valley
· Description of Residential and Commercial Focus Groups and brief review of results
· Why focus groups were used to begin the research
· Results from focus groups
· Description of TVA's Green Power Survey of 1400 residential customers and brief description of results
· Survey Methodology
· Comprehensiveness of the survey
· First, or one of the first, surveys exclusively devoted to green power
· What TVA wanted to learn from the survey
· Survey results
· Comparison of general public with environmental group which was surveyed
· Description of Green Power Forums conducted by TVA to gather public input on green power, use of the Innovator (a tool for measuring audience response to various questions) and a brief description of results.

Interviews were conducted with eleven communities to determine the assets and challenges, and to assess the needs for sustainable development initiatives and project strategies across the United States. Communities were selected based on two sets of criteria. One criteria set was community-based and was derived from theme areas observed during the review of community goals and vision statements. The other criteria set was constructed to best anticipate the needs of a diverse, decision-making audience. Both rural and metropolitan communities were interviewed. Community responses indicated a need for a clearinghouse of best projects and practices; a "how to" guide for sustainable development; public communications techniques; a comprehensive, centralized resource that identifies potential funding sources; and evaluation techniques, particularly those that can make linkages between indicators. The communities listed understanding community preference and bias, and credibility and sincerity of project efforts as essential for successful sustainable development projects.

This presentation will discuss the many uses of coal combustion by-products (CCBs) and some innovative approaches that TVA is using to help increase the use of these materials in the Tennessee Valley. TVA produces about 6 million tons of CCBs each year and has increased utilization from about 347,000 tons in 1988 to over 1.67 million tons in 1997. TVA expects to increase utilization to over 2 million tons by 2002.

During the 1960's and 1970's electric power utilities embarked on ambitious plans to replace most of North America's aging coal-fired steam electric plants with modern nuclear power plants. The Tennessee Valley Authority was no exception. Ultimately, however, nuclear plant construction was drastically scaled back. Eleven of the twelve coal-fired steam electric plants in the TVA system underwent extensive life extension programs. The oldest of the TVA plants, which had its construction start in 1940, was the only coal-fired plant retired. The other eleven coal-fired plants, constructed from 1949 through 1973, had originally been built with life expectancies of 20-30 years. Presently, all of these plants are being maintained to operate indefinitely.

Consequently, reliance on coal as the primary fuel for electric power generation continues to increase. Each year burning of coal in the U.S. results in the production of over 90 million tons of coal combustion by-products (CCBs) including fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag and flue gas desulfurization ("scrubber") gypsum. These CCBs are the fourth most abundant mineral resource in North America after sand, gravel and coal. CCBs have physical and chemical properties that enable them to be utilized as a substitute for other natural resources in many applications. Use of CCBs in construction and in manufactured products conserves other natural resources such as sand, gravel, rock gypsum and "borrow" soils, and avoids the environmental effects associated with mining of these resources. Diversion of CCBs from waste disposal facilities conserves landfill space and preserves land which would otherwise be converted to waste disposal for other higher uses. Additionally, use of fly ash for substitution of up to 30% of cement in concrete products can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced in cement manufacturing. In spite of the versatility of these materials, only about 22 million tons, less than 25%, are used annually in the U.S.

Studies of plot-scale plantings of perennial biomass crops can serve as the basis for identifying the site-specific environmental effects of producing intensively managed short-rotation woody and herbaceous crops. These data can be used to identify best management practices to increase acceptance and environmental benefits of future large-scale production of these intensively managed crops on erosive or marginally productive agricultural lands. Plot-scale studies at three sites in the southeastern U.S. are showing that biomass crops provide soil stability and decrease off-site runoff, nutrient transport, and nutrient losses through the soil profile. Quantifying water and chemical movement from biomass crops can guide timing and rates of chemical application for biomass crop production to minimize water quality impacts. Soil nutrient and carbon accumulation measurements demonstrate that biomass crops increase carbon sequestration on former agricultural sites. Where SRWCs were compared to agricultural row crops at three sites in the Southeast, only cottonwood compared to cotton showed an increase in soil carbon; however, there were no significant differences between SRWCs and row crops in soil carbon levels after three years at any of the three sites. At all three sites the woody crops sequestered considerable organic matter (OM) belowground as stumps, large roots, and woody fine roots. At Ames, TN, the coarse woody OM comprised 4.8 Mg ha-1, of which 79% was stumps and large roots and 21% fine roots. In switchgrass trials, carbon sequestration occurred mainly in the upper 15 cm of soil and carbon storage increased with time following establishment. Biomass crops can contribute to belowground carbon sequestration; however, the extent and timing is dependent on the biomass crop species' growth characteristics. This 3-site study demonstrates that large-scale production of intensively managed tree and grass crops show considerable potential to provide environmental benefits for soil and water quality while providing biomass feedstocks.

With the introduction of agroforestry principles into temperate agriculture, a reassessment of the role and potential for agriculture within Appalachia is needed. This is at a time when there is also a national sense of urgency to modify existing agricultural systems to ensure they are sustainable and not causing off site environmental degradation. Developing agricultural systems for Appalachia that include tree species may have the greatest productivity-enhancing potential since the adoption of lime and fertilizer use. Trees, which are the indigenous climax vegetation of the region, are ecologically sustainable and do not cause off-site environmental degradation. Trees can reduce nutrient losses from systems, and their recycling may possibly reduce requirements for expensive inputs.

The steep and complex topography of the Appalachian Region makes it difficult to competitively produce agricultural commodities that are most economically grown on large homogeneous fields. Perhaps the best strategy for increasing the economic viability of small hill-land farms is through diversification. By growing a number of products, some of which would ideally be high-value, a small grower would have some protection from fluctuations in single commodity market prices. Agroforestry is a form of species-diverse farming. Tree species and understory species can be chosen to provide a wide range of income-producing products and raw materials for local value-added enterprises. However, little is known about the ecological functioning of many species combinations. Research is needed to develop principles that will help growers manage light, water, and nutrient competition. Research is also needed to determine the impact of potential symbiotic and allelopathic interactions.

A number of field research experiments have been established to study silvo-pastoral and forest-farming systems for Appalachia. These projects address forage production, grazing, high value tree crops, and understory production of specialty crops. They involve conversion of both traditional pasture as well as native forest into more productive agroforestry systems. These field experiments are complimented by a model of resource partitioning between trees and understory that is being developed as a tool to help optimize system design.

ABSTRACTS
November 5, 1998 Concurrent Session 5:
APPALACHIAN WATERSHEDS

The Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative (SAMI) is a voluntary partnership among state and federal agencies, industry, environmental groups, and academia. SAMI's mission is to recommend air emissions management strategies to mitigate and prevent adverse air quality impacts to natural resources in Southern Appalachia, with particular focus on Class I national park and wilderness areas. As part of the Integrated Assessment of emissions, atmospheric transport, and effects, SAMI is evaluating the changes in impacts to aquatic and terrestrial resources as a function of changes in levels of sulfur, nitrogen, and base cation emissions and deposition.

SAMI's acid deposition assessment is initially applying two watershed models, the Model of Acidification of Groundwater in Catchments (MAGIC) and the Nutrient Cycling Model (NuCM) to evaluate the responses of three watersheds (Shaver Hollow and White Oak Run in Shenandoah National Park and Noland Divide in Great Smoky Mountains National Park) to varying levels of sulfur, nitrogen, and base cation deposition. Deposition, watershed, and stream data came from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, the Integrated Forest Study, Great Smoky Mountain and Shenandoah National Parks, and University of Tennessee, Utah State University, and University of Virginia. Simulations were based on average deposition for the years 1991-1996. Levels of sulfur, nitrogen, and base cations in deposition were varied across 10 deposition scenarios projected from 1995 to 2040. Key indicators of stream and watershed responses were stream pH, Acid Neutralizing Capacity, and inorganic Al, soil base saturation and soil solution calcium to aluminum ratio. Initial results from both models suggest that these acid-sensitive streams could continue to acidify under current rates of sulfur deposition and that reductions in sulfur deposition would reduce the rate of acidification. Nitrogen and base cation deposition levels were projected to have small impacts on stream chemistry in the two Shenandoah watersheds. Both models indicate that Noland Divide, a high-elevation spruce-fir watershed, will be much more responsive to rates of nitrogen and base cation deposition than the Shenandoah watersheds and suggest that reductions in base cation deposition could offset benefits from reduced sulfur and nitrogen deposition in this sensitive watershed.

SAMI is now designing a regional assessment of responses of aquatic and terrestrial resources to changes in levels of deposition. SAMI intends to characterize regional watershed sensitivity to acid deposition building on analyses developed under the Southern Appalachian Assessment and other watershed and forest classifications schemes.
 

In aggrading terrestrial ecosystems, the most common limiting nutrient is nitrogen. However, there is evidence from the Integrated Forest Study that some high elevation red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) - Fraser fir (Abies fraseri (Pursh Poir.) forests in the south may be nitrogen saturated. These forests receive high atmospheric nitrogen inputs and show high nitrate levels in soil solution and stream waters. In an effort to quantify nutrient/nitrogen cycling in spruce-fir systems the 17.4 ha Noland Divide Watershed (NDW) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been intensely studied since the mid 1980s. As with other southern Appalachian mountain top spruce-fir forests NDW receives some of the nation's highest rates of atmospheric deposition with 1900 eq/ha/yr of nitrogen coming into the watershed compared to watershed nitrate export of about 1090 eq/ha/yr. In order to understand nitrogen cycling in its entirety, all components in a watershed need to be considered. Components including patterns of overstory vegetation, amounts, distribution, and Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratios of coarse woody debris (CWD), and spatial distribution of nutrient pools within the watershed have been systematically studied since 1993. Together these components give a clearer picture of watershed level processes.

Multiple stresses complicate our understanding of the high elevation system, which includes high atmospheric deposition inputs, previous land use, and the invasion of the balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae Ratz.). Since the 1980's this exotic pest has killed the majority of mature Fraser fir in the southern Appalachian area and as a result CWD has increased in these areas. To date, the relationship between nutrient cycling, environmental stressors, and woody debris dynamics is poorly understood.

In 1993 a system of 50 permanent plots was established in NDW. The overstory forest layer has been surveyed, CWD identified and mapped, and the three dominant tree species (red spruce, Fraser fir, and yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.)) in the watershed sampled for carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur analysis. CWD is important from a nutrient cycling perspective, because as wood decays the (C/N) ratio changes due to microbial actions. This could have far reaching implications in a system with extremely high volumes of CWD, and high levels of soil nitrogen. By quantifying the dead wood biomass levels and C/N ratios, we can estimate the potential sink of nitrogen in the wood and its capability to immobilize nitrogen from the surroundings. With high pulses of CWD, we expect higher rates of nutrient export as this wood decays.

A variety of techniques have been applied to repair or restore agriculturally impacted riparian zones and stream channels, including revegetation with bottomland woody vegetation, grazing restriction, and bio-engineered structures. However, little quantitative data is available on the effectiveness of riparian restoration efforts in improving the hydrologic functions of the riparian zone and associated benefits to water, soil, and air quality. We recently initiated a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of riparian restoration efforts in the Little Tennessee River basin of western North Carolina. The project encompasses partnerships with private landowners, federal, and state agencies, local government, private industry, and conservation and environmental groups. Our specific research goals are to quantify changes in: stream bank and channel erosion, sediment and nutrient fluxes to the stream, physical and chemical properties of soils, stream sediment loads, and ambient air quality (VOC, NO_x). A cost-benefit analysis is also being conducted on restoration efforts. Restoration techniques include bio-engineered stream structures (tree and root wad revetments), fencing to exclude cattle, and planting the riparian zone with woody species. Streams ranging in size from first through sixth order are being studied. In this paper we describe the experimental design, research techniques, and initial responses to restoration treatments.

Changing land use patterns and their resultant modification of the natural watersheds have steadily degraded many riparian environments in the Southern Appalachians since European settlement. Although several decades of restoration and monitoring have reversed past degredation, these environmentally focused efforts have seldom engaged human interest by combining their goals with the public's need for amenities, recreation, and environmental education. In contrast, several recent projects in Brevard, NC illustrate efforts to address both the need for ecological restoration and the public's need for rejuvenation and recreation in natural settings. These projects have restored riparian function in urban contexts. Brevard College has completed two projects: 1) a wet detention basin that improves water quality and 2) a streambank stabilization program. In addition, the college is currently pursuing coordinating restoration efforts with their neighbors downstream. These stabilization and restoration efforts will improve water quality and increase biodiversity by reconnecting the stream channel with the flood plain. Streamside greenways and pocket parks along the campus stream will provide park users with opportunities to interpret these unique stormwater mitigation features and stream stabilization techniques. Another Brevard project in a public, open space context includes the daylighting of an existing culvert. This recreated stream channel traverses a field that is adjacent to a greenway and passive recreation for a residential community. The daylighted stream -- in combination with planned wet detention basins -- will not only serve as unique "natural" water features, but will also improve water quality and mitigate the impact of peak storm flows resulting development. These efforts to combine riparian restoration with environmental education and aesthetics are of critical importance to the ecological restoration movement. Riparian restorations that invite public observation have tremendous opportunity to influence public opinion and allow ecologists to address the most seriously degraded watersheds.

The Environmental Design Laboratory at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has focused on several recent projects in the SAMAB region involving restoration and landscaping of riparian areas using native species. The approach combines landscape architecture with a native, ecological perspective at a more intensive level than in past efforts. This involves a very complex mix of knowhow to successfully implement projects. Some example knowhow areas include applied landscape ecology; control of exotic pest plant invasions; utilizing the process of natural succession (microclimate, soils, species introductions, pioneer versus climax species, mulches); evaluating what is truly locally native, available, and suitable from commercial nurseries; improvising vegetation establishment techniques to cope with local conditions, educating landscape contractors, and creating microclimates to guide natural succession. Of course all of this must fit into attractive aesthetic designs which delicately integrate the aesthetic desire for neatness and order with wild, rather unkept look of nature.

Some of the findings in ecological landscaping are rather surprising but logical. The performance of many native plants in transplanting is not well documented and different under lower intensity management. Some compromise with the ideals of no fertilizer, irrigation, or chemical use are necessary to successfully establish these natural landscapes. The conventional heavy control of species and designs by landscape architects and landscape contractors to arrive at a desired design is heavily in question since sites dictate what would be "natural" to an area. Also, there are very divergent views on what is aesthetically desired and natural. Most humans desire somewhat manicured areas where images of snakes and critters do not enter in the perception of an area. And lastly, the ecological process of native landscaping requires more patience to achieve, especially in the first few years of establishment. This often requires the integration of heavier human control such as maintenance of edges, in site preparation, in plant materials that are planted versus seeded, use of colorful annuals, clumping of plant materials for immediate effect, and weed control. These experiences, as well as the conceptual ideals behind them, will be reviewed.

The Headwaters Restoration project on the Left Fork of the Soque River is the cornerstone of Riverkeeper's Headwaters Riparian Restoration and Education Project which was initiated in 1996 with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the Lyndhurst Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Headwaters project focuses on:
(1) Demonstrating the value of functioning riparian (streamside) zones in protecting stream health,
(2) Assisting interested communities to protect and restore such systems.
Field survey methods have focused on stream fluvial geomorphology by measuring parameters such as width to depth ratio, floodplain width, stream slope and size of stream substrate (e.g. pebbles, sand, silt, cobble) at the Soque site as well as at a "reference" or comparison site in nearby White County. As part of the underlying physical template governing stream dynamics, fluvial geomorphology is increasingly recognized as an essential component in stream management and restoration planning. Design techniques follow the methods of D.L. Rosgen and implementation will take place in October. Replanting of the banks with native vegetation is planned for winter. Community members will be involved with the revegetation and once complete, the site will be a foundation for education in the Headwaters area.

Although the project is still in process, Riverkeeper has already gleaned some important lessons from this project including the fact that the high costs of restoration make prevention of river problems clearly more cost-effective. These lessons as well as experiences with contractors and the permitting process will also be discussed.
 

Since its inception to meet federal NPDES regulatory requirements, Chattanooga Stormwater Management has attempted to improve water quality through various education and regulatory programs. The program is funded by a utility charged to property owners in the City. The City is divided into over 500-subbasins located in 6 major creeks and the Tennessee River. Stormwater personnel work closely with developeres, facility operators and homeowners to comply with the City Stormwater Ordinance. Stormwater Management encourages pollution prevention through good housekeeping and commonsense. In addition, Chattanooga currently offers a free erosion control certification class for people involved in development.

Chattanooga has enlisted the assistance of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley Authority to document the present water quality of its streams. UTC graduate students are conducting chemical sampling on over 50 sites and taking fecal coliform samples on 100 sites throughout the City. In addition, they are conducting biological monitoring on 22 sites in six subbasin watersheds. UTC is locating these sites and mapping our storm drainage system utilizing digital GPS technology. Stormwater management intends to use these findings to prioritize its efforts in further reducing pollution in our streams and the Tennessee River.

Public Law 101-606, the "Global Change Research Act of 1990," states that the Federal Government "shall prepare and submit to the President and the Congress an assessment...." The assessment is under the direction of the interagency Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR) which coordinates the implementation of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) in cooperation with the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The process to conduct the assessment was initiated in January 1997 at a White House meeting of all Federal Cabinet members.

The assessment, which is entitled "U.S. National Assessment: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change," is a Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) chartered process that began with a series of 7 regional workshops across the United States that were designed to identify and prioritize issues related to climate variability and change. One of the 1997 workshops was the Southeast Regional Workshop which was held in Nashville, Tennessee in June. The Southern Appalachian Man and Biosphere (SAMAB) Cooperative was invited to participate in that workshop. While the focus of the Nashville workshop was about how climate variability and change affect water resources, the participants also identified numerous other issues related to climate variability and change. Following the initial workshops, a National Forum of scientists and stakeholders was convened in Washington, D.C. During the forum regional issues were synthesized and prioritized, and plans for conducting the national assessment were initiated. These plans include holding 13 additional regional workshops in 1998 and reducing the number of national assessment sectors to five. The five national sectors are water resources, forests, agriculture, human health and coastal areas.

The management and funding for the sectoral and regional assessments was distributed among the Federal agencies. Each designated agency is responsible for assembling assessment teams, advisory committees, and analytical support from a broad spectrum of scientists and stakeholders.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), through the Department of Interior (DOI), was given the responsibility for 3 of the 20 regions in the United States and for preparing an analysis of the water resources sector. The regions are charged with qualitative assessments, while the sectors have quantitative responsibilities. The water resources sector analysis will provide an assessment of the potential consequences of climate variability and change on the water resources of the nation.

Results from the water resources sector assessment will provide a wide spectrum of useful data and information. Comprehensive water-resources data will complement the Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) data base of SAMAB. Analytical information will include modeling results from climate, hydrologic, and socio-economic models for current, 25 to 30 and 100 years in the future that will be useful to SAMAB's participating agencies, and other area stakeholders.

ABSTRACTS
November 5, 1998 Concurrent Session 6:
APPALACHIAN SUSTAINABILITY PLANNING

Research on the social bases of environmentalism in the United States has generally found that urban residents are more concerned about the environment than are rural residents. Recent research suggests that this may not always be the case especially in specific settings or under certain conditions. This paper examines the issue by reviewing recent survey research on rural and urban environmentalism. Tests for significant differences between urban and rural inhabitants of the Southern Appalachian Ecoregion on cognitive and behavioral dimensions of environmentalism are conducted using data from 1,239 telephone interviews. Findings are consistent with previous research showing that younger people, those with higher levels of education, and political liberals generally express higher levels of environmentalism. However, no significant differences were found between rural and urban residents on cognitive or behavioral measures of environmentalism. The paper suggests a range of conditions that are rapidly changing the character and composition of the region may help to explain why the findings do not conform to the general pattern. This study, and other recent research also seem to indicate that environmentalism has broadened its appeal in rural areas, especially rural communities that offer high level of amenities, are located near parks and other outdoor recreation areas, and are retirement havens.

A draft of this paper was presented at the Seventh International Symposium on Society and natural Resource Management at the University of Missouri-Columbia, May 27-31, 1998. Direct all correspondence to Dr. Robert Emmet Jones, Department of Sociology, 901 McClung Tower, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN USA. 37996-0490. Tel. (423) 974-7017, E-mail: mountain@utk.edu

The migration of new businesses and retention of existing businesses in a region foster sustainable economic development. In pursuit of sustainable development strategies, communities, counties, states, regions and countries are increasingly competing for businesses. In this competition, community leaders, economic planners, resource managers, and government officials need better information on the criteria business owners' use when deciding whether to locate or stay in a community. As our economy has evolved from industrial manufacturing to an informational society, business location factors have shifted from proximity to resources to a focus on optimizing human resources (Naisbett 1982, Decker and Crompton 1990). In this pursuit of human capital, rural communities with amenity resources can market these resources to stimulate economic development. Whereas many communities make capital investments in their "amenity infrastructure", many rural communities often have a rich endowment of amenity resources (e.g. federal land including national forests and parks, open space, state, county and local parks). As such, these amenity resources provide rural communities across America with a comparative advantage over other areas in diversifying their economic base. Public land management can directly impact local communities by providing wood and non-wood products, recreation and tourism services, and indirectly by providing scenic backdrops and recreation access; factors that positively influence business location and retention decisions. Understanding the importance of amenity resources to rural development provides a broader information

base for formulating and evaluating resource management plans for public land, as well as, alternative economic development strategies. Surveys of businesses have shown that an attractive environment, high quality of life, and access to recreation are important factors affecting business location and retention decisions (Birch 1987, Rudzitis and Johansen 1989, Decker and Crompton 1990, and Johnson and Rasker 1993). However, past surveys have not included a market niche or lack of competition factor in their list of economic criteria, a potentially critical factor to the location decision in rural areas for small business. (Decker and Compton 1990, Johnson and Rasker 1995) As such an important factor may have been missed potentially biasing the results toward amenity resources. The overall objective of this study is to provide an empirical base of information for understanding the driving forces behind rural development in general, and the specific role of amenity resources in diversifying regional economies. This study includes market niche in the survey, providing a more robust examination of the relative importance of amenity resources to other economic factors than previously completed. The study area includes four counties, both rural and urban, in western North Carolina.

Much of the literature and implementation guides on smart growth planning or sustainable development have focused on metropolitan areas: the Seattle, Washingtons, or Jacksonville, Floridas, of the world. Although representing a comprehensive approach to sustainable development, these approaches may be prohibitive to small, rural communities. For example, non-urban communities may be unable to hire private consultants to prepare master plans.

This presentation takes a different direction from previous research on sustainable development: First, it focuses on non-metropolitan communities. Second, while we do not disagree with the use of private consultants or facilitators, we suggest alternatives for those communities who lack financial resources to engage in a ACadillac@ version of smart growth planning. The presentation will review a set of visioning and planning processes that were compiled as part of a research project undertaken by the University of Tennessee=s Waste Management Research and Education Institute to enable smaller communities in Tennessee, as well as other states, to engage in smart growth planning.
 

Where are case studies on sustainable communities--rural to urban? How can I find resources and information on living more sustainably? This workshop will answer these questions through this introduction to a new resource on the Internet, the Sustainable Communities Network, http://www.sustainable.org and its sister site, Smart Growth Network, http://www.smartgrowth.org. It will present an overview of initiatives throughout the United States, using in part, its new, updated publication Sustainability in Action, a collection of case studies from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Sustainable Communities Network (SCN) consists of a website (http://www.sustainable.org), demonstration programs and an education and outreach program. The website is intended to help community members throughout the United States and elsewhere obtain useful and timely resources that will help them create more livable communities and to connect with others to share information. It covers a wide range of environmental, economic and social issues and resources and demonstrates their interconnectedness and the need for integrative approaches to planning and policymaking.

The SCN has been developed by a coalition of organizations with broad backgrounds in environmental and technical issues and is co-directed by two national organizations, the Community Sustainability Resource Institute and CONCERN, Inc. Initial funding was received from the Urban and Economic Policy Division of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Coalition for Jobs and the Environment (CJE) is comprised of ten groups and many individuals from northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. The Coalition was formed by people from several groups who found they were dealing with common environmental problems, i.e., the importing of out-of-state waste. They decided that part of the solution should be economic.

CJE undertook a program of study about sustainable economics, and in 1994 was chosen to participate in the Highlander Center's Environment/Economy Program. One of the results of our participation in that program was the production of our video "Sustaining Rural Communities," which profiles three ways that rural people can sustain a prosperous and self-reliant way of life while preserving natural resources. The video was designed as a tool for recruiting a core group of people in a community to conduct a series of town meetings, culminating in their choice of projects that would help their community develop in a way that would not destroy their natural and social environment.

CJE's model for the town meetings was that developed by the Rocky Mountain Institute's Michael Kinsley. Three of our board members took a two-day training with Mr. Kinsley, and we use his Economic Renewal Guide. We have used this grassroots approach in Jonesville and Pennington Gap, Virginia, and in Eidson, Tennessee. A fourth project is in process in Dante, Virginia.

We have had encouraging results in four communities. Our sustainable development task force has made some modifications to the Rocky Mountain Institute's model to help it fit the realities of the very small, isolated communities of Appalachia with their high poverty and illiteracy rates. We have also added a community survey which we do before we begin the community meetings to ascertain interest, learn more about the community, identify more core leaders, and as a form of publicity.

We have one more community economic renewal project remaining in the first phase of our program. We also are planning an extensive evaluation process. In our presentation we will share experiences to date in the four communities mentioned above.
 

There are big changes underway in America's working forests. Exciting changes because some 140 member companies of the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) are now committed to the practice of sustainable forestry under a nationwide program called the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)SM program. The SFI SM is a comprehensive program of forestry and conservation practices designed to ensure that future generations of Americans will have the same abundant forests that we enjoy today.

The SFI program was developed by AF&PA, the national trade group that represents forest and paper companies. AF&PA assembled a task force of experienced professional foresters who spent 18 months crafting the SFI program. This careful collaboration produced an ambitious set of forest principles and detailed guidelines that require companies to reforest harvested land promptly, provide for wildlife habitat, improve water quality and ecosystem diversity, and protect forestland of special ecological significance.

The SFI program is the most comprehensive approach to good forest stewardship ever devised. AF&PA sought the views of state officials, academicians from our leading forestry schools, conservation groups, and scores of loggers and small woodland owners. From these discussions evolved a comprehensive program that applies to lands owned by companies, and promotes sustainable forestry practices on other ownerships as well-from the public's National Forests to small, family-owned woodlands that comprise most of the nation's forestlands.

In May of 1998, AF&PA issued the third annual SFI progress report to record industry's progress in meeting its sustainable forestry objectives. The report was reviewed by an independent panel of experts assembled by AF&PA to examine industry's performance on an annual basis. Panel members include conservationists, foresters, and university scientists from The Conservation Fund, the Society of American Foresters, the Izaak Walton League of America, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the states of Colorado, Missouri, and Tennessee, the National Associations of the Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges and University Fisheries and Wildlife Programs, the International Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, American Forests, Ruffed Grouse Society, and the U.S. Forest Service.

The annual report documents progress made by member companies in implementing the SFI. Data contained in the 1995 report cover a variety of topics ranging from harvesting practices to wildlife habitat diversity on some 54 million acres members own or control. In 1997, member companies spent almost $64 million on forest-related research, bringing the three year total to some $178 million...Reforested 1.3 million acres, using natural reforestation on nearly one-third of the acres that were reforested...limited the average size of clearcuts nationwide on AF&PA companies' lands to 57 acres...and reforested areas harvested by planting or seeding within two years on 97 percent of the acres. A key element of the program's success rests on contacting private landowners, loggers and foresters who produce more than half of the nation's wood supply. In 1997, an estimated 9,606 loggers and foresters completed comprehensive training programs that included sustainable forestry education. More than 20,000 loggers and foresters have completed training programs since 1995.

Compliance with the SFI is a condition of membership in AF&PA. During 1996, fifteen member companies failed to meet by-law requirements for committing to the SFI and their memberships in AF&PA were terminated.

AF&PA represents a vital national industry which accounts for over 8 percent of the total United States manufacturing output. Its members produce more than 84 percent of domestic paper and recycled paper and account for 50 percent of solid wood manufacturing capacity. The forest products industry owns about 14 percent (70.5 million acres) of the nation's 490 million acres of commercial forest land; and, in 1996, was responsible for 42 percent of the 1.5 billion tree seedlings planted in the United States.
 

Over the last five years forest products other than timber-based products have received a great deal of attention. While often shadowed by timber-based products, special forest products are receiving a great deal of attention in public, professional and policy forums. Major newspapers and television networks are presenting analysis of these "other" forest products. International, regional and local conferences and workshops have been organized around issues affecting these non-timber forest products. The U.S. Congress, subcommittee on Forestry and Public Land Management is examining the potential and constraints to increasing revenues from harvesting special forest products (SFPs) on public lands, while achieving sustainable management of the resource.

The markets for all SFPs are growing at a tremendous rate. Some reports suggest that the SFP industry is expanding faster than the timber-based industry. By some estimates the overall SFP industry has grown more than 20% annually over the last 5 years. The estimated market value for medicinal SFPs in the United States is around $1.5 billion; the total world market is about $14 billion. Other segments of the industry contribute significantly to local and regional economies. One pine roping company in Southwest Virginia processes more than 3.1 million pounds of boughs and generates annual sales in excess of $1.5 million.

The future for the SFP industry is encouraging for economic development. For the industry to function, two critical issues - management and regulation of the resource and the attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders - must be addressed. To sustain the resource base and realize the market potential, environmental quality and social equity issues must be fully integrated into management and marketing strategies.

There is a wealth knowledge on managing forests for wood products, as well as some wildlife species. But very little information exists on managing forests for edible, medicinal, or floral products. Silvicultural prescriptions for natural forest ecosystems that integrate SFPs are severely lacking. Some agroforestry models are available that could incorporate SFPs. But much more work is needed to develop a comprehensive body of knowledge on how to manage forest resources for specialty forest products.

Old growth is an important issue in plan revisions on national forests in the Southern Appalachians. National Forest region 8 old growth guidance calls for the delineation of old growth restoration areas in the plan revisions. There is obvious advantage to centering these restoration areas around existing old growth remnants. Possible old growth will be used in the plan revisions to help identify areas to consider for old-growth allocation during forest plan alternative development. Possible old growth is identified from CISC stand age, congressionally and administratively protected areas, stands identified or allocated to old growth management, and other late succession recently undisturbed areas. Those both inside and outside the Forest Service acknowledge that CISC age has serious flaws as a predictor of old growth. It will also be difficult to assess the relative merits of old-growth candidate areas when much of the possible old growth is included because of past management designations rather than its likely status as existing old growth.

Clemson University and The Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition are conducting an old growth analysis of national forest lands. The first portion of the study is designed to predict probability of actually finding old growth within areas that have been identified as possible old growth as well as in the general national forest ownership. An old-growth model is being developed using multiple regression analysis of areas that have received on-the-ground old growth surveys. This model will then be tested on areas where the old-growth inventory received supplemental data and is more accurate than other inventories. The model will then be used to predict the probability of finding old growth in any tract of national forest land. CISC age will be one of the variables in the model, but a variety of other quantifiable variables will be included as well (e.g. road density, distance from nearest road, landform index, terrain shape index, etc). Since the multiple regression analysis will drop out variables that don't have predictive value, a broad array of variables that may have a predictive influence will initially be used.

The second stage of the analysis involves the development of metrics to evaluate and compare how well restoration area proposals are likely to capture old-growth value.
 

Forest cover in many southern Appalachian watersheds has increased since the early 1900s due to changing patterns of land use. Changing economics led to the abandonment of pastures and croplands on sites with steep slopes and less-fertile soils. Since 1950 land cover on many sites has changed from nonforest to forest, resulting in greater coverage and less fragmentation of forest habitats. We hypothesized that sites with younger, aggrading forests may not yet support many of the plant species present in older forests. Therefore, we compared the diversity and abundance of vascular plants at two types of presently forested sites: (a) sites with forest established pre-1950 and (b) sites with forest established after 1950. We found that species richness for both woody and herbaceous plants was lower at sites with post-1950 forests. Species with limited dispersal capabilities or specialized habitat needs were absent from these sites.

Generalist species were frequently present in these young forests but in lower densities. Many exotic, weedy species persisted in post-1950 forests. Differences between the two types of forests were mitigated by topographic factors, proximity to older forests, and land use history. These results help interpret land-cover change from an organism-based perspective.
 

ABSTRACTS
November 5, 1998
INTERACTIVE POSTER SESSION

Two companion projects at The University of Tennessee Libraries, The Great Smoky Mountains Regional Bibliography and The Great Smoky Mountains Regional Collection, will benefit researchers by providing enhanced access to written, visual and audio material on the region. This session, presented by the bibliography's co-editors and the collection managers, presents the scope and methodology of both initiatives.

Bibliography: The Great Smoky Mountains Regional Bibliography, to be published by UT Press, will be the first comprehensive bibliography of the region's non-technical material. The work is the effort of three co-editors, Bridges, Clement and Wise, and fifteen contributors from North Carolina and Tennessee. Smoky Mountains experts, such as folklorists, historians, geographers, economists and scientists, serve as consultants.

When completed, the bibliography will include an introductory essay, chronology, information on manuscript repositories and collections, and thousands of annotated citations organized into subject sections. The formats cover all written, visual and audio material, including books, periodical articles, newspapers, government documents, photographic collections, sound recordings, films, maps, oral histories, manuscripts, dissertations and electronic sites. Personal names, geographic locations, and subject indexes will conclude the work.

Collection: UTK's new Great Smoky Mountains Regional Collection identifies, acquires, organizes, preserves, and makes accessible print, manuscript, visual, audio, and electronic materials on the Great Smoky Mountains region of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. It serves the research needs and interests of the academic community and the general public through active acquisitions and enhanced cataloging programs for both retrospective and current items. Subject parameters for the collection include history, culture, literature, visual and performing arts, folklore, music, recreation, economic development, sociology, human geography, anthropology, and the life and physical sciences.
 

Geologic events that took place millions of years ago are underlying reasons for the unusually beautiful scenery and diversity in plant and animal species of the Southern Appalachian Mountains today.  Rocks at the core of the Appalachian Mountains formed more than a billion years ago, when all of the continents were joined together in a single supercontinent. About 750 million years ago, the continental crust began to thin and be pulled apart by deep-seated forces that shape Earth’s crust, creating basins on the margin of the continent that was the ancestor of North America.  One of these basins, the Ocoee basin, accumulated a thick pile of sediment that later became the bedrock of the Great Smoky Mountains.  During the time sediment was deposited in the Ocoee basin, metal-bearing fluids vented onto the basin floor.  Metal concentrations were sufficient to form mineral deposits that were mined in some areas (the Copper basin and Fontana Mine area), and small amounts of metal sulfides were distributed widely through the bedrock as pyrite.  A lack of knowledge and concern about the minerals and their effects resulted in widespread devastation of vegetation in the Copper basin during the late 1800’s when people roasted the minerals in open pits to extract the metals and released the sulfur-rich fumes into the atmosphere.  Today, care must also be taken when pyrite-bearing rocks are disturbed because increased exposure of pyrite to air and water can result in acidic runoff.  When potential problems are recognized in advance, they can be addressed by measures such as use of limestone to neutralize the acid.
 About 470 million years ago the movement of Earth’s crustal plates changed, and eventually the ancestral African continent collided with the eastern margin of ancestral North America.  The collision established the structural framework that would control patterns of travel of people and ideas and set the stage for the present-day diversity of landscape, habitat, and life forms.  When the continents collided, folds and faults formed with northeast-southwest alignments.  These bedrock structures control the alignment of the ridges and valleys of today.  The collision also juxtaposed rock types that had previously formed in widely separated and diverse environments. West of the Ocoee basin, rocks that formed in a vast, shallow, inland sea now produce fertile farmlands and host caves. Erosion of alternating hard and soft layers of rock that formed from sediments of the Ocoee basin created the landforms of the Great Smoky and Unicoi Mountains, such as high ridges, waterfalls, and rapids.  Sediments and lavas that formed on the floor of Iapetus Ocean, which was east of the Ocoee basin, produce varied soils, landscapes, and habitats.
The present-day margin of North America was the result of another change in direction of movement of crustal plates.  About 240 million years ago, the continental mass once again began to pull apart to form the present-day Atlantic Ocean.  While the Atlantic Ocean was still in its infancy, the mountains were being attacked by processes of erosion.  These processes continue today, breaking down the rocks and returning them to the ocean where they are, as before, being deposited as sediments on the ocean floor, awaiting their return to new mountains when the continents again collide.

Spreading false foxglove, Aureolaria patula, is a rare herbaceous perennial restricted to slopes and bluffs along a few rivers in the southern Appalachian region. Most of the habitat for A. patula has been altered over the past fifty years by creation of reservoirs, and future watershed management practices are likely to affect its persistence. A. patula is a hemiparasite; it has chlorophyll but forms haustoria on (attaches to) the roots of other species to facilitate uptake of nutrients and water. This study provides the first report of demographic trends, reproductive biology, and host requirements of A. patula. We measured individual and population level growth characteristics of four populations on public lands in east Tennessee. All populations increased in size but average size of individual plants in each population decreased in some years. Plants have the ability to go dormant for one or more growing seasons, making recognition of mortality problematic. First year seedlings remain in a rosette whereas older plants develop a stem soon after bud break and may flower as early as the second year. Controlled crosses among individuals in a population indicate that plants are not self-fertile and that localized movement of pollinators (bumblebees) does not result in inbreeding depression of offspring. The effect of maternal plants on growth of offspring was significant. Experiments in the greenhouse show that attachment to a host is not necessary for survival but growth is minimal. Application of fertilizer dramatically increases plant size even in the absence of a host. Although A. patula will attach to the roots of several different species of trees, our studies show that association with some of the host species we tested (dogwood (Cornus florida), redbud (Cercis canadensis), ironwood (Carpinus caroliniana), and sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)) is on average more beneficial for survival and growth of A. patula than with others we tested (white oak (Quercusalba), red oak (Quercus rubra), post oak (Quercus stellata) and red maple (Acer rubrum)). The majority of known populations of A. patula are located on lands adjacent to reservoirs. The degree of development that occurs along lakeshores, as well as vegetation management practices permitted in these developments will directly or indirectly affect the ability of A. patula to persist.

Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia is dedicated to the permanent conservation of the natural resources and scenic beauty of the mountains and foothills of North Georgia through land protection, collaborative partnerships, and education.
Type of organization: 501(c)3 non-profit.

Where are case studies on sustainable communities--rural to urban? How can I find resources and information on living more sustainably? This workshop will answer these questions through this introduction to a new resource on the Internet, the Sustainable Communities Network, http://www.sustainable.org and its sister site, Smart Growth Network, http://www.smartgrowth.org. It will present an overview of initiatives throughout the United States, using in part, its new, updated publication Sustainability in Action, a collection of case studies from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Sustainable Communities Network (SCN) consists of a website (http://www.sustainable.org), demonstration programs and an education and outreach program. The website is intended to help community members throughout the United States and elsewhere obtain useful and timely resources that will help them create more livable communities and to connect with others to share information. It covers a wide range of environmental, economic and social issues and resources and demonstrates their interconnectedness and the need for integrative approaches to planning and policymaking.

The SCN has been developed by a coalition of organizations with broad backgrounds in environmental and technical issues and is co-directed by two national organizations, the Community Sustainability Resource Institute and CONCERN, Inc. Initial funding was received from the Urban and Economic Policy Division of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A) Brief history about ASP, its founder, its stated purpose.

B) Number of counties and states that have hosted ASP centers, in 1998 and over the life of ASP.

C) Number of homes refurbished in 1998 and over the life of ASP.

D) Number of volunteers that have manned the centers, in 1998 and over the life of ASP.

B) Demographics of volunteers, i.e. number from South, number from other parts of the country, number of youth, number of adults, male, vs female.

A) Describe how the centers are set up and staffed, and what type of central organization supports the volunteers.

B) Describe how the families are picked for participation in the refurbishments, and the typical contracts agreed to by ASP and the families.

C) Describe the wide range of repairs that are typically performed during the refurbishments

D) Discuss donation of materials, etc.

E) Describe a typical week at ASP, including discussions on the region, sensitivity to the local customs and culture, and typical activities that are provided to educate about the cultural and region.

F) Identify other groups that are provided a similar service to ASP in Appalachia.

II) Cokesbury United Methodist Church and ASP

A) Brief history about Cokesbury's involvement in ASP, number of years, number of participants in first group, number that when in 1998.

B) Centers we have worked.

C) Describe some of my experiences with the families I have worked with and the team members interactions with the families.

D) Show a video, shown at Cokesbury to promote participation in ASP this year.
 

Southern Appalachian forests are threatened by the impending invasion of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dipar (L.). Gypsy moth larvae prefer hardwoods, especially oak species, but have been known to cause mass defoliation of many different forest types. For this reason, it is important to catalog the insects that inhabit these forest environments at this time to effectively assess the overall impact of the gypsy moth on native species inhabiting Southern Appalachian hardwood forests.

Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess the diversity of ground-dwelling insects inhabiting a mixed hardwood forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and to determine the seasonal incidence and species composition of selected insect populations collected. Information on the community structure of native insect species is necessary to better understand the inter relationship among the species groups.

Pitfall traps were used to sample ground-dwelling insects in a mixed hardwood forest of the University of Tennessee Forestry Experiment Station and Arboretum located in Oak Ridge, TN. Four traps were placed under each of three tree species (white oak, Quercus alba L.,sugar maple, Acer saccharum Marsh, and tulip poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera L.) in four different plots. These tree species were selected for their preference as a food source by the gypsy moth, with the oak being most preferred and the tulip poplar almost never preferred. Samples were collected every week beginning June 26, 1997 through August 26, 1998, and samples were sorted every two weeks.

As of August 13, 1998, 184 species were collected with 116 Coleoptera and 24 Hymenoptera in the family Formicidae. The coleoptera identified included 21 carabids, 14 staphylinids, and 13 scarabs. Seasonality and species composition will be presented for the beetles and ants. Results from this study will serve as baseline data to be used in assessing biological control methods against the gypsy moth or in addressing other current forest insect problems in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Tennessee.

Seven students and two instructors from Brevard College in western North Carolina left the headwaters of the French Broad River on August 30^th and paddle kayaks to the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi arriving on December 11^th after 1882 miles. The purpose of the trip was to present environmental education programs to communities and schools along our journey. We spoke to more than 6000 people during our trip and continue to speak to groups more than a year after our trip began. Our lesson is simple. The rivers of our country are precious and each of us should consider how we can help protect the quality of the water in our waterways. We deliver this message through recounting the events of our trip.

Forest-floor animals are affected by habitat variables such as: coarse woody debris (CWD), leaf litter, and herbaceous cover. We conducted a field study to find how CWD and herbaceous cover influenced the abundance of four invertebrate families in nine patches of forest located in western North Carolina. Forested patches were <25 ha in area. These families were Insecta Coleoptera Carabidae (ground beetles), Insecta Hymenoptera Formicidae (ants), Diplopoda Spirobolida Spirobolidae (millipedes), and Arachnida Aranaea Gnaphosidae (ground spiders). We hypothesized that abundances would be positively correlated with CWD and negatively correlated with herbaceous cover. We found that there was no relationship between CWD and abundance. However, there was a relationship between herbaceous cover and abundance. We also observed a positive relationship between Formicidae and Gnaphosidae.

A comprehensive all species inventory is being planned for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This 2,200 square kilometer park comprises one of the richest and most diverse areas in the temperate world, with a cursory estimate of 100,000 multicellular species, yet very few have been identified. The Park Service is in need of more information about these varied species in order to make critical management decisions. The formal announcement of this multi-year project was made in April, 1998, in Gatlinburg, TN, with Park Service officials, scientists, educators, and local and national media in attendance. The All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is expected to take 10-15 years to complete and will be funded through a new volunteer science and education non-profit organization referred to as 'Discover Life in America' (DLIA). An ATBI has never before been undertaken.

A variety of techniques have been applied to repair or restore agriculturally impacted riparian zones and stream channels, including revegetation with bottomland woody vegetation, grazing restriction, and bio-engineered structures. However, little quantitative data is available on the effectiveness of riparian restoration efforts in improving the hydrologic functions of the riparian zone and associated benefits to water, soil, and air quality. We recently initiated a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of riparian restoration efforts in the Little Tennessee River basin of western North Carolina. The project encompasses partnerships with private landowners, federal, and state agencies, local government, private industry, and conservation and environmental groups. Our specific research goals are to quantify changes in: stream bank and channel erosion, sediment and nutrient fluxes to the stream, physical and chemical properties of soils, stream sediment loads, and ambient air quality (VOC, NO_x). A cost-benefit analysis is also being conducted on restoration efforts. Restoration techniques include bio-engineered stream structures (tree and root wad revetments), fencing to exclude cattle, and planting the riparian zone with woody species. Streams ranging in size from first through sixth order are being studied. In this paper we describe the experimental design, research techniques, and initial responses to restoration treatments.
 

ABSTRACTS
November 6, 1998 Concurrent Session 7:
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN ECOLOGY

A wide variety of educational offerings currently exist through partnerships in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For years the Park's educators have worked closely with resource managers and scientists to integrate their messages into educational programs. Specific examples of how this is currently being done will be provided. With the advent of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in the Smokies additional programming possibilities and facilities are being developed. Many of these are aimed at using educational groups to conduct inventory and monitoring activities. The gap between what the American public understands and what scientists know is much too wide. The educational examples that will be provided are attempting to bridge those gaps.
 

Invasions by exotic species, which have long been a major problem for natural resource managers, are now recognized as a priority environmental issue at the national level. There are two complementary approaches to understanding and managing invasions: 1) the species-based approach that deals with the properties of organisms that make them problem invaders; and 2) the environment-based approach that addresses the conditions that make specific ecosystems more or less susceptible to invasions. We will focus on the second approach.

Recent work supports the theoretical prediction that environments with high diversity of native species should be easily invaded by exotic species. This pattern is most obvious among plants, where low productivity environments often have higher diversity of both native species and exotic invaders than more productive environments in the same region. However, exotic invaders typically reach their highest abundance and cause the most problems in highly productive environments, particularly when disturbances have disrupted or altered the native vegetation.

Mapping of forest floor vegetation along a ridgetop to valley bottom transect in an oak forest in Walker Branch Watershed on the Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park shows the typical diversity pattern of unproductive environments: an increase in native plant diversity with increasing understory productivity and plant cover. The distribution of rare native species and exotic invaders will be discussed in the context of this overall pattern.

In biological terms, sustainability can be defined as the persistence of ecological structure and/or function in the face of anthropogenic change. We compared bird surveys in 1996-1998 to surveys conducted by Ganier and Clebsch in the same region, 1944-1946, to examine changes in composition of breeding birds during a half-century. The study area consisted of a large, contiguous block of publicly-owned but actively-managed forest land at middle- and upper-elevations of the Cherokee and Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests in Monroe County, TN, and Graham and Cherokee counties, NC.

Based on evaluation of the asymptote on the species accumulation curve (n = 20,000 Monte Carlo simulations in 20 trials), we identified a total complement of about 50 core breeding species for this region. We detected little or no compositional change since the 1940's in the bird community as a whole. No species were lost from the regional avifauna. Between 1946 and 1998, rankings of all bird species combined did not differ (Friedman's c² corrected for ties = 1.19, P = 0.55). Avifaunal composition as assessed by all species' rankings also remained unchanged over two shorter periods: 1946-1982 (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z = -0.92, P = 0.36) and 1982-1998 (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z = -1.81, P = 0.07).

Ranked abundances of birds that migrate short distances remained unchanged across the intervals 1946-1982 (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z = -1.21, P = 0.23), 1982-1998 (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z = -0.57, P = 0.57), and 1946-1998 (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z = -0.32, P = 0.75). But other migratory guilds exhibited significant changes in ranked abundance, and we found evidence of recent colonization by "new" species. Permanent residents increased in ranking (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z corrected for ties = -2.65, P = 0.008) whereas rankings of species that migrate long distances to the Neotropics decreased since the 1940's (Wilcoxon signed rank, Z corrected for ties = -2.16, P = 0.03). The largest increases (10 or more steps in rank) occurred in one short-distance (Winter Wren) and five long-distance migrants (Scarlet Tanager, Canada, Blackburnian, Black-throated Green, and Hooded warblers). Most large declines (10 or more steps in rank) tended to occur in land-use generalists (Blue Jay, American Robin, American Goldfinch), cavity nesters (Barred Owl, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse), or Neotropical migrants (Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Wood Thrush).

Land-use changes within this contiguously-forested portion of the Unicoi Mountains since the 1940's include: 1) elimination of livestock grazing on upper elevation grass balds and meadows, 2) die-off, snag formation, and decay of blighted American chestnut Castanea dentata, 3) forest maturation in a large watershed burned catastrophically in 1925, 4) initiation then gradual decline in even-aged silviculture, and 5) construction of the region's first paved highway. No single land-use change could be singled out as a reasonable cause for all changes observed in relative rankings of individual species. Indeed, local declines in rankings of Eastern Wood-Pewee and Wood Thrush mirror exogenous population declines detected by the Breeding Bird Survey in the broader realm of the Blue Ridge Mountain physiographic province. Although remaining changes in ranks might be attributed to several local factors, declines in cavity nesters may stem from the virtual disappearance of numerous chestnut snags described by Ganier and Clebsch during the 1940's. Several species absent in the 1940's (Carolina Wren, Indigo Bunting, Song Sparrow) appear to have primarily colonized habitat edges associated with the recently-completed parkway through the Unicoi Mountains (TN 165/NC 143). Road corridors may thus facilitate the rapid spread of disturbance-tolerant bird species into forest interiors.

    Beaver are often characterized as being "keystone" species - animals which alter habitats to such a degree that the mixture of plant and animal species which occupy the site are significantly changed.  Continued maintenance of these altered habitats and their associated transitional habitats becomes essential to the survival of many species.  This simplified image of beaver activity belittles the important role they play in the creation of unique aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

    The rather minimal treatment beaver are given in discussions of ecology in the Southern Appalachian Mountains largely stems from their early extirpation from the area.  Beaver were present in this area as long as there were trees here.  The only predator which controlled their abundance and distribution was the alligator.  Beaver would have been present in every tributary stream all the way to the watershed divides.  In western North America they exhibit this distributional pattern and the annual precipitation is far less in that region than here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

    The Indians utilized beaver for food and clothing.  When Europeans reached North America, the pelts became a primary "currency" for trade.  In the 1790's when beaver fur became fashionable in Europe and the steel trap was invented, most beaver were trapped from the Southern Appalachian Mountains.  Records from the Tellico Blockhouse provide a measure of the magnitude of this effort.

    The effects of a fully stocked beaver population on the ecology of the Southern Appalachian Mountains go well beyond the simple ideas of altered habitats.  Beaver ponds stored vast amounts of water in the mountains.  The beaver created not only unique (and today, rare) habitats but they also sharply limited the magnitude of down stream floods.  Large rivers would have run cleaner (less fine sediments) due to the storage of those sediments in beaver ponds.  Dams created ponds which flooded and killed trees opening up the forest canopy to allow sun light to shine on the forest floor.  As the ponds filled with sediment and organic matter, they eventually evolved into terrestrial meadows.  The accumulation of large volumes of fine sediments and organic matter undoubtedly was a major factor contributing to the development of most
of the rich coves in the mountains.  The storage of water in beaver ponds at high elevations facilitated the dispersal and vigor of populations of many species, including:  turtles, salamanders, fish, mussels, and plants.  The distributional patterns of many of these species leave biologists and botanists with questions of how such disjunct populations could have developed and persisted.  This puzzle, however, becomes less of a mystery when beaver are restored to the equation.

    Beaver were a critical element of forest ecology in the Southern Appalachian Mountains for at least 10,000.  Within this time-frame, it is only
recently, in the last 200 years, that the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems of  the forest, as currently manifested, have existed.  It is clear, therefore, that the aquatic and terrestrial systems of today do not provide the natural  successional ecosystem which only the beaver may create.  Now the beaver are returning; how do we work with them to restore the natural functions in these important ecosystem?
 

In recent years, the eastern Tennessee region has experienced tropospheric ozone levels that approach the national ambient air quality standards. Based on preliminary observations at high-elevation monitoring stations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and low-elevation monitoring stations near the Knoxville metropolitan area, high ozone concentrations observed at low-elevation stations were believed to result from both formation of ozone on the respective day and entrainment of ozone from reservoirs aloft.

In 1995, atmospheric mixing height and vertical structure of ozone during morning and evening were characterized at a site within the eastern Tennessee ridge-and-valley region. Historically, high ozone concentrations in eastern Tennessee occur in summer months during hot, stagnant days. In July and August, when temperatures were elevated and the region was under the influence of high pressure systems, meteorological and ozone measurements were obtained using a tethered balloon sounding system. Measurements were made during daytime and nighttime to provide information on the development and subsequent collapse of the mixing height during morning and evening, respectively. Morning profiles were characterized by growth of the mixing height and entrainment of upper ozone reservoirs. Evening profiles depicted reduction of the mixing height and growth of the nocturnal, stable boundary layer. In addition, ground-level ozone concentrations decreased whereas ozone concentrations at greater heights (100-300 m) remained comparatively high. The study showed that the entrainment of ozone reservoirs aloft played a significant, if not dominant, role in increased ozone concentrations at the surface.
 

The red wolf (Canis rufus) is 1 of 3 species of wild Canis found in North America. Although the historic range of the red wolf included the entire southeastern United States, indiscriminate killing, bounties, and habitat destruction had reduced that range to a small portion in the coastal marshes of Texas and Louisiana by 1972. From 1973 to 1980, > 400 wild canids were captured in these coastal marshes to be used to establish a captive breeding population. However, only 14 of these animals met the morphological criteria for the species and successfully produced offspring that met the same criteria. The captive-breeding program was extremely successful and the first mainland repatriation of red wolves began in 1987 on Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Subsequent to that, wolves have been released on Bulls Island in South Carolina (1987), Horn Island in Mississippi (1989), St. Vincent Island in Florida (1990), and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee (1991). The accumulation of detailed records on those releases has provided an opportunity to quantitatively assess factors that influence repatriation success. We used 320 independent releases to identify correlates of past red wolf release successes and developed 4 multivariate statistical models based on different criteria for success, such survival or the need for management actions. We used these models to predict the relative probability of future success for selected regions within the historic range of the species. Release success was equally influenced by the characteristics of the release animals and the characteristics of the release area. Our analysis indicated that, in the short term (approximately 6 months), the number of management actions after release may be reduced and survival increased by using wolves that were raised in the wild, by avoiding translocations from other areas, and by reducing the acclimation period. Short-term release success can b