Native fish being returned to French Broad River
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Loading... - Tiffany Drivas
- 02 Feb 2023
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The French Broad River’s fish share a long history with humans and wildlife conservation biologists are working to reintroduce species which have either gone extinct or are threatened to help rebuild natural ecosystems in Transylvania County.
There are 76 documented native fish species in the French Broad River watershed with 27 listed as in need of conservation and seven are no longer found.
“A commonsense thing for me is that restoring biodiversity improves ecosystem function and it likely will improve water quality,” said Dr. Luke Etchison, the western region aquatic wildlife diversity coordinator for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “If you can get all the historical species back, your river is in pretty good shape.”
Etchison presented to the Transylvania Natural Resources Committee (TNRC) earlier this month in his talk “Native Fishes of Transylvania County: Insights into what we’ve lost and what’s needed to get them back.”
He sifted through years of collective data analyzing newspaper clippings, library archive reports and archaeological survey data to try to understand which species occupied the French Broad River and when. The many dams, factories, farms and homes built along its shores isolated species from one another, reduced flood plains and unleashed sediment and pollutants which were detrimental to native fish. Read More…
