The newly-formed Nolichucky Watershed Alliance in UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) is taking gradual steps forward by providing real-time information on river access and water quality via their evolving website. Despite starting small, the alliance has ambitious goals to both celebrate and safeguard one of the South’s untamed rivers.

“It’s essential to protect and spread awareness about it,” stated Bekah Price, a board member, to News Channel 11 at the Sawmill access area just below Erwin. On the alliance’s website, Sawmill is noted as one of the few access points—out of approximately 18—that remains at least partially accessible, even nine months following the damage inflicted by Hurricane Helene.

“We’re aiming to bring all the surrounding communities together around the central idea of stewardship, collaborating to maintain the river’s ecological, recreational, and scenic importance,” Price explained.

Soon, she said, the website and the group’s Facebook and Instagram pages will be announcing volunteer opportunities, including cleanups, revegetation and other ways to aid recovery while educating people about the watershed and river.

“I really don’t think people realize what a gem we have in our backyard,” Price said of the waterway that’s one of the few major undammed rivers in the Southeast.

“We have world class white water. We have incredible fisheries. The state has selected the river to become a blueway, one of 15 rivers in the state. It provides drinking water. It provides irrigation habitat for endangered species.”

The alliance also has a budding partnership with East Tennessee State University. Joe Bidwell, a biologist and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said he’s got high hopes for an effort to enhance water quality testing on the river.

“It’s an exciting project that is going to be looking at just some basic indicators of water quality and stream health,” Bidwell said.

“The river sustained a very significant impact as a result of Hurricane Helene and it requires time to recover. Monitoring projects like the one proposed help us understand where the river is in that recovery process.”

Bidwell understands the importance as well as anyone. He lives within earshot of the river and just a few minutes from the Chestoa access area. It was destroyed by Helene but is due to reopen sometime this year.

“It’s an incredible gem,” Bidwell said. “It’s an unregulated river. It has a wildness to it that is becoming more and more rare in the U.S. and really in the world. To be able to maintain its health, to be able to maintain the environmental integrity and the recreational opportunities that the river provides should be a very high priority for us all.”

Crisis underscored Nolichucky’s value

Price said while lots of people have long cherished the Nolichucky, there’s never been a group formally committed to its protection, preservation and enhancement.

“I think the flood and the development that’s been taking place, like the construction of the (CSX) railroad, definitely kind of shined a light on how many individuals care about the river,” she said.

Late last year, some of those folks started thinking about what an organization modeled on existing ones like the Harpeth Conservancy in Middle Tennessee might look like.

“It’s just incredible what they’ve done for their rivers and for their communities as a whole, so I think we’re just inspired and we say, you know, ‘why not here?'” Price said.

They’ve been building it ever since, led by a six-member advisory board and moving toward official non-profit status.

“We don’t have it all figured out,” Price said. “We have a vision. We have diverse backgrounds in nonprofit leadership, business, environmental science, and we’re really just trying to bring people together and hear ideas and see what we can do for the river.”

Much of that has involved outreach, including to state agencies like the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC).

“Those conversations with the various agencies have been really productive,” Price said. “There’s a lot of meetings taking place behind the scenes and it’s been really eye opening to learn who’s doing what and how can we plug in.”

She said the group is trying to figure out whether there’s “an energized base of volunteers” that want to come out and help, and how the alliance might be able to support TDEC’s existing work, or support private landowners including the many farmers who operate near and rely on the river.

“Those are the kind of questions that we are trying to answer right now, just to figure out how we can be most effective, because I think people do want to help.”

Citizen scientists

An early endeavor involves a water quality monitoring program in collaboration with ETSU. Price and Bidwell both say that’s designed to augment, not replace TDEC’s every-five-year comprehensive study — the Nolichucky’s is due to start next month.

“We are hoping that through that partnership we can provide more timely data. People want to know, is there elevated E.coli and not find out like months from now or years from now. And in the long term, that kind of data can help us be more flood resilient.”

Bidwell called the effort “incredibly important.”

“The resources available for this kind of work are limited at the state level, they’re limited at the federal level,” he said. “It just makes sense for interested parties to collaborate and pool resources and skill to be able to address problems.”

He said grassroots efforts like the alliance’s have proven themselves before, and that they will likely become both more common and more necessary in the future. The Nolichucky certainly needs the extra attention, he said.

“Has it bounced back to 100%? Is it still showing signs of stress, meaning do we have to perhaps implement other management approaches to allow it to have that time to get back and to fully recover? That information is really necessary to track that recovery process.”

More frequent and more granular data than TDEC alone can provide will be very valuable, Bidwell said — one reason he’s hopeful the project will garner additional funding.

“We’re working to find other sources of funds to expand the study and more importantly, start to develop a citizen science component where we can empower citizen groups to collect the data in a way that that is usable.”

He said he’s confident in the project’s scientific rigor.

“The fact that it’s a collaborative work between a nonprofit and a university, and university researchers that have solid experience with this type of work, I am very hopeful that we’ll be able to attract some funds.”

In the meantime, as the summer heat settles in, Price said she’s glad the alliance already has a valuable tool on its website.

“It’s just a small example of how an organization like ours can bring together info from the different land managers and different folks within our watershed, and put it in one easy to access place. We really hope that helps people get back out on the water.

“After talking with the folks at TDEC I feel comfortable going out. I’ve had my kids out on the water boating. It’s cool. It’s wonderful. It’s beautiful. It’s definitely worth getting back out there.”