- [Narrator] Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, the Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- On today's show, we will feature two nonprofits dedicated to preservation in our area.

Stay tuned to learn more.

(upbeat music) Welcome to "Chattanooga: Stronger Together".

I'm Barbara Marter.

Chattanooga Audubon Society is Chattanooga's oldest conservancy organization.

They work to protect and preserve our environmental, historical, and cultural resources through education and stewardship.

Their board president, Dr. Aborn, is with us.

Dr. Aborn, thank you so much for coming in today.

Help me to learn more.

What is the Chattanooga Audubon Society and its importance to our community?

- Well, first, thank you for representing our organization or recognizing our organization.

As you mentioned, we are the oldest land conservancy in the Chattanooga area, founded in 1944 by Dr. Robert Sparks Walker, or Mr. Robert Sparks Walker.

Our mission is to educate people about the natural and cultural history of the area.

And so we've got three properties that people can visit.

Our main property is Audubon Acres, which is just a little past Hamilton Place Mall at the end of Sanctuary Road.

And so that's a 130-acre property with about five miles of hiking trails.

Our visitors center has a number of archeological artifacts.

We've got Spring Frog Cabin there, which is where Robert Sparks Walker grew up.

And we've got just an abundance of wildlife there.

We have a number of programs that we've run.

We have a homeschool program.

We're also a campus for the Wauhatchie Forest School.

So just trying to get young people exposed to the outdoors and the natural world, as well as the cultural history.

We offer bird watching programs, tree identification hikes, so all sorts of programs of that nature.

We have McClellan Island, which, if you've ever driven over the Veterans Bridge, it's that island that's right beneath the bridge.

And so people are welcome to go out there by canoe or kayak, or paddleboard and hike around.

You can also make reservations to camp out there if you so choose.

And then our third property is Audubon Mountain, which is up in Sale Creek, and it's right by where the McDonald Farm is, which the county has just purchased.

So those are our three properties that we have.

- How many acres does the one in the mountain have?

- I'd have to look that up.

I'm not sure off the top of my head.

- Okay.

Okay.

But the one that's Audubon Acres and everything you were talking about the Robert Walker, he was born in that cabin.

It's called the Spring Frog Cabin, I believe.

- That's right.

- [Barbara] Is there a curator there that you can take tours in to actually see realistically what the cabin looked like and the utensils that they used and things like that?

- Yes.

So, monthly, we have the cabin open with someone who will take visitors in there and talk about the cabin and talk about Robert Sparks Walker.

One of our big events in the fall is Pioneer Days.

Where for a week we have all sorts of people, craftspeople, and exhibitors to teach people what it's like, or what it was like, back in the 19th century, what life was like, so you know, blacksmithing, candle making, butter making, et cetera.

So that's become very, very popular with school groups.

- One of the things too you do the homeschooling for homeschoolers and stuff, but I think you also, in the past, I don't know if you still do it or not, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.

Do you have programs like, if they're gonna do their wilderness badge or something, could they come out there and participate like in owl pellets, you know, looking at that, dissecting it, and stuff like that, do they have programs that you offer for them?

- Yes, absolutely.

In fact, there was one project that was done recently where a girl scout created a bee hotel.

So, you know, there are more bees than just honey bees.

And so, you know, there are a lot of bees that will nest in just, like, sort of small crevices or tubes and such.

And so you can make or buy, it's basically just a box filled with all these little tubes of different sizes.

And they'll go in there and they'll lay their eggs, and then seal them up.

It's right in front of the visitors center at Audubon Acres.

And so that was a very nice project that someone did.

- That is so cool.

So you are about the preservation, but you're also about educating our young people.

But not only that, I think you do some stuff with UTC students and things, maybe having them come out there and do some of their classwork out there, or teaching or something like that.

I love the fact that, you know, it's open to the young, but it's also open to the older people that maybe wanna do bird watching or tree identification.

What are some of the other programs that you would offer?

'Cause I know your website is full of stuff.

I love your website, and I would love to have our viewers go, after they see the show, to go see your website because there was so much information there when I was looking at it prior to us meeting.

That, to me, it was a little overwhelming because I didn't realize all the programs, all the things that you do that we can't even capture in our show today.

But is there other things that you're doing that you would wanna highlight and let our viewers know about?

- Well, like you say, I mean, there are so many different things to do.

You know, I would encourage people to come out and explore.

We've got another building called Walker Hall.

And inside Walker Hall, we have an extensive collection of replica bird eggs.

So a local artist named C.E.

Blevins, he was taught in the Hamilton County School System for many years, and he found bird eggs to be very fascinating with the shapes and patterns and so forth.

And so he set out to recreate as many different species bird eggs as he possibly could.

And so he didn't quite make it, I mean, there are 10,000 bird species, but he made about 1200 eggs of about 1200 different species.

And so people can go in there and look at the extraordinary variety of bird eggs.

In our visitors center, we have a number of Native American and archeological artifacts that people can look at, so- - [Barbara] Were those artifacts off the property that were found, or were they kind of donated or loaned out to you?

- A combination of the two.

So there is definitely a rich Native American history.

In fact, Audubon Acres is an official site on the Trail of Tears.

So, you know, if you follow the whole Trail of Tears, there are a number of locations of note and importance that you can visit, and Audubon Acres is one of those.

- Wow, that's amazing.

A little treasure in our backyard that a lot of people don't even know about, or you've heard of it, but you've heard of it but you don't really understand the treasure that we have.

I think that's absolutely amazing.

And to hear, you know, that.

So, Mr. Walker, did his family donate the 130 acres to the Audubon Society?

Did he start that and create that?

- Yes, he founded that.

So yeah.

So that's all the legacy of the Walker family.

- Okay.

So I was trying to think if there was anything else that, oh, so when we talked about the McClellan Island, I believe that was donated by the R.J. McClellan family.

- [David] That's right.

- And that would've been way back too in the years.

And so you've kept that and preserved that, and I love the fact that you said, "You could go camping there," if you wanted to do a camping for the weekend.

Like take your family, or a boy scout group or girl scout group, or whatever.

That's such a rich history.

Nobody knew.

I didn't know that you could actually row over there and camp out, and, you know, it doesn't look like it's that big.

But I guess once you're there on it, you know, it can, but there's a lot of wild animals like birds, and ducks, and things like that, that will have that as a natural habitat and lay eggs and things, don't they?

- Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Yes, it's got a pretty rich bird diversity.

And, you know, I'm sure that if there were surveys done you know, you'd find a number of reptiles.

You know, I'm sure there's a variety of lizards and snakes that are out there, and, you know, insects and things.

So, yeah, it's pretty rich.

And so, for camping, you need to make reservations.

You can do it either online or at the visitors center at Audubon Acres.

- Oh, okay.

- But if you want to just paddle out there and just spend the day and hike and picnic and so forth, you're absolutely welcome to do that without needing any kind of reservations.

- Okay.

That's awesome.

Well, Dr. Aborn, thank you so much for coming in today and telling me more about the Chattanooga Audubon Society and the rich history.

I did not understand or realize that, as old as it was, our predecessor of all the others that are out there so.

And thank you for this little jewel that we have and for taking care of it so that our future generations will look back and know what we did and everything.

So thank you so much for coming in today.

- And thank you.

- Okay.

We'll be back in a moment with Lucien Scott, president of North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy.

Stay tuned.

We wanna know how you serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering, and we may feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger@wtcitv.org or use the #StrongerWTCI on social media.

Welcome back.

Lucian Scott is joining us.

Lucian is the president of the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy.

This organization plays an essential role in protecting the creek as a vital resource for our region.

Thank you so much for being here with us today.

Tell me, what is the North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy, and why is it important to our community?

- Well, thank you for having me.

The North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy is a 501c3 nonprofit that aims to protect and conserve North Chickamauga Creek, its gorge, and its path through the valley for future generations.

Mainly due to its outstanding water quality, its scenic, and its cultural heritage, the history of the gorge, and its recreational opportunities that it provides to the community.

- How many acres do you actually oversee?

- So we were originally founded as the Friends of the North Chickamauga Creek Greenway.

And as we began our work purchasing parcels of land and beginning to try to connect them to create a continuous greenway from Greenway Farms in Hickson up to the North Chickamauga Creek Gorge in Soddy-Daisy, we really found much more success working with large landowners on the mountain and in the gorge, timber companies, and families who own large tracks.

So when we started purchasing those and placing them under conservation easement, we were able to acquire about 17,000 acres of property that we are able to place under a conservation easement and develop the state natural area.

- Wow, that's amazing.

I didn't realize you had that much property under you and everything.

I know that on the W Road there's a project that you're working on there.

Could you kind of talk about that?

- Yeah, so we are currently constructing the Walden Ridge Park.

And Walden Ridge Park is going to be an advanced-feature mountain bike park for mountain biking enthusiasts.

So Chattanooga has had a long history of becoming a mountain bike mecca for a lot of local riders who just come from all over the area to ride places such as Enterprise or White Oak Mountain and Raccoon Mountain, and Five Points.

Well we're gonna add another jewel to the crown of Chattanooga mountain biking, and that's gonna be an extreme downhill park that will be gravity-fed park.

There's about 800 feet of elevation between the W Road and our terminus down on Mountain Creek Road.

And so, over those 800 feet, there will be plenty of jumps and berms, and rocks to ride over and off of, but it's also intended to be a park for everyone.

So besides the extreme mountain bike park, we're also gonna aim at having some boulders.

We've been working with our partners in conservation, the Southeastern Climbers Coalition, to make sure that the boulders that are in the park are mapped and available for climbing.

So we've been working with the SCC to help construct access to the boulders and climbing trails.

So it's gonna be a multi-use park.

And towards the bottom of the park, off of Mountain Creek Road, we will also have some green space that'll open it up for families and walks, and a walking trail over to Reed Springs.

- There's a parking lot at the top, but you're also building a parking lot at the bottom of it and everything for access too.

- Correct.

- But I think what is so cool about this extreme mountain biking so it's not for the faint of heart.

It is for those that really like the mountain biking it's not regular biking, it is mountain biking, and those- - Correct.

Those who have really honed their skills at riding at White Oak Mountain and riding over at Raccoon Mountain, some of our more extreme trails, I think those riders who enjoy those trails, the more difficult, steeper trails, are really gonna find this park desirable.

- Desirable and maybe challenging a little bit?

- Very challenging, yes.

- Very challenging.

And then we also have a lot of mountain climbers too.

Rock climbers.

And so, I think this will be challenging and fun for them too, to have a different area to go to.

But what I love about it is, it's right there at the foot of Signal Mountain, close to downtown.

We have a lot of newcomers over the last couple of years, that have moved in that love the outdoors, that love the nature.

And I think this, once you have it open to the public and everything, I think it's gonna be another exciting jewel to have in our backyard that the outdoor person, the enthusiast.

And I love the fact that it's family-oriented because they can go have picnics, they can go for, you know, walks and trails and things like that too, which is really cool, so.

The one thing that you'd mentioned is watershed.

For me, and I think for a lot of viewers, what is a watershed?

Why is that important to us, and why should we be concerned about the contamination of a watershed?

- Excellent question.

A watershed is essentially a geographic area that determines where raindrops essentially flow to.

And you can think of a watershed as like a big land bowl, and any droplet of water that falls on the edge of the bowl and comes into the bowl is part of that watershed.

And every creek has its own watershed.

And North Chickamauga Creek's watershed could butt up against several other local watersheds, such as the Falling Water Creek watershed and drops that fall on the North Chickamauga Creek side of the slope will flow precipitously down into North Chickamauga Creek, and then the drops that flow on the Falling Water side would then flow down into Falling Water Creek.

That becomes the delineation, and the line that becomes a watershed.

And so we're looking at a huge piece of land essentially that determines where all the water that comes into North Chickamauga Creek lands on the earth.

- Okay, so how does that get contaminated?

- So there are a variety of different ways that water in a watershed can be contaminated.

And it could be either from point source pollution, such as people actually physically dumping contaminants or pollution on the ground.

But there's also more non-point source pollution or different types of pollution that can mean causes and forms of erosion.

Logging operations that are unchecked in their erosion control.

Or in examples of recent years, quarries that have opened up, unpermitted quarries, or unregulated quarries, that North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy has worked tirelessly to help shut those quarries down and essentially eliminate the effect of the quarries on the watershed.

- Another could be maybe somebody purchasing some property that was below the watershed level or whatever and dumping stuff on it to build it back up so that they could build commercial property or housing complexes or something like that.

- Absolutely.

And that's another key threat to the watershed that the Conservancy is very interested in at this point in time.

And it's part of a two-pronged approach.

One of them, as you're mentioning, is the backfill problem.

And that is a piece of property that could be a low-lying area in a floodplain that could be a swamp or a bog.

Someone could potentially not build on it until they backfill it, bring the level of the land above the floodplain, and level it off so that then they could build on it.

That causes some pretty significant problems for the creek.

It definitely initially constricts the creek, and it doesn't allow it to flow outwards out of its banks into its natural flood plain, which would normally slow the water down.

When you backfill those floodplains, now the velocity of the creek is increased because it's been squeezed down.

So when you have faster moving water, you're gonna end up with more erosion downstream.

The other part of that backfill problem is what we're seeing is borrow pits and people taking a piece of land, taking timber, and then coming in, removing the top soil, removing the fill dirt, and then removing the rock.

And essentially mining and harvesting all the resources from the property.

And a lot of those are unpermitted and unregulated.

So we are working diligently to pursue those pieces of property and make sure that they are either brought up to code or shut down.

- Wow, that's amazing.

What is the State Scenic River Project?

- Over the course of the last year, the Conservancy has worked with local legislatures to bring a bill to the Senate and the house, the state legislature, to designate North Chickamauga Creek as a state scenic river.

The state has a Scenic River Program that showcases exemplary rivers.

Rivers that have outstanding water quality, rivers that have significant cultural, significant historical attributes, as well as just biodiverse and just botanically rich areas, such as North Chickamauga Creek.

We see great water quality, we have a wide variety of fauna and flora.

And this bill that's gonna be designated in the next legislative process will hopefully protect North Chickamauga Creek under law for years to come for future generations.

- Yeah.

So what do we as citizens can do to, I guess, better educate ourselves?

Or maybe if we see something that we could bring to your attention that we might think that, "I think this might be a problem over here."

Is there ways that we could help in anyway?

- Absolutely.

And we get that question all the time.

And the easiest way to get information about our conservancy is to visit our website at www.northchick.org.

And through our website, we can find opportunities to get involved, such as quarterly trash cleanups at the creek.

Ways to get involved in larger projects, such as the Tennessee River Rescue Project that we do every fall.

And we have local fundraisers.

We're constantly involved in smaller events such as the Scenic City or the Cumberland Trail Festival.

And so there's just all these events that we pursue throughout the year that are listed on our website, and those are just the easiest ways for people to get involved.

- Yeah.

So you evidently have a passion and a love for this.

So how did you get involved with it?

- So I moved to Chattanooga as a whitewater kayaker and trail running enthusiast.

And so I selected my home as close as I possibly could to North Chickamauga Creek Gorge.

And I do live in the watershed so that I could be as close as possible to whitewater kayaking and trail running in North Chickamauga Creek.

And just due to my passion for the river and my enthusiasm for the land itself, I was called to join the conservancy.

- Wow.

Well, you brought a wealth of information today, and now I know what a watershed is, so thank you for that.

I hope our viewers have, too.

But thank you for your passion.

Thank you for coming to Chattanooga and making this home, and making this and preserving our natural history, preserving our land, and keeping our waters clean.

So thank you so much, Lucien, for coming in today.

- You're very welcome.

Thank you so much for having me.

- And thank you for joining us.

We hope "Chattanooga: Stronger Together" offers new perspectives on issues that are important to you.

If you're looking to make a difference in our community, let us know.

Email us at stronger@wtcitv.org or use the #StrongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter, and we'll see you next time.

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- [Narrator] Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, the Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.