Past Projects

Some of UCR's past Headwaters project include:

Riparian Restoration & Education Project/Soque River Restoration Project

Source Water Protection Program in Habersham County

Biodiversity: Assessment of Threatened Fish Species

Riparian Restoration & Education Project/Soque River Restoration Project

The Chattahoochee River Headwaters Riparian Restoration and Education Project focused on (1) demonstrating the value of functioning riparian (streamside) zones in protecting stream health, and (2) helping interested communities protect and restore these systems.

The Soque River Restoration Project has been the cornerstone of the Riparian Restoration and Education Project. In close cooperation with scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a private landowner, UCR restored a severely eroding 1300-foot reach of river in Habersham County in 1998, using a technique new to Georgia. Other project partners included the Savage-Roberts Farms, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Soque River Watershed Association, and Southeast Waters Americorps. To visit the restoration site, contact the Headwaters Office.

UCR had four main goals for the Soque Project:

(1) Prevent the further contribution of sediment and loss of property (through erosion) from riverbanks into the Soque River.

(2) Use a restoration technique that is new to Georgia.
(3) Improve fish habitat and stream health.
(4) Demonstrate that it is easier and more cost-effective to prevent problems than it is to fix them.

Project Results
After project completion, bankpins for monitoring were reinstalled and bank erosion is now negligible even after heavy rains. Thus, UCR's primary goal - a decrease in sediment yield - was achieved. Fish habitat diversity was also improved in this section of the Soque and once the planted riparian zone flourished, stream temperatures decreased. Although there are many approaches and opinions regarding river restoration, the emphasis on observing and planning for a river's natural hydrologic and geomorphic tendencies is crucial. By focusing on these natural characteristics, restoration projects can avoid simply "stabilizing" one area, which often causes unintended damage elsewhere in the stream channel.

Source Water Protection Program in Habersham County

A grant from the US EPA provided funding to UCR for a project entitled “Protecting the Source Water of the Soque”, completed in the fall of 2001. The project provided a detailed assessment of the sources of sediment load, evaluated the effectiveness of existing water supply watershed protection measures and detailed a strategy to prevent future siltation of the river and to educate residents of source water protection.

Project Goals and Strategies

(1) Provide a detailed assessment of the sediment sources in the Upper Soque River watershed.

(2) Evaluate the effectiveness of the current water supply watershed designation in protecting Clarkesville's drinking water supply, including consistency of enforcement and water quality sampling.
(3) Detail a strategy to protect Clarkesville's drinking water supply from future siltation.
(4) Partner with the locally-based Soque River Watershed Association to educate watershed residents concerning protection options.

Project Results
Sediment loading data was collected at 12 sites in the Soque watershed for a period of 11 months in 2002-2001 to identify areas with relatively high erosion potential along with potential sediment sources. To characterize the watershed, representative sampling sites were selected with varying terrain, discharge, stream order and land use. Data obtained during this study along with information collected through UCR’s evaluation of existing watershed protection regulations served as a basis for developing a comprehensive watershed protection plan for the city of Clarkesville.

Biodiversity: Assessment of Threatened Fish Species

Despite the growing body of knowledge about aquatic biodiversity and abundance in many southeastern rivers, a comprehensive understanding of aquatic diversity in the Chattahoochee has been non-existent. Funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), as well as Compton and Turner Foundations, allowed UCR to work in partnership with the University of Georgia’s Institute of Ecology to further our knowledge of the aquatic species found in the headwaters portion of the Chattahoochee River Basin. In addition to providing information about the occurrence and distribution of aquatic fauna in this watershed, this project will serve as an essential building block in laying the foundation for future aquatic studies and implementation of conservation strategies.

Project Results
A review of the historical records and mapped data coverage helped to pinpoint gaps in fish distribution data for the watershed. A GIS database (housed at UGA) was created from the available data, the historical collections of native fish and crayfish species were reviewed and a targeted sampling plan was developed and implemented to enhance the currently known distributions of ten fish species of interest in the basin. These particular species were chosen based on whether they are native or rare to the Chattahoochee or Upper Chattahoochee basin, have limited distribution or are listed species. Once the data was collected and analyzed, a prioritization scheme was developed to target specific areas of the watershed for conservation efforts.

The discovery of two rare fishes (Coosa shiner and the Tennessee shiner) previously thought to be extirpated from the Chattahoochee Basin reinforces the need for obtaining more comprehensive data throughout the watershed. Additionally, the Halloween darter, which is considered to be one of the two most imperiled fish (the other being the Bluestripe shiner) in the Chattahoochee, was collected for the first time in White County’s Sautee Creek.