Underwater nature show

On Wednesday, our forestry crew spent the morning caging and watering over a hundred white oaks, red oaks, river birches, and serviceberries in a riparian restoration zone. This area had suffered from an overzealous cleanup effort that had scoured its tangled bank of live shrubs and woody debris deposited by the flood. It will recover on its own, herbaceous plants and tree seedlings sprouting in the barren sand, but the live stakes and saplings we planted, and are now babying, will provide a shady jumpstart to this recovering riparian forest. A common merganser, a lone female, circled repeatedly before settling on a rock in the middle of the river. She squawked mildly at us as we worked closer and closer to the river, before finally deciding we were too much of a nuisance and flew down stream. 

At lunch we sat by the river near her rock, still stained with the white dropping she had squirted defiantly before departing. A school of colorful darters caught my eye, and I noticed that they were hovering over a pebble fish nest. The sun was bright, the water clear, and over the following forty-five minutes we were treated to a National Geographic-caliber underwater nature show. 

Hellbender and river chub nest, with dozens of other minnows, shiners, darters, and daces.

An 8” river chub was constructing his nest, stone by stone, against a ledge of bedrock above a small rapids. He foraged a few feet upstream for pebbles, suctioning them up with his mouth, and spitting them out over his growing nest. After each deposit, he’d turn back upstream and proudly wave his tail in the current. Swimming in place above the nest was a mixed school of Tennessee shiners, warpaint shiners, saffron shiners, and other darters and daces. A trio of smallmouth bass occasionally swooped in to lunge at the colorful crew of minnows. Forester Felix narrated what we were witnessing. Between undergrad and going back to forestry school, Felix had spent time as the Toe-Cane Watershed Coordinator for Blue Ridge RC&D. He described what he remembered learning about the various fishes and their behaviors. Nest builders like stone rollers and river chub are keystone species in this aquatic ecosystem. Smaller minnows congregate to lay their eggs in river chub nests like this one. The minnows are food for bass – and mergansers. 

After a few initial minutes of observation, our crewmate Josh noticed a hellbender lurking in the foreground. It was the first hellbender he’d ever seen. We watched as the hellbender inched closer to the nest, making his final approach from upstream. Perhaps he smelled minnow milt wafting in the water, drawing him to the nest. As soon as the hellbender arrived on the scene, papa river chub went after him, biting the giant salamander’s tail. Hellbenders typically move in slow-motion, as if they are one with the current at the bottom of the river. But this one retreated with a haste I’d never seen before. 

I’d seen schools of minnows and darters, chub nests, and hellbenders before, but I’d never understood how it all fit together until lunchtime on Wednesday. Scenes like this have been playing out in the river during each of the 26 springs I’ve lived in this valley – and, doubtless, for millions of years before I or any human ever bore witness to it – yet I’d had barely an inkling that this world existed – thrived – just inches below the waterline. I was grateful for a team to share it with, and a guide to learn from.

Seven months ago, 70,000 cubic feet of muddy water and debris roared through this channel each second, leaving a path of destruction that our human community had never before witnessed. Ever since, we’ve been blundering about on the banks, tearing out trees, planting trees, cleaning up our own mess, and what we perceive as the river’s mess. We’ve committed the sacrilege of sending heavy equipment into the water – all in the name of clean-up. Meanwhile in the clear waters, now flowing at a gentle rate of 70 cfs, the river critters go about their business: building nests, laying eggs, squirting milt, and feeding upon each other.