Outdoor Recreation Meets Hands-On Learning

UNC Asheville Fish Ecology students assist with Habitat Restoration in French Broad River

By UNC Asheville

October 25^th, 2023

Sunshine bounces off the Pigeon River in Canton, North Carolina, and cool water tumbles over rocks and boulders — the preferred habitat of Tangerine Darters. A slender 7 inch-long fish with a greenish-brown back and bright orange belly, the darters are the target of this UNC Asheville fish ecology class field trip.

It’s quiet, just the water moving down the creek and the quick huffs of air from focused students breathing through snorkels, floating slowly in their search. Suddenly, Vee Carter springs up from the water, a Tangerine Darter wriggling in her net.

“I'm thinking of a name for him. This is the first Tangerine Darter I've caught ever. I think I will name him O'Malley,” she said — after the distinctive orange Thomas O’Malley the Alley Cat of Disney’s “Aristocats.”

Carter, a senior environmental studies major, brings the fish to a cooler on the shore where the darters are kept until they’ve caught enough to bring them to their final destination — the upper French Broad River. The students are participating in a habitat restoration project in partnership with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC).

Out of the approximately 76 native fish in the area, 27 are either federal or state endangered species, highest of any river basin in North Carolina, according to Luke Etchinson, aquatic wildlife diversity coordinator at NCWRC. Diversity in the upper French Broad is still lacking, despite improvements in water quality.

“When we try to understand why things are not bouncing back the way we want them to go, we start thinking about what habitat is not there,” Etchison said. “A lot of the pollution issues have been alleviated, but there's still a lot of big habitat problems.”

Damming has been the chief culprit preventing some 35 native species of fish from moving upriver.

“My philosophy is that if it's at the dam, it wants to be upstream. And we're gonna give it that opportunity if we can,” Etchison said. “So it's time to reintroduce species.”

David Gillette (left), environmental studies professor, and Vee Carter (right), senior environmental studies major.

Asheville is Your Classroom: Learning Locally in the Field

UNC Asheville students joined Etchison and his team on multiple excursions to learn to identify fish, snorkel in the river, hand net the fish themselves, and help relocate them alongside experts. David Gillette, professor of environmental studies at UNC Asheville, organized the field trip as part of his fish ecology class to give students field experience and a chance to connect with professionals.

“The students love this too, because they get to connect with the community outside of the university,” Gillette said.

Junior environmental studies major Alex Guilfoyle said experiential learning opportunities like this are what make the class a unique experience.

“It really just makes the class that much more worth it. It puts into perspective all the things you got to learn about in the classroom and seeing it in real life just opens your eyes in a different way,” Guilfoyle said. “What you learn is going to stick in your mind a lot longer.”

Classes in the environmental studies major often involve outdoor field trips to familiarize students with the local flora and fauna. With a wide variety of subjects covered in the major — ranging from trees and birds, to, of course, fish— these trips help students determine what subject or field work they may pursue as a career.

Carter said she transferred from a larger school where she was a biology major, because she was seeking a smaller student body and more localized focus in her classes. UNC Asheville has few large lecture halls, and the average class size is 14 students.

“It's a complete difference, where there are 50 to 100 students in a classroom, we didn't really go out on field trips,” Carter said. “But at UNC Asheville, we go almost every week and do actual field work.”

Because the trips are to nearby areas, the field work benefits the surrounding community and gives students specialized knowledge and a chance to work with local professionals.

“I think it's better for trying to get a job in the local area. I'm really interested in staying here and helping to restore the areas here to their maximum potential,” Carter said. “I get to meet these people out in the field, see what they're doing, ask them questions one on one, face to face. It's really helpful to have those connections, to have that networking.”

Etchison said he hopes collaborating with UNC Asheville classes not only gets students interested in healing river ecosystems but also helps develop them into professionals, with relevant experience, that NCWRC could someday hire.

“When I was a student I would have killed to get an experience like this where you get to make a difference,” Etchison said. “The hope is that someday these students will be qualified candidates with good experience in the field.”

On top of getting to network with experts, students get a chance to work and bond with each other. Working together to catch a slippery, elusive fish can create fast friends.

“You have the time where you need to be sitting in a classroom learning but then you get a chance to do these kinds of fun excursions and these trips are gonna be something that you really get to make friends on,” Guilfoyle said.

UNC Asheville students snorkel and catch fish as part of a habitat restoration project with NC Wildlife Resource Commission.

A Tangerine Darter, one of the native species the NCWRC is relocating from Pigeon River to the French Broad as part of habitat restoration.

Luke Etchison, aquatic wildlife diversity coordinator at NCWRC, works with UNC Asheville students to catch Tangerine Darters.

Outdoor Recreation Meets Hands-On Learning

UNC Asheville environmental studies students snorkel while participating in a habitat restoration project with NC Wildlife Restoration Commission.

Streams of Information: Learning from Real-world Experts and Research

Etchison gave a guest lecture to the class on campus as well, detailing his research on the history of the river and methods of this project.

Over 100 years of industry and human interaction with the rivers have changed the landscape, literally. Dams were built in the French Broad river basin starting in the early 1900s, limiting fish migration and preventing native fish species from moving back into habitats where they were killed off by pollution or edged out by non-native species like rainbow trout, stocked for fishing.

Tanneries, paper mills and other industries used rivers for waste run off, and the logging industry used rivers as a form of transport. Rivers and streams were rerouted to accommodate construction.

“That was the attitude how people dealt with rivers; they were just something to use and get what they wanted out of it,” Etchison said. “And it really didn't help some of our little critters.”

Restoring fish back to the areas they once inhabited fosters a more balanced ecosystem, encouraging the return of other important, endangered species like freshwater mussels, which often use fish as a host for reproduction.

Starting with a common, more resilient fish will begin building up the habitat for it to be rounded out by the more sensitive species. The Darter is well suited to the upper French Broad, which makes it all the more surprising that they weren’t there, but makes them a good contender for relocation.

“That individual contribution, one species, isn't that big of a deal. But if you look at the bigger picture, how they're connected, it doesn't matter how common or rare something is, it still needs to be there,” said Etchison. “At basically every site, like I thought would happen, the Darters are still there. It's pretty awesome.”

And you don’t have to be an expert to contribute meaningfully to the project, Carter said.

“It's more overcoming myself and the nervousness of doing something new and learning,” Carter said. “The most exciting part is realizing that I can actually do it, and that it is doable for your first time. It is doable coming in with just class experience.”

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