Service Project Update: VTSSS

 Eric submitted this update on the Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study: 

Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study (VTSSS) 2021

 

Conservation minded volunteers from Smith River Trout Unlimited assisted by BSA Troop 129 and the Southwestern Piedmont Virginia Master Naturalists recently participated in the fourth decadal Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study (VTSSS).

 This idyllic sample site is the North Prong of the Smith River. Can you spot the site tag on the tree at the right side of the photo? Photo by Rusty Lacey

Volunteers collected water samples and data from 20 stream survey sites covering Patrick, Floyd, and Franklin counties. Samples were collected and delivered to the University of Virginia (UVA) over the 7-day period April 24 through April 30. UVA will analyze samples from all 450 sites and 34 counties across Virginia in their lab on campus. Within the next year UVA will present the findings to the Trout Unlimited (TU) chapters and make the data publicly available.

BSA Troop 129 Volunteers and adult leaders collected water samples at three sites: Little Dan River, Rye Cove Creek, and Brushy Fork. Photo by Jeff Deering

Volunteers, also known as Collectors, were required to take sample collection training through online webinars or the VTSSS website. Collectors were issued equipment and materials that included: stream site specific information, data sheets, gloves, prewashed sample bottles, and Styrofoam coolers. Though volunteers were blessed with fair weather and succeeded with 100 percent sample collection, they were challenged by long hikes, brush choked trails, and terrain altered by floods, blowdowns, and tree clearing.     

 

This photo of the East Prong of Furnace Creek shows trees were removed for the installation of power lines. It is no wonder why Virginia Master Naturalist Ed Coleman could not find the site tag. Photo by Ed Coleman

So, what is the VTSSS? This important study is designed to track the effects of acidic deposition and other environmental factors that determine water quality and related ecological conditions in Virginia’s native trout streams. The VTSSS began in the spring of 1987 when water samples were collected from 367 (about 80%) of the mountain headwater streams in Virginia that support reproducing brook trout to assess acidification status and habitat suitability. Stream chemical analysis revealed a gradient in acid-neutralizing capacity or ANC, sulfate, and pH, ranging from suitable to chronically acidic.

 

Subsequent to dramatic reductions in acid deposition resulting from the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, a second and third survey of those streams was conducted in the spring of 2000 and 2010 and revealed improvements in habitat suitability in some streams (% non-acidic increased from 60 to 75%). The fourth survey, postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic and rescheduled to 2021, will help determine if stream recovery from acid deposition has continued and to what extent, and where trout habitat has suitability returned.

 

The VTSSS program has proven critical for development and implementation of public policies that will determine the future of native brook trout streams in Virginia and the surrounding mountain region. According to Ami Riscassi, PhD, VTSSS Project Coordinator, UVA Dept of Environment Sciences, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources are charged with making decisions about how to manage our natural resources. UVA provides these agencies with comprehensive information about the suitability of the streams from a water quality standpoint. UVA also provides this information to the Environmental Protection Agency, which reports to Congress about the repercussions or the benefits of the Clean Air Act and ultimately, that reinforces the importance of maintaining our air-pollution standards. Information for this report was provided by UVA and obtained from the VTSSS website.

Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study 2021 (theopenscholar.com)