Principles Applied to the Chattooga Watershed

The Chattooga Conservation Plan is based upon the science of conservation biology and its associated ecological design principles (described above and in previous sections). A survey of the natural resource and conservation biology literature relevant to the region points to a set of general principles about the current state of the areas' biological resources, the habitats they depend on, and management techniques useful for the conservation of regional biological diversity. When applied to the Chattooga watershed, those principles guide us to focus on two types of habitat which host this area's most threatened biological resources: mature interior forest, and shaded, unsilted mountain streams. A set of questions (outlined below) was asked about the particular physical characteristics of the Chattooga watershed, and how these characteristics might be managed for the conservation and restoration of native biodiversity.

The strength of the Chattooga Conservation Plan lies in its common sense approach to identifying, protecting and restoring stream-side areas and large blocks of unfragmented forest habitat representing all native forest types in the watershed. The Plan presents a forest management option that will restore and reunite highly fragmented forest habitat to aid in the recovery of a collection of plant and animal species that are among the most threatened biological resources of our Southern Appalachian region.

Developing a conservation plan for the Chattooga River watershed required consideration of the following questions regarding management area delineations:

1. Which areas in the watershed closely approximate or are currently mature forest interior habitat?

The Chattooga River Watershed Coalition's Proposed Roadless Areas meet the criteria of having less than 1/2 mile of developed system road per 1,000 acres, and provide ample opportunities for the experience of solitude in the forest. These roadless areas are or closely approximate existing mature interior forest habitat. The roadless areas identified were found to contain a high percentage of the watershed's old growth forest as well. In particular, the high ridges of the Rabun Bald area contain one of the highest concentrations of old growth forest remaining in the entire Chattooga watershed (Carlson 1995). These roadless areas are of the highest priority for protection, as they represent islands of mature, interior forest habitat that need further protection and linkages to other such areas.

Some other areas of relatively mature, interior forest habitat are currently under protective management, and are described below.

2. Which areas in the watershed are already protected from further fragmentation?

Existing protected areas include the Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River Corridor, the Ellicott Rock Wilderness Area, and Forest Service Management Areas such as MA-4 (Georgia) and MA-5 (North Carolina) and areas, such as those managed for old growth preservation and restoration, and recreational or botanical significance. These areas are or closely approximate native forest habitat and constitute key starting points for protection and restoration of a functioning native ecosystem in the Chattooga River watershed. The Wild & Scenic River corridor is a semi-primitive, non-motorized area, which serves as an important wildlife corridor.

3. How wide should a stream or river corridor be to maintain its functional characteristics?s?

A river corridor should be wide enough to effectively perform the functions of 1) controlling water and nutrient flows from upland to the stream, and 2) facilitating the movement of upland forest interior animals and plants along the stream system (Forman and Godron 1986). To accomplish these objectives, the corridor should cover the flood plain, both banks, and an area of upland on both sides that is wider than an edge effect (defined earlier). Thus, we propose that the Wild & Scenic River corridor requires an area larger than the existing one-quarter-mile buffer to serve as a viable core habitat for many neotropical migratory songbirds, and as a wildlife corridor for black bear and other large mammals. A three-quarter-mile buffer was selected to provide sufficient protection from fragmentation caused not only from outside the river corridor, but by the presence of the river itself acting as an edge. This three-quarter mile distance should provide for the ecological requirements of interior forest-dependent species (Hamel, 1990). Aside from currently protected areas, the enlarged three-quarter-mile Wild and Scenic River buffer and the Chattooga River Watershed Coalition's Proposed Roadless Areas are considered to be critical core and wildlife corridor habitat.

4. Which areas in the watershed are most suitable for designation as Restoration Areas, to act as a buffer zone between Core/Wildlife Corridor Protection Areas and more densely populated areas of the watershed?

The lands which surround Core/Wildlife Corridor Protection Areas on both public and private lands are suitable for restoration management techniques. These areas were designated as cooperative Ecological Restoration Management Areas.

5. How would areas of high population density fit into the picture?

Private lands in areas of the watershed with higher population densities (e.g. Clayton and Mountain City in Georgia, Highlands and Cashiers in North Carolina, and Whetstone and Long Creek in South Carolina) were considered suitable as Sustainable Economic Development Management Areas. These areas include zones of existing economic enterprise, and also would support opportunities for projects which promote environmental education and stewardship. In addition, environmentally responsible and socially beneficial projects like markets for locally grown organic produce and locally manufactured wood products crafted from sustainably harvested timber could develop here.

6. What "rules of thumb" might be used to delineate boundaries between management areas that would aid in the maintenance of high quality aquatic habitat?

The Chattooga Conservation Plan uses fourth-order watersheds as boundaries (when possible) to avoid conflicting and counterproductive management activities within the same watershed. Sub-watersheds, smaller hydrologic units within the Chattooga River watershed, were considered important to protect water quality and critical plant and animal species habitat. Sub-watersheds where portions of them had already been designated as core habitat areas would be wholly incorporated into Core/Wildlife Corridor Protection Areas (described in more detail in the next section and in the Appendix).

7. How could water quality be maintained or restored throughout the watershed, and across the different management areas which will host different land management activities?

It was decided that streamside management zones would be recommended throughout the watershed and in all management area delineations. Activities in these zones may vary from one management area to another, but would at a minimum adhere to state Best Management Practices (BMPs). Where possible, the zones would conserve or restore a 300-foot buffer around the stream where no soil-disturbing activity takes place. Streamside management zones would be considered part of the Core/Wildlife Corridor Management Areas.

To organize the answers to these questions and develop the Chattooga Conservation Plan, the collaborators utilized a Geographical Information System (GIS): a computer-based method to collect, analyze, and display geographically referenced information in layers, in the form of a map. The GIS developed for the Chattooga Conservation Plan utilizes the latest information available for the Chattooga River watershed. Data on various landscape features (see Appendix) were collected from studies completed under the auspices of the USDA-FS "Chattooga River Basin Ecosystem Management Demonstration Project", plus field surveys of roadless areas conducted by the Chattooga River Watershed Coalition, and the databases of the State Natural Heritage Programs of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. GIS analysis techniques were then used to overlay multiple data layers, producing maps that provide a visual representation of priority conservation locations in the Chattooga watershed. A step-by-step overview of the conservation plan process is described in the next section. A review of management recommendations for the watershed follows the overview.

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