Watching the Watauga River Flow Seattle Film Crew Documents Storm Runoff in Our Area By Jeff Eason When documentary filmmakers from Washington State University were looking for an expert on North Carolina watersheds for a piece they planned to film on storm water runoff, they got lucky when they found Wendy Patoprsty. Patoprsty works at the Boone branch of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Office where she holds the titles of Watershed Coordinator and County Extension Agent. North Carolina Cooperative Extension agent and river expert Wendy Patoprsty prepares for take off with pilot Roger Eckenrod and a documentary film crew from Washington State University. The group was filming the effects of storm water runoff on the Watauga River last Thursday. Photo by Jeff Eason. She is also one of the few people in our area with a serious scientific knowledge of the Watauga River, from its beginnings at Beech Creek Bog to its final destination in Watauga Lake in eastern Tennessee. “A group from the Washington State University Extension Program has been actively involved in regional broadcasts out west for four years now,” said Patoprsty. “They’re funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and they have been successful in their home region in showing how development and other factors effect storm water runoff. This is their first year of filming rivers and watersheds outside of their region.” The documentary film crew spent much of past few weeks traveling between the High Country of North Carolina, where they were shooting scenes on the Watauga River, and Willoughby, Ohio where they were studying the storm water effects on small creeks that run from through that community and eventually flow into Lake Erie. “The specific message is the different strategies used to manage storm water,” said Jan Seago, WSU Extension coordinator for the film project. “What smaller rural areas are doing to help maintain or restore water quality and what can be done when stakeholders, local governments, and agencies like Extension and Conservation Districts partner up to do the work.” After the film crew’s eastern trip, it will return to the west coast to film a third watershed film near Portland, Oregon. One might wonder why a documentary film crew is spending so much time and energy watching how water flows from creeks to rivers to lakes and oceans. After all, water has run these same courses through the North American landscape for many thousands of years. The problem is that modern civilization has created a brand new landscape and introduced all kinds of new chemicals and substances into the watershed equation. “It’s been said that every eight months, rivers and creeks accumulate the same amount of gas and oil from roads and driveways that was spilled in the Exxon Valdese disaster,” said Patoprsty. “Storm water runoff is the number one problem with water quality in our country.” The increase in concrete and asphalt in our environment exacerbates the problem. In a natural setting, a majority of the rainwater that falls on the ground is filtered through dirt, sand and plant life before it enters our streams and rivers. In a more urban setting, rainwater washes the oil, gas and other pollutants straight into a concrete drainage system that pours this unfiltered water into our streams. One of the reasons that the film crew was interested in our area was the new storm water filtration system in use in Banner Elk, near the headwaters of the Watauga River. “We’ve been able to show them how Banner Elk has used this innovative storm water system,” said Patoprsty. “It was made possible because of a grant from the Clear Water Trust Fund. When it rains, downtown Banner Elk forms a 65-acre watershed. With the new system, rainwater goes from the curbs and gutters into an underground vault. The vault can hold 150,000 gallons of water. That equals about a nice hard summer rain of one inch in Banner Elk. That water is slowly released, with the filtration system keeping the debris. Every couple of years the vault will be cleaned.” This new system cost $300,000. That price included all aspects of the project including new sidewalks, gutters and the vault. Residents will be able to monitor the success of the vault by keeping tabs on Mill Pond in Banner Elk. The pond serves as a habitat for a variety of animal and plant species including toads and waterfowl. “People worry about mosquitoes in wetlands and ponds,” said Patoprsty. “But it’s important to remember that a healthy wetland won’t have mosquitoes because the water is flowing, not stagnant.” The documentary film crew had tried previously to film the Watauga River but had been stymied by rainy weather. It looked as if the same thing might happen last Thursday when torrential rains hit the High Country for about an hour in the afternoon. Just as suddenly as the rains came down, the sky cleared up making it a perfect opportunity to study the Watauga River watershed. Helicopter pilot Roger Eckenrod from North State Aviation in Greensboro picked up two members of the WSU film crew in Statesville and flew them to the High Country. They picked up Patoprsty at the soccer fields in Valle Crucis Park and then spent the next 90 minutes flying over the Watauga River. “It was a very incredible experience,” said Patoprsty after the trip in the helicopter. “Everything from the sky has such a different perspective. We saw all the veins of the river and they were all running so full from that huge rain just an hour before. It was a great opportunity to see what’s going on. We could see dirt roads running into the rivers and the eroding banks. With the helicopter, you are able to get as low as 20 feet above the tree canopy. You could see so much detail. Then we would climb higher to get a broader view. It was pretty incredible.” One of the things Patoprsty was on the look out for from the helicopter was the continued effects of the devastating floods that caused the Watauga River to breach its banks last autumn. She detected areas in the river where a lot of cobble—piles of big river stones—had been deposited during the flood. “One area that I noticed really drastically was in Foscoe,” said Patoprsty. “Near the Foscoe Community Park area, you can tell that there had been some wetlands created by beaver dams that had been blown out by the flood. The beavers had also made some wetlands upstream of Carlton Gallery. Before the flood, the beaver dams were there and it was like a huge wetland. It was beautiful. The flood washed it all out. But from the sky, we could tell that the beavers are moving back in. You could see their lodges and their dams. It was so cool to see that in action.” While in the air, Patoprsty and the film crew followed the Watauga River from its headwaters to Watauga Lake. They took care to document all aspects of our area around the river including agricultural areas, high density development, natural settings, and roadways. “They got some great shots,” said Patoprsty. “There’s a whole array of things that you can see from the sky that are impacting the streams. We got aerial footage of the entire watershed.” Although the crew from WSU has been documenting rivers for the E.P.A. for the past four years, this is the first time that they have studied a river in the Southeastern United States. “Out west they have such different issues with their rivers,” said Patoprsty. Those issues include drought, salmon populations, cattle ranching near rivers and development. “With different problems, you come up with different strategies to protect the watershed. They really wanted to highlight a Southeastern river and it was definitely different for them.” Patoprsty stated that when the documentary is finished, it will be aired nationally on October 11. A special screening of the film will be shown to the public in the High Country through the North Carolina Extension Office. “The documentary is not meant to freak people out or be all gloom and doom,” said Patoprsty. “It is more to educate people on what we can do to protect our major sources of clean water.” Streambank Enhancement Workshop June 29 The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Office in Boone will host a Streambank Enhancement Workshop for landscapers, contractors, landowners, engineers and government agencies at the Agricultural Conference Center on Wednesday, June 29th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop will include a field tour of our watershed area to see what has been done to restore our watershed areas since the damage created by the hurricanes and floods of last fall. Speakers at the workshop include Dr. Greg Jennings, director of the Water Resources Institute, Dan Clinton, Extension specialist for water quality, Lara Rozell of the NCSU Water Quality Group, and Derek Goddard of the Watauga County Soil and Water Conservation District. The registration fee for the workshop is $15 per person if registering by June 24, $20 if registering after that. For more information, call (828) 264-3061.