On April 25, WREN Center and Laurel Community Center hosted Life in Our Streams, the first event of its kind in Madison County. Community members joined regional experts to explore the remarkable life hidden beneath the surface of local creeks and rivers.

Through presentations and hands-on stream demonstrations, participants learned how leaves, aquatic fungi, insects, fish, and wildlife connect in a healthy ecosystem. Experts explained how mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies act as living indicators of clean, cold water—and how fish and eastern hellbenders depend on healthy stream habitats.

WREN co-founder Mary Kelly used her underwater photos and videos of the Laurel River to portray the importance of forests to healthy mountain streams for shade and habitat.  Stream ecosystems and all the species in them are fueled by carbon and nutrients from fallen forest leaves - processed by fungi, stream insects with these feeding fish, crayfish and other organisms, including iconic species like hellbenders.

Vlad Gulis of Coastal Carolina University showed just how important aquatic fungi are to streams, adding protein and nutrients to fallen leaves for insects to utilize and fuel the foodwebs.  Dave Penrose, aquatic insect expert and WREN co-founder talked about how important connectivity is to waterways and introduced the River Continuum Concept and its organizing principles for streams and rivers - how upstream biota function to process leaf litter and algae to feed all the diversity of downstream critters in a healthy forested watershed like the Laurel. 

Pat Ciccotto of Warren Wilson College explained just how globally rare and threatened are freshwater ecosystems, and how much biological diversity can be present in a healthy mountain stream. He seined up and showed off several beautiful live examples of the 30 different fish species native to the Laurel. Anna Alsobrook of Mountain True ( an event co-sponsor) updated attendees on efforts to remove dams and flood trash from the French Broad. 

As Dave Penrose summed it up,  "...because the Laurel River has all the diversity of species it's supposed to have..."  including pollution sensitive species, the Laurel watershed has earned its classification as Outstanding Resource Water (ORW), NC's highest water quality rating.  It's the forests that make it so, and it makes the Laurel a great place to learn about all the life in our streams.   

Life in Our Streams helped participants see our waterways in a new way and inspired greater appreciation and stewardship of Madison County’s extraordinary natural resources.

The event was funded by a grant from Madison County Tourism Development Authority and co-sponsored by MountainTrue, Land Of Sky Trout Unlimited and Freshwaters Illustrated and featured a great lunch by Smoky Mtn Diner in Hot Springs, NC. 

WORKSHOP AGENDA

9:00 – 9:05 AM 

Welcome 

Rodney Webb, WREN Center - Board Chair 

9:05 – 9:30 AM 

The Laurel River Watershed and Food Chain 

Presented by Mary Kelly 

9:30 – 10:15 AM 

The Aquatic Fungi 

Presented by Vald Gullis 

10:15 – 11:00 AM 

The Aquatic Insects 

Presented by Dave Penrose 

11:00 – 11:45 AM 

The Fishes 

Presented by Pat Ciccotto 

11:45 AM – 12:00 PM 

Mountain True & Helene

Presented by Anna Alsobrook 

12:00 - 1:00 PM 

Lunch 

1:00 – 5:00 PM 

Field Demonstrations

Performed by Mary, Dave, Vlad and Pat

Thank you all for coming out and supporting our mission!!