Where We Live: History, Nature and Culture Speaker Series
Fluvial Wetlands of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains: Geomorphic Settings and Restorations with Dr. David Leigh
On November 20, the speaker series “Where We Live: History Nature, and Culture” will present a talk on the importance, history, and future of wetlands in our area. The talk will take place at Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center at 6:30 pm.
The importance of wetlands in terms of water quality, flood management, resilience to climate change, wildlife habitat and biodiversity conservation is incalculable. And the rate of loss of wetlands, worldwide, is alarming. Less discussed is the process of restoring natural wetlands. Here in Macon County, Professor David Leigh has assisted Mainspring Conservation Trust in defining some of our riparian wetlands which have been buried under centuries of sediment resulting from poor land management and in developing restoration strategies for these buried treasures.
His talk will explore the types of landscape and landform settings that favored wetlands along rivers and streams in the past and how some former wetlands are currently being restored. Wetlands on bottomlands of rivers and streams in the Blue Ridge Mountains were much more common in the prehistoric past than they are now. This is because many wetlands were artificially ditched and drained, beavers were removed, and many wetlands are covered by rapid accretions of overbank flood sediment derived from erosive land use practices. Landscape evolution of wetlands will be presented along with some case studies of ongoing wetland restorations in the Little Tennessee and French Broad River basins.
Professor Leigh is a geomorphologist in the Geography Department at the University of Georgia (https://geography.uga.edu/directory/people/david-s-leigh). His research examines how landscapes responded to late Quaternary (past 2.6 million years) climate changes and human impacts throughout the Holocene (past 11.7 thousand years), including modern timescales, and how geomorphic settings influence stream habitat and aquatic ecology.
Jason Meador and Bill McLarney will be present to facilitate discussion of wetland restoration work currently being carried out by Mainspring and how it relates to Dr. Leigh’s findings.
Cowee School is located a 51 Cowee School Road off NC 28N in Franklin. . The lecture series is designed to give people an opportunity to learn more about our local area, from many different angles, and to enjoy a pleasant, informative evening together. Come join us!