Organizations look for volunteers to restore Nolichucky streambanks

Three-thousand trees in three hours — that's the goal for a community tree-planting day along the Nolichucky.Green Interchange, in partnership with the Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, is planning the tree-planting event on five acres along the Nolichucky River in Greene County for Oct. 25.The group is focusing on a five-acre area of private property along the river that was once home to a mature forest. Green Interchange CEO John McFadden saw the devastation in the spring, about six months after the flooding, and described it as "catastrophic.""I'm talking mature forests, 80 to 90-foot tall trees laid over like matchsticks," he said. "It's like somebody, God, came through with a comb and just combed them down."The goal is to have at least 100 volunteers working on Oct. 25, planting a total of 3,000 trees to revegetate the riparian zone and restabilize the streambank.Green Interchange, a Tennessee-based environmental nonprofit group, began restoration planning for this site earlier this year. The group connected with the Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, a volunteer conservation organization that works to centralize information around the Nolichucky and its restoration."As a local organization, we are calling on community members to come out and help, and spend a cool Saturday morning putting some trees in the ground," said Bekah Price, board member at the Nolichucky Watershed Alliance.Volunteers do not need prior experience with planting or vegetation to participate. Training on planting and safety practices will be provided onsite.Tools will be provided but volunteers are encouraged to bring shovels, water and or snacks. Closed-toe shoes are a must, preferably heavy boots.Children are allowed to participate but must be accompanied by an adult. Small children will be restricted to the higher areas of planting.When he visited the site in the spring, McFadden planted some dogwood, sycamore and redbud trees to see what would grow in the new soil makeup left by the storm.He's been working with other organizations that are also helping coordinate restoration after Helene, like the Natural Resources Conservation Service at the USDA, Appalachian Regional Conservation and Development Council and University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture."We've been out there with a host of experts kind of scratching our heads going, "Well, what exactly are we gonna do?" McFadden said.Now, they've figured out a path forward, coordinating the right species to plant at the site. Trees will be purchased from private nurseries in the area. Any trees that have naturally started to regrow at the site will be identified and preserved.A combination of vegetation and fresh cut cedar trees wrapped in coconut fiber matting will be attached to the creek bank to stabilize it. Some rock will be used for the more precarious spots along the bank."Getting these trees in the ground now will help to keep the property intact, protect the water quality, filter run-off and prevent more sedimentation from entering the river," said Price.McFadden said he's never seen anything like the damage he's seen after Helene. His restoration goal doesn't stop at these five-acres — he wants to restore all of the trees that were wiped away by Helene in the next few years with the help of local communities."Church groups, school groups, civic groups, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, explorers, soccer teams, football teams, you name it," he said.You can sign up for the Oct. 25 volunteer tree-planting day here: https://www.greeninterchange.org/volunteeropportunities.htmlJorgelina Manna-Rea is a Report for America corps member reporting on the environment for Six Rivers Media.