PRESS RELEASE:
Reed Rossell, adjunct instructor and research associate in UNC Asheville’s Department of Environmental Studies, was awarded a 2016 grant of $5,000 from the North Carolina Appalachian Trail License Plate Grant Program to document and study the condition of rare seep communities along the Appalachian Trail corridor. These rare wetland plant communities form at the headwaters of streams in the mountains and provide habitat for a variety of unique plants and animals, many of which are rare species.
Reed and a research assistant, Israel (Izzy) Golden, a senior in environmental studies, quantified and examined the type of disturbance of the seep communities, with a special emphasis on examining impacts related to exotic wild pigs. They covered 57 miles of the southern-most section of the Appalachian Trial in North Carolina, from the N.C.-Ga. border to the Nantahala River. They documented 23 seeps of which 87 percent had some form of disturbance, although most disturbance was minor. Thirteen percent of the seeps were disturbed by wild pigs from either rooting or wallowing. Other types of disturbance were generally human-related, with seeps impacted by sediment from the trail or camp sites.
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