Monday, October 28, 2013

Episode 185 (10-28-13): Hellbenders

Click to listen to episode (3:58)

TRANSCRIPT

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 28, 2013.

This week, with Halloween approaching, we focus on an animal whose fearsome name and appearance, secretive habits, and preferred habitats make it mysterious, often misunderstood, and vulnerable.  Have a listen for about 30 seconds.

SOUND


You’ve been listening to sounds from field work and a symposium presentation on North America’s largest salamander, the Eastern Hellbender, which can grow to as long as about 29 inches.  The field research and the symposium excerpt—giving various other names used for Hellbenders—are both the work of Cathy Jachowski, a graduate student in Virginia Tech’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation.  The Hellbender is found in Virginia from the New River basin westward, in several other states in the Appalachian Mountains, and in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri.  For some more details about this unusual amphibian, have a listen for about 90 seconds to other sounds from the Virginia Tech research team’s field work on October 4, 2013.

SOUND
.

With habitat changes, water pollution, and removal by humans all affecting Eastern Hellbender populations, t
he research at Virginia Tech hopes to answer questions about this remarkable aquatic animal’s biology, current distribution, and response to environmental changes.

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES
 


[All Internet addresses mentioned were functional as of 10/28/13]


Virginia Tech research team measuring an Eastern Hellbender sampled from a southwestern Virginia stream on October 4, 2013.

Acknowledgments:

Virginia Water Radio thanks Cathy Bodinof Jachowski for permission to record sounds of her research group on October 4, 2013.  Her research team on that day included Valentina Alaasam, John Hallagan, and Hank Vogel.  Also heard in this episode was Lindsay Key, a communications officer with the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech, who accompanied the research team on that day as an observing journalist covering Hellbender research. 

Sources and additional information:

1. Following are links to additional audio files related to this episode:
Longer sound sample from Virginia Tech Hellbender research team’s October 4, 2013, field work (6 minutes/28 seconds).

Presentation by Cathy Jachowski on Hellbenders research at the May 2013 New River Symposium in Radford, Virginia (16 minutes/47 seconds).

2.  A 3-minute, August 2012, video featuring Dr. Bill Hopkins, from the Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, showing a Hellbender and discussing its biology and connection to water quality, is available online at http://www.unirel.vt.edu/audio_video/2012/08/080912-cnre-hellbender.html.

3.  Information on Hellbenders in Virginia is available from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), online at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hellbender/.

3.  For a newspaper account on Hellbenders, please see Salamanders' disappearance raises pollution concerns, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6/17/13.


4.  Detailed, scientific information on on Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) is available from the AmphibiaWeb, a non-profit organization affiliated with the University of California, online at http://amphibiaweb.org/cgi-bin/amphib_query?where-scientific_name=Cryptobranchus+alleganiensis.

5.  For more information on Virginia amphibians:
*Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia
, by B.S. Martof et. al., University of North Carolina Press/Chapel Hill (1980);
*Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles in Virginia
, J.C. Mitchell and K.K. Reay, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries/Richmond (1999); and
*Virginia Herpetological Society (VHS), online at  www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com.


Recent Virginia Water News and Other Information
            For news, events, and resources relevant to Virginia's water resources, grouped into categories, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Episode 182 (10-7-13): Stormwater's On Your Street

Click to listen to episode (2:36)

TRANSCRIPT


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 7, 2013.
This week, we feature another water-sound mystery.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can guess what widespread water-resources issue happens every time you hear sounds like these.  And here’s a hint: if the answer doesn’t seep in, it’s all downhill from there.


SOUND.

If you guessed stormwater, you’re right!  The obvious thunderstorm sounds were followed by the sound of water flowing through a storm-drain pipe on the Virginia Tech campus during a rainy October morning.  Stormwater is rainfall or snowmelt that can’t seep into the ground, or infiltrate.  Water that can’t infiltrate flows over the land surface directly into water bodies or into drains and pipes that eventually lead to water bodies.  During that overland flow, also called runoff, stormwater can pick up soil, trash, chemicals, pet waste, and other potential water contaminants.  Along with these water-quality impacts, flooding and erosion from increased stormwater quantity are issues in developed areas, where removal of vegetation and the placement of pavement and other impervious surfaces significantly increase water runoff.  Such impacts, and the federal and state laws and regulations implemented in response, have made stormwater-management a costly and far-reaching water issue, affecting developers, industries, agriculture and forestry, local governments, and homeowners.


For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.



SHOW NOTES
 

[All Internet addresses mentioned were functional as of 10/7/13]



Stormwater flow in Stroubles Creek on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, July 5, 2006

Stormwater-management pond on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, June 28, 2010.

Cartoon by George Wills of Blacksburg, Va. (http://www.etsy.com/people/BlacksburgArt), originally published “Wherever You Are, Stormwater’s On Your Street,” Virginia Water Central, August 2010 (pp.3-5), http://vwrrc.vt.edu/watercentral.html.

Cartoon by George Wills of Blacksburg, Va. (http://www.etsy.com/people/BlacksburgArt), originally published in the “Focus on Stormwater, Virginia Water Central, September 2006 (pp. 11-12), http://vwrrc.vt.edu/watercentral.html.



Acknowledgments and Sources: Part of this week’s script was taken from “Wherever You Are, Stormwater’s On Your Street” and “Stormwater Information Sources,” both by Danielle Guerin in the August 2010 issue of Virginia Water Central (pp. 3-7), online at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49363.

Information on stormwater and its management and regulation was taken from the U.S. EPA, "NPDES Stormwater Program, online at https://www.epa.gov/npdes/npdes-stormwater-program
, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, “Stormwater Management,” online at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/StormwaterManagement.aspx.



Recent Virginia Water News and Other Information
            For news, events, and resources relevant to Virginia's water resources, grouped into categories, please visit the Virginia Water Central News Grouper, available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/.