Click to listen to episode (4:04)
Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Extra Information
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.)
Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 10-2-20.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 5, 2020. With Major League Baseball in the midst of its playoffs for a coronavirus-affected season, we revisit a baseball-related episode from October 2015.
VOICE – ~ 5 seconds – “Hi, this is Yogi Berra. When you come to the fork in the road, take it.”
Yogi Berra, the great New York Yankees catcher who died in September 2015, is
legendary for his baseball accomplishments, his honesty and integrity, and—not
least—his odd but insightful sayings known as Yogi-isms. He’s not known for any water
connections, but, nevertheless, the Yogi-ism you heard—“When you come to the fork
in the road, take it.”—does say something about waterways. Sound
far-fetched? Even, shall we say, out in left field? Well, just have
a listen for about 20 seconds to this line-up of forks in Virginia’s
water geography.
VOICES - ~21 sec – “Clear Fork,
Dry Fork, Forks of Buffalo, Forks of Water, Bassett Forks, Levisa Fork, Russell Fork, Tug Fork,
North Fork Shenandoah River, South Fork Roanoke River, Middle Fork Holston
River, Left Fork Coal Creek.”
Waterway forks, or the tributaries of larger waterways, are part of the
system of branches that collect and channel water moving across a landscape and
within a watershed. The smallest forks—like Left Fork Coal Creek—are
headwater streams that, despite their size, have important physical, chemical,
and biological roles within a watershed. The largest forks—like the North
and South forks of the Shenandoah River—can be well-known, defining features of
a watershed and its region. While many land settlements have “fork” in their
name because roads meet there, sometimes those roads and the settlements they
serve originated with forking waterways. For example, English explorers
of the James River in the 1600s came upon the Rivanna River confluence and
named the location Point of Forks; today the area is the Fluvanna County town
of Columbia. On a larger scale, during the 1700s much of the Ohio River
Valley was Virginia territory, and the location known as the Forks of the Ohio
was a focal point for Ohio Valley travel and industry; today that location is
Pittsburgh.
Thanks to several friends in Blacksburg for lending their voices to this
episode, and a special thanks to the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame for
permission to use the recording of Yogi Berra, from their 2009 video tribute
upon Mr. Berra’s induction. Thanks finally to Yogi Berra for his remarkable
influence he had on American sports, culture, and language, relevant even to waterways.
SHIP’S BELL
Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624. Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This Virginia Water Radio episode is a revised repeat of Episode 284, 10-5-15.
The recording of Yogi Berra was from a video produced by the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame on the occasion of Mr. Berra’s induction in 2009. Thanks to Ron Jacober, historical consultant, and Greg Maracek, president, for granting permission to use an excerpt of the video, which is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cDabcSfIZA. For more information about the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame, please see their Web site at https://www.stlouissportshalloffame.com/.
The names of Virginia
waterways or locations containing the words “fork” of “forks” were recorded by
Virginia Water Radio on October 1, 2015. Thanks to colleagues at Virginia
Tech for participating in these recordings. The waterways and locations
mentioned are as follows (in the order mentioned).
Clear Fork –tributary of the Bluestone River,
in Tazewell and Bland counties.
Dry Fork – tributary of the Clinch River in Tazewell County; tributary
of Banister River in Pittsylvania County (there are probably other Virginia streams named Dry Fork, too).
Forks of Buffalo – Amherst County community at the confluence of North
Fork and South Fork of Buffalo River.
Forks of Water – at confluence of South Branch Potomac River and Strait
Creek in Highland County.
Bassett Forks – Henry County community where Little Reed Creek, Reed
Creek, and Smith River join.
Levisa Fork – Big Sandy River tributary in southwestern Virginia.
Russell Fork – Big Sandy River tributary in southwestern Virginia.
Tug Fork – Big Sandy River tributary with headwaters in southwestern Virginia.
North Fork Shenandoah River – western Shenandoah Valley.
South Fork Roanoke River – eastern Shenandoah Valley.
Middle Fork Holston River – Washington County.
Left Fork Coal Creek –Tazewell County.
Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode. More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com.
IMAGES
EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT WATER FORKS, OR TRIBUTARY WATERWAYS, IN VIRGINIA
All of Virginia’s water “forks” are tributaries of some larger stream and are part of that larger waterway’s watershed, or basin.
Three large watersheds contain, collectively, all of Virginia’s lands and waterways: the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico. Within those large watershed, Virginia’s major river basins are as follows, according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR, onlne at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/soil_and_water/hu.shtml#rivbas).
In the Chesapeake Bay watershed – Chesapeake Bay Coastal, James River, Potomac River, Rappahannock River, and York River.
In the Atlantic Ocean watershed – All of the river basins in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, plus Albemarle Sound Coastal, Atlantic Ocean Coastal, Chowan River, Roanoke River, and Yadkin River.
In the Gulf of Mexico watershed - Big Sandy River, Clinch-Powell Rivers, Holston River, and New River.
The DCR map below shows these river basins (accessed at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/soil_and_water/wsheds.shtml).
SOURCES
Used in Audio
Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, Little Falls, N.J., “Yogi-isms,” online at http://yogiberramuseum.org/just-for-fun/yogisms/.
DeLorme Company (Yarmouth, Me.), Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer, 2000.
Charles A. Grymes, VirginiaPlaces.org, “’Staunton’ vs. Roanoke River,” http://www.virginiaplaces.org/watersheds/stauntonroanoke.html.
National Baseball Hall of Fame, Yogi Berra, online at http://baseballhall.org/hof/berra-yogi.
Garson O’Toole, “Quote Investigator - When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It,” online at http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/07/25/fork-road/.
St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame, “Yogi Berra,” online at https://www.stlouissportshalloffame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=14.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/National Water Information System, “Current Conditions for Virginia: Streamflow,” online at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/va/nwis/current/?type=flow.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, “Rivers & Streams” online at https://dwr.virginia.gov/rivers/.
Virginiaplaces.org, “River Names in Virginia,” online at http://www.virginiaplaces.org/watersheds/3names.html.
For More Information about Virginia Waterways
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “How’s My Waterway” (formerly “You’re your Watershed”), online at https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/hows-my-waterway. This site allows users to locate watersheds and watershed information across the United States.
U.S. Geological Survey, “USGS Water Science School,” online
at http://water.usgs.gov/edu/.
U.S. Geological Survey/Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center, online
at http://va.water.usgs.gov/.
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, “Hydrologic Unit Geography,” online at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/soil_and_water/hu.shtml. This site provides detailed information on how watersheds are designated, plus access to interactive maps of Virginia’s watersheds.
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, “Virginia’s Major Watersheds,” online at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/soil_and_water/wsheds.shtml.
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, “Watershed Roundtables,” online at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/WatershedRoundtables.aspx. This site provides access to information about watershed groups in Virginia’s major river basins.
Virginia Water Resources Research Center, “Divide and Confluence,” by Alan Raflo, in Virginia Water Central Newsletter, February 2000, pp. 8-11, online at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49316. This is an introduction to watersheds and to Virginia’s main river basins.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html). See particularly the see the “Rivers, Streams, and Other Surface Water” category.
Episode 419, 5-7-18, “Meet the Big Sandy Watershed, with ‘Three Forks of Sandy’ by Bobby Taylor,” focuses on the three forks of the Big Sandy River, all mentioned in this week’s episode (Levisa, Russell, and Tug).
Another episode with a baseball player connection is Episode 304, 2-22-16, “George Washington, Walter Johnson, and the Rappahannock River.”
Following are links to some other episodes on Virginia geography.
A walk across
Virginia – Episode
110, 5-14-12.
Cumberland Gap – Episode
544, 9-28-20.
Exploration of the
Chesapeake Bay – Episode
140, 12-10-12.
Geography in general – Episode
265, 5-11-15.
Mountain gaps – Episode
288, 11-2-15.
Virginia connections to the Ohio River Valley – Episode
422, 5-28-18.
Virginia rivers quiz – Episode
334, 9-19-16.
Virginia's Western or Alleghany Highlands – Episode
379, 7-31-17.
Water and settlement of Roanoke – Episode
181, 9-30-13.
Watersheds – Episode
156, 4-8-13; Episode
209, 4-14-14; Episode
251, 2-2-15.
FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION
Following are some Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) that may be supported by this episode’s audio/transcript, sources, or other information included in this post.
2010 Science SOLs
Grades K-6 Earth
Resources Theme
4.9 – Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water resources, and
organisms.
Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
6.7 – natural processes and human interactions that affect watershed
systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; and water monitoring.
Earth Science Course
ES.8 – influences by geologic processes and the activities of humans on
freshwater resources, including groundwater and major watershed systems in
Virginia.
2015 Social Studies SOLs
Virginia Studies
Course
VS.2 – physical geography of Virginia past and present.
United States History to 1865 Course
USI.2 – water features important to the early history of the
United States.
USI.5 – factors that shaped colonial America.
World Geography
Course
WG.3 – how regional landscapes reflect the physical environment and the
cultural characteristics of their inhabitants.
WG.6 – past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction as
influenced by social, economic, political, and environmental factors.
Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.
Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels.
Episode
250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode
255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living
vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on
temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th
grade.
Episode
333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved
oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 403, 1-15-18 – on freezing
and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode
404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th
grade.
Episode
406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school.
Episode
407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.
Episode
483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school.
Episode
524, 5-11-20 – on sounds by water-related animals, for elementary school
through high school.
Episode
531, 6-29-20 – on various ways that animals get water, for 3rd
and 4th grade.
Episode
539, 8-24-20 – on basic numbers and facts about Virginia’s water resources,
for 4th and 6th grade.
