Life in our Streams Program at Laurel Community Center

Space is limited so please register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/life-in-our-streams-tickets-1981361208712

A $20 registration fee covers a lunch and snacks.

Come to the beautiful Laurel section of Madison County for a one-day workshop on stream ecology! This event is for anybody that loves streams or rivers: anglers, boaters, snorkelers, naturalists – even resource professionals who’d like to know more. The Laurel River watershed in Madison County boasts 222 miles of Outstanding Resource Water (ORW) streams, all open for great trout fishing, boating, swimming and snorkeling. At Laurel Community Center, the stream full of life is right outside the door!

What lives in our Western North Carolina streams? How do we know that a stream is healthy, or is recovering after floods or pollution? How are healthy forests and streams interconnected? What makes a trout stream “tick?” Find out when the WREN Center hosts “Life in Our Streams,” a short course on a long subject: stream ecology.

Taught by stream ecologists, Dave Penrose, Mary Kelly, Pat Ciccoto and Vlad Gulis, the event will include presentations and outdoor demonstrations showing live stream fish, insects, fungi and other microorganisms. Attendees will learn how forests, healthy streams and rivers are closely connected and the many fascinating species and ecological processes at work that fuel aquatic food webs. This event will highlight the Laurel River river system of Madison County, where streams are clean, healthy and open for anglers, swimmers and water-based recreation, but is pertinent to streams throughout the Appalachians.