Working with Conserving Carolina - 2025 Spring Break Experience

For the 2025 spring break, I dedicated over 25 hours volunteering with Conserving Carolina (an NGO) to support communities affected by Hurricane Helena in Hendersonville, North Carolina. It was rewarding to be part of the effort to restore natural spaces, particlaurly the watershed by rebuilding trails for hikers and the local community and clearing clogged waterways along the Strawberry Gap trailhead in Gerton. In a group of eight Virginia Tech studnets, we helped replant greenery in the Oklawaha Greenway, community parks, and the children’s garden. Being hands-on in these restoration projects not only brought me closer to the environment but also allowed me to contribute meaningfully to the healing and resilience of the community after such a devastating storm. This exercise directly implemented stormwater best managenement pratices to help restore local watersheds. Below are some photos from our work:

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Dendrology of the Blacksburg Stroubles Creek Watershed

By Emmanuel Edusei The dendrology of the Stroubles Creek Watershed is a living archive of Blacksburg's geological and cultural history. Nestled within the rolling landscape of the New River Valley, this watershed shelters a diverse array of native hardwoods, resilient evergreens, and understory species that together weave a vibrant, seasonal tapestry. Each species plays a crucial role, not only in shading and stabilizing the streambanks but also in sustaining wildlife, filtering water, and shaping the local landscape's character. Stroubles Creek’s dendrology invites wanderers and learners to its embrace: a place where ecological stewardship restores balance, and every leaf is a living testament to the connection between land, water, and community. To walk among the trees of Stroubles Creek is to witness a quiet dialogue between land and water, roots and soil, human presence and the persistence of nature. Here, dendrology is not just the study of trees; it is a way of listening...

Mapping and Delineating the Stroubles Creek Watershed

Stroubles Creek originates from natural springs in Blacksburg and descends to its mouth at the New River with a final elevation of about 1,700 feet (520 meters) above sea level. It is a subwatershed of the New River watershed. It features the Virginia Tech Duck Pond, a famous local landmark and ecological feature that acts as a division between the upper and lower watersheds. Most sections of the Stroubles Creek are “out of sight, out of mind” for many local residents, as the stream was buried near the War Memorial Gym and under Virginia Tech’s Drillfield in about 1937 (Ling 2017). The creek has been designated as "impaired" since 2002 due to historical impacts from urbanization, excessive sedimentation, and agricultural activities (Ling 2017). Below is a PowerPoint presentation with more information on Mapping and Delineating the Stroubles Creek Watershed. This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office . Thank you for reading this post. Let m...

An Overview of the StREAM Lab at Virginia Tech

The StREAM Lab and Stroubles Creek References - StREAMS Lab Project Videos StREAM Lab on Youtube Restoration Project Lab and Ongoing Research Environmental Monitor Articles Climate and Water Monitoring Articles

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