Restoring riparian zones after Helene

Empty riverbanks and streambanks open up another set of issues for the communities around them: soil erosion. Without the vegetation that was in place before the storm, streambanks are much weaker against the flow of the waterway by which it resides.That increases the risk of sediment pollution and future flooding.But it's not a one-size-fits-all approach — each bank faces its own set of issues and the scale at which restoration needs to varies."Every piece of property is different, depending on your soil and how the water is flowing and the damage that was done," said Ashley Kite-Rowland, program coordinator at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture's Division of Urban and Community Forestry.The division is trying to bridge communication between the entities involved in riparian zone restoration. They're facilitating meetings with groups in Cocke County to streamline the exchange of information about what kinds of funding, labor or expertise is available and who is eligible for it."How can we work together to really get things done, and to track what is getting done?" she said. "If we see that there is a need, okay, which entity here at our meeting can help with that?"Kite-Rowland hopes to facilitate similar conversations in other Northeast Tennessee counties. The meetings include representatives from the Natural Resources Conservation Service at the USDA and TDEC, individuals and other organizations that are involved in restoration work."Working in every community is going to be different. What's going on in every county is going to be different and there are different long term recovery groups," the Urban and Community Forestry Program Coordinator Ashley Kite-Rowland said. "But there are some things that are the same."Applications for community tree-planting grants from the Urban and Community Forestry Program opened Aug. 25. Applications close Sept. 30.More funding opportunities will be available for stream bank stabilization later this year through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.The grants through the Urban and Community Forestry Program are available to municipalities and nonprofit organizations, but not private landowners. However, grant recipients can work on private land.Part of the information exchange that Kite-Rowland stressed is how to ensure the vegetation that is being planted — or growing back on its own — is healthy for the native habitat."Now vegetation is growing back in a lot of places, which I'm thankful for. But in some of those cases it's invasive species, which we'll have to deal with later," Kite-Rowland said.Andrea Ludwig, a soil scientist and biosystems engineer at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, said people working on bank stabilization will have to keep an eye on invasive species washed in from North Carolina."We got a lot of things from North Carolina. We got the water, we got their sediment. We also have their seabank of Japanese knotweed," Ludwig shared at a flood recovery educational event hosted by UTIA, the USDA and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Aug. 20.Ludwig also shared some things to consider in riparian restoration: whether or not vegetation is naturally regenerating, how much intervention is necessary, what kinds of permits are needed for restoration work, and what resources might people already have on-hand.UTIA has partnered with the TVA and the Appalachian Resource Conservation and Development Council to help in the process too, for funding and crowdsourcing information about resources and areas that need work."We have a team of volunteers that we are recruiting, and these volunteers will be working to actually plant stream banks with native trees, grasses, shrubs, things like that, and do some minimal grading," said Andy Brown, ARCD director.Bank stabilization won't just involve replanting native species. It will also depend on the slope of the bank after the flooding. Brown said ARCD is working closely with experts and agencies to make sure the work they're doing is properly executed, abiding by technical specifications."We're working with the NRCS and [UTIA] experts. We're tied at the hip. So it's not just 'hey, let's show up with all these good hearted people to plant trees,'" said Brown."There's certain things [to consider], like, if you have an undercut bank or a vertical bank, maybe that's not the place for us to work right now. Or if we do work there, we need to probably grade it back somewhat."Brown said the ARCD partnership between agencies is also important for when needs are out of their scope, and they can refer landowners to government programs that can address their issues.The ARCD is also working with local organizations, like the Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, planning tree-planting days for bank stabilization. The Nolichucky Watershed Alliance has tentatively planned a volunteer tree-planting day for Oct. 25.The Division of Urban and Community Forestry hopes to start working with people and make a plan for their specific needs in time for planting season from November through March. If people aren't able to hire contracting professionals to conduct the work, Kite-Rowland said they want to be a resource to find volunteer work to make it happen."We'll be getting these projects going and hopefully getting trees and plants out to people and getting volunteers engaged to do these projects," she said.Jorgelina Manna-Rea is a Report for America corps member covering environmental issues for Six Rivers Media.