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By Phil Williams
The Etowah River in north Georgia was once the highway of a Native-American empire.
Europeans, disease and battles with other tribes destroyed the chiefdoms of the Etowah,
but the river still surges through the area.
Now the upper Etowah and the basin it drains face other challenges. Water use, pollution
and endangered species combine to make it a challenge to manage, but counties in the basin
have developed a strong working relationship with a group of new allies: students at the
University of Georgia.
“The students are idealistic, which is very
energizing to our faculty and the folks we serve,” says Laurie Fowler, director of
public service and outreach for the Institute of Ecology. “They are learning in this
class how to achieve those ideals. That might mean communicating in a more inclusive
way--drawing connections, for example, between the environment and the economy that they
might have overlooked before. This class lets them see firsthand what it’s like to
work with stakeholders in the area.”
Since 1996, the Etowah practicum has given UGA students a taste of real-world
problem-solving. Split each semester between students in ecology and students in the
School of Law (where Fowler is also an adjunct professor), the course allows students to
work closely with people in the upper Etowah Basin. The result has been considerable
assistance for lawmakers and valuable experience for the students. This semester, nine
students are enrolled, three from law and six from ecology.
The upper Etowah River watershed is relatively small, comprising only five counties and
less than 5,000 square kilometers, but it is a key hot spot of threatened biodiversity,
with at least 82 species of fish and 50 species of mussels. Three federally protected fish
species thrive in the system, including two that live only in the Etowah River. As a
result, the Etowah was designated in 1996 as one of the country’s top three
endangered rivers by a watchdog group called American Rivers.
“County and municipal governments within the watershed are struggling to balance the
demands of urbanization with sustainable development of the area’s land and water
resources,” says Fowler.
Since the counties are not far from metropolitan Atlanta, pressures have increased
dramatically in the past decade. County officials have been looking for balanced
information that can help them maintain the quality of the watershed while planning for
inevitable growth. That’s where the UGA students come in.
Students in the class drafted legislation that was passed by the Georgia General Assembly
last spring that allows the use of transferable development rights to protect prime
agricultural land. They drafted a conservation subdivision ordinance that was passed by
the Cherokee County Commission this fall. The practicum has also helped stakeholders form
the Etowah Alliance to address growth issues on a regional basis.
“This is really a great project, and it allows law and ecology students to work
together and address ecological problems with real-world applications,” says Seth
Wenger, a master’s student in ecology from Pennsylvania. “Working with the
stakeholders in the area has been very positive and productive for us.”
The student group meets regularly with appointed committees of the upper Etowah Alliance
in Pickens, Cherokee, Dawson, Lumpkin and Forsyth counties. In addition, students have
worked with UGA faculty members to gain insight into applicable research.
Rebecca Klaper, a doctoral ecology student from Athens, says the class has helped her
expand beyond her primary research focus.
“My area of research is theoretical plant-insect interactions, so it’s nice to
get involved with an applied, real-world project,” she says. “It really expands
my knowledge in ecological issues to talk to people facing these difficult problems.”
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