Southern Appalachia’s Hidden Superpower

Something surprising has been happening in the tri-state, greater Chattanooga region for the past few million years. And scientists are beginning to take notice.

‍

You may not realize it, but this region is home to the greatest concentration of aquatic life in North America. A few hundred yards of a single small river here has more fish species than the entire state of California. No place on earth has more diversity of mussels or crayfish. The Paint Rock River, a beautiful but not particularly large river in Jackson County, Alabama, has almost 4 times as many mussel species as all of Western and Eastern Europe, from Russia to England, from Norway to Spain. 

‍

Jackson County is also the national center of cave life. These dark dwellings are a major reason the greatest concentrations of salamanders on the planet are found within a short drive from Chattanooga. The greatest concentration of turtle diversity in the Western Hemisphere isn’t in the Amazon – it’s in Alabama and surrounding states.

You may think you have to travel far to see America’s richest forests, but the counties surrounding Chattanooga represent the nation’s core of deciduous forest diversity, that distinctively tree-rich forest known for its fall color and its spring burst of wildflowers. 

Alabama is the national center of oak, magnolia and buckeye diversity. The tri-state region is likely the center of hickory diversity— globally! The global center of sunflower diversity, the national center of vine diversity, the global center of trillium diversity: all of these superlatives converge right here in northeast Alabama, northwest Georgia, and southeast Tennessee.

Trees that have been lost from most of North America to disease and insects still thrive here. American elms and the delicious butternut are still common here, though wiped out in much of North America by diseases.

‍

Many trees in our region likely hold the genetic keys to the future of forests throughout North America.

‍

Clearly something is going on here. The landscape of our region is an ancient storehouse of species and genetics that persisted as glaciers and ice ages scoured away all life in much of North America. As the glaciers retreated, these Southern storehouses repopulated flora and fauna throughout the rest of the country. Science and research demonstrates that within our natural systems there is something critical to the survival of forests throughout North America, particularly now.

This incredible diversity of life is our greatest and most unique superpower. It’s the asset the rest of the country will clamor for as their seasons get warmer and diseases and pests that proliferate in those conditions spread. Those are conditions our forests and streams have mastered for millions of years.

‍

The national demand for the southeast’s biodiversity is already apparent. Foresters in the northeast are desperately trying to fill the huge gap left by the loss of American elms and white ash, the tree that produced baseball bats for generations of sluggers. Beech and walnut populations are crashing in many states. And yet they remain amazingly healthy here in the tri-state, and are a resource that could revive forests across much of the country.

Why do we often overlook our greatest superpower? Perhaps, here in the South we don’t recognize it. To proudly share our greatest asset we must first understand it. We must take the time to research our own biodiversity storehouse, to understand its potential to share its biological riches with the rest of the country, once again.

‍

That’s why we founded the Paint Rock Forest Research Center, a world class outdoor laboratory in a 4000-acre Nature Conservancy preserve in northeast Alabama. 

About the Research

‍

‍Our Jackson County research center is home to the nation’s largest forest dynamics plot, where more than 85,000 trees have been tagged, identified, measured, mapped, to be followed for fifty years. 

‍

We’re partnering with researchers across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee - and beyond- and in the process discovering new species of trees, shrubs, flowers, and even a tree long thought extinct. 

‍

We’re altering the way we see life on other planets by facilitating groundbreaking cave research. 

‍

We’re restoring the region’s most important and endangered ecosystems – shortleaf pine savannas, canebrakes and grasslands- so they can continue to contribute to America’s storehouse of biodiversity.  

‍

We’re training a new generation in environmental research by inviting college and graduate students to engage in this massive outdoor classroom. 

‍

The research we do here, in this corner of southern Appalachia, lays the foundation for all of us, as caretakers, to understand the significance of this region and the responsibility we have to steward the greatest center of life on our continent.

‍

Learn more about the Paint Rock Forest Research here.

Ensuring a place that lasts, together.

‍

Thrive's Natural Treasures Alliance is a collective of people and organizations involved in conservation, outdoor recreation, and land management dedicated to long-term landscape preservation across the region for future generations.