Tours in the Field

Thursday, October 3, 2013

All sessions, as well as registration, exhibits and breaks, will be at the Chattanooga Convention Center,
1150 Carter Street, Chattanooga, unless otherwise indicated.

Day Tours (in the field)

Advance registration and a fee are required for all Thursday tours. Registered tour attendees should report to the staging no later than 15 minutes before their scheduled departure time to begin boarding their bus. All tours depart promptly at times listed below.

1. Biodiversity 1: From the Mountain Tops to the River Bottoms

(6:00 a.m. departure, $60 fee, lunch and snorkel gear included)

The abundance of aquatic life in the Conasauga River is evident the moment the facemask goes underwater. Since 2000, the U.S. Forest Service has offered guided snorkeling trips on the mountain stream near the Tennessee-Georgia line that’s famous for its clean water and aquatic life. Surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest, the river is home to the Conasauga logperch, a tiny darter that’s known only in a 12-20 mile stretch of the Conasauga. Snorkelers also can expect to see striped-neck turtles, banded sculpin and Tennessee shiners, whose streamlined bodies sparkle like mirrors. Experts from Chattanooga’s Tennessee Aquarium will be on hand to lead the snorkeling and talk about Tennessee’s world-renowned aquatic biodiversity. The tour will include hikes and bird-watching along neighboring national forest trails. Total drive time – 3 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Tim Omarzu, Staff Writer, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Morgan Simmons, Outdoor Writer, Knoxville News Sentinel

Speakers:
Kevin Calhoon, Assistant Curator of Forests, Tennessee Aquarium
Anna George, Director, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute

2. Old King Coal: Cradle to Grave

(6:30 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

Coal has kept us warm, given us light and fueled our manufacturing, but not without costs that aren’t listed on electric bills and often aren’t considered during energy policy debates. In East Tennessee, the 2008 collapse of a coal-ash impoundment near TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant provided a vivid glimpse of the “grave” part of coal’s life cycle. More than a billion gallons of slushy coal ash spilled over farms and homes and into area waterways. The incident highlighted the lack of comprehensive federal regulations governing the handling and disposal of coal ash — a problem the Obama administration promised to address, but has yet to act upon. We’ll visit the Kingston site to see the mammoth engineering and progress on the cleanup and hear what experts on all sides of this issue have to say about what is — and isn’t — being done about the coal-ash problem. Total drive time – 4 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Patrick Smith, Photographer/Videographer, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Bonnie Stewart, Journalist, Oregon Public Broadcasting

3. Oak Ridge National Lab: Nuclear Legacy and Cutting Edge Research

(7:00 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

The 33,500-acre federal Oak Ridge Reservation was created for WWII’s Manhattan Project in an endeavor that helped usher in the atomic age. We’ll discuss legacy chemical and radioactive contamination as well as ongoing nuclear weapons work. We’ll also tour Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Here, at the nation’s largest open-science laboratory, we’ll learn about cutting-edge research from predicting climate and ecological tipping points to developing sustainable building and transportation technologies. We’ll visit labs working on these technologies and see one of the world’s fastest supercomputers in action. Total drive time – 4 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Kris Christen, Research Associate, Center for Information & Communication Studies, College of Communication & Information, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Tom Henry, Environmental Writer-Columnist, The (Toledo) Blade

4. Chattanooga: From Gritty City to Green-Manufacturing Hub

(7:30 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

Chattanooga, a city once known for its pollution, had the nation’s dirtiest air in 1969, and some of the most tainted streams. During the last two decades, however, local leaders worked to re-invent the foundry town into “Scenic City,” spending millions to clean up its air and water and attract greener manufacturers. We’ll tour Volkswagen’s platinum-LEED-certified auto plant and solar farm on a once-contaminated brownfield left from a U.S. Army TNT production site. We’ll see some remaining legacy challenges, experience before-and-after photos and stories, and examine futuristic technologies ranging from smart streetlights to tech startups relying on the fastest fiber-optic network in the nation. Total drive time – 1.5 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Francesca Lyman, Freelance Journalist
Ellis Smith, Business Reporter, Chattanooga Times Free Press

5. Energy Options: From Nukes to Hydro Storage

(8:00 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

The Tennessee Valley Authority introduced electricity to the Southeast in the 1940s, beginning with the harnessing of the Tennessee River. There the movement of water is captured for electricity, flowing mile after mile through nine hydropower plants and dams. Along the way, the water in the 652-mile Tennessee River also cools six nuclear reactors (soon to be seven) at three different nuclear plants. We’ll visit the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant and the Chickamauga Dam and hydropower facility. We’ll hear about the Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage facility, which helps TVA manage peak power demands, and we’ll learn how a utility serves seven states and gets power to nine million people in homes and businesses. Total drive time – 1.5 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Dave Flessner, Business Editor, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Roger Witherspoon, Reporter, Huffington Post/Environment; Energy Matters; NewJerseyNewsroom.com

6. Biodiversity 2: Threats and Opportunities on the Species-Rich Cumberland Plateau

(8:30 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

We’ll start at South Cumberland State Park’s Fiery Gizzard, where a small insect called the woolly adelgid threatens eastern hemlocks. Next up, Sewanee: The University of the South’s campus, a model for land stewardship in the region. With over 1,070 taxa of vascular plants on its 13,000 acres, Sewanee is one of the most biologically diverse campuses in the nation. We’ll visit the Landscape Analysis Laboratory and Herbarium to learn about exotic plants, deer overpopulation, regional habitat loss, and climate change, and we’ll hike to a rare stand of remaining old-growth forest. We’ll end the day at the proposed Paint Rock River National Wildlife Refuge to learn about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s latest conservation efforts. Total drive time – 3.5 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Duane Gang, Environmental Reporter, The (Nashville) Tennessean
Christine Woodside, Writer and Editor

Speakers:
Jon Evans, Assistant Provost for Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, and Professor of Biology, Sewanee: The University of the South

7. Fracking, Tennessee Style

(9:00 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

Fracking has taken place occasionally and quietly in Tennessee — until two years ago when information slipped out that the University of Tennessee and the state wildlife agency were considering leasing land for the activity. The public outcry that followed resulted in some regulations. But, environmentalists say they are worthless, and concerns have arisen about clean water, earthquakes and property rights. While much fracking here is done without the massive quantities of water seen elsewhere, questions remain about what’s going down in the way of chemicals — and what’s released in the way of natural poisons — from arsenic to radio-nuclides. Learn more as we take a tour through Tennessee’s hills and hollows to an active natural gas well site that was fracked. Discussion will include differences in fracking practices and state regulations across the country. Total drive time – 4 hours.

Tour Leaders: TBA

8. The New Civil War:
The Struggle to Preserve History

(9:30 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

Chattanooga was the scene 150 years ago of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Civil War, and it’s also home to the first and largest national park dedicated to remembering our nation’s defining conflict. We’ll stroll the battlefield at Chickamauga, scale Lookout Mountain, and learn about the region’s Paleolithic and American Indian inhabitants at Moccasin Bend. Along the way, we’ll explore the role historic preservation has played in the conservation movement, and hear about the modern-day threats these places of cultural and ecological significance face from suburban sprawl, shrinking public funding and their own popularity. Total drive time – 2.5 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Randy Loftis, Environment Reporter, The Dallas Morning News
Tim Wheeler, Reporter, The Baltimore Sun

9. How Sustainable Ag Feeds Sustainable Cities

(10:00 a.m. departure, $40 fee, lunch included)

We’ll start at Sequatchie Cove Farm, a family-owned sustainable farm in the Sequatchie Valley that produces meat and dairy products for local restaurants and markets. Then we head to Crabtree Farms, a nonprofit urban farm in Chattanooga. We’ll learn from local community leaders about urban agriculture and how community gardens here are helping provide variety and a local flair to many downtown restaurants. We’ll also see how urban agriculture plays an important role in the movement for food justice, building community resilience using food as the common bond. We’ll watch a clip from Gaining Ground, a new film featuring Urban Tilth, a network of 11 community gardens in the heart of an impoverished, violence-riddled food desert in Richmond, Calif. Total drive time – 2 hours.

Tour Leaders:
Barbara Bernstein, Independent Producer
Amanda Womac, Hellbender Press

Wednesday, October 2
Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5
Sunday, October 6