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Volume 128, Number 49 Wednesday, June 20, 2012 www.thefranklinpress.com Franklin, North Carolina 28734 75(1
Teamwork paysPress pholcVLmfla MatNas
Team work paid off - literally - for the 9-10 Franklin All - Star Girts Softball Team. The girts held a car washSaturday to earn money for uniforms and equipment in hopes of going to district and state playoffs.
New directorAdkins to lead CareNetB> Colin MeCandlcss
Nonprofit crisis relagency Macon CountyCareNei has hired new exec-iilive director Shainu Adkin.sto lead the organization.
Adkins takes over forVanessa Bailey, who left theposition at the end of Janu-ary.
Operations manager San-dra Queen had been servingas CareNet's interim directorfrom February through June I.
Adkins assumed the ex-ecutive director role June 4.Prior to accepting theCareNet position, Adkinsserved as a community man-ager for the American Can-cer Society (ACS) for sixeastern North Carolina coun-ties (based in Greenville)where she promoted servicesand programs for cancer pa-dents and their families.
Shatna Adkins
"It was a many hats tow ear kind of position and ittransitioned so much that 1was always in a differentrole," she explaincd.
Adkins. 25. has bachelorsand master's degrees in com-munications from East Car-olina University Her B.A. in-volved an emphasis in publicrelations, while her M.A. de-gree entailed a health em-
ptos's-
See Adkins on page 9A
Siler Road extension on scheduleBy Colin McCandlcss/ iressn-porTerfP thefranklinp ffss. com
Tlie Siler Road Extension project is stillon schedule and is expected to be completedin the fall.
According to Mitchell Bishop, the DOTresident engineer overseeing the Siler RoadExtension project, the contractor stilt antici-pates getting the mad open by tlie initial es-timated target date of Nov. 15-
" Between now and when school startsthere's going to be a kit of activity," said Bish-op Monday.
The project involves construction of a new0.9-mile two-lane route, including a spanbridge over the Little Tennessee River, fromSiler Road (State Road 1660) to Wiley BmwnRoad (S.R. 1662) south of U.S. 441 inFranklin. The road will provide a secondaryaccess point to Southwestern CommunityCollege (Macon campus) and the MaconCounty Library.
It will feature a new intersection and traf-fic pattern at the Duwdle Mountain Road exitoff US 441 as a result of a roundahour being
built.Additionally, the project includes con-
struction of a dual left turn lane on U.S.64/441 at tte intersection of Dowdle Moun-tain Road to help improve traffic flow and al-leviate congestion.
Updating ihe project's current status. Bish-<ip said that two thirds of the span bridge deckhas been poured and they anticipate the finalconcrete fxmr on the bridge to be done nextMonday. A paving crew is expected to comenext week and start paving down towards Ihebridge and do a concrete pour and paving forthe roundabout apron. The plan is still to tryand get the work on tlie intersections com-pleted by the time school starts and have thetraffic in its future configuration by the open-ing of Walmart "The contractor's movingforward with dial." Bishop said. Currently,the projected grand opening of the Walmartis towards the end of October, according toBill Wert7 with Walmart media relations.
Bishop and Nathan Tanner, DOT SilerRoad Extern
, roundabout being built as part of the new Siler Road extension project that willistant manager, explained provide a secondary access point for Southwestern Community College and the
that the work motorists have seen along U.S. Macon County Library. The roundabout will mean a new traffic pattern at the DowdleMountain Road/US 441 intersection.
S«e Extension on page 9A
Ford settles into leadership role at Coweeta Hydrological LabBy Colin McCandlcssprvssrvpune r& thefraj ikhnpress. cinn
When Dr. Chelcy Ford began herrole as Coweeta Hydrologic Lab's re-search project leader in March, she wasalready well versed in its reputation asan internationally acclaimed place tostudy forest hydrology.
Ford was initially hired at Coweetain 2001. but her academic research back-ground made her keenly aware of its es-teemed position in the scientific com-munity long before she came to workwith them.
Her undergraduate research atGeorgia Tech University focused onwater and water quality. Both her mas-ter's and Ph.D centered on water as aresource for forests.
After a brief stint in Corvallis. Ore.,which included spending some time vol-
hack East and attended the Universityof Georgia from 2000-2001, earning herPh.D in forestry. She conducted a lot ofher research in the Whitehall Experi-mental Forest in Athens. Another aspectof her research involved studying longleaf pine in Southeast Georgia and thesources of water that longleaf pine uses.Ford and her husband lived on a tract ofland called Ichauway that was onceowned by C«ca-Cola Company presi-dent Robert Wtxtdruff, who managed itfor decades as a quail hunting planta-tion. Ichauway has some of the best pre-served and oldest longleaf pine forestsin the Southeast.
"Long leaf pine used to cover nx>stof the Southeast, but now it's down toabout 2 percent of its original area," shesaid.
When Woodruff died, the WoodruffFoundation developed an outdoor lah-
iogical Research Center. "Tlie JonesCenter and Coweeta have a long histo-ry together," Ford said.
She notes that Coweeta alumnusLindsay Boring is currently the center'sdirector.
In 2004, former Coweeta projectleader Jim Vose called fiwi and offeredto hire tier to do her post doc researchat Coweeta. The decision was a nobrainer for someone whose researchfocus had always been forest hydrolo-
gy"When anyone mentions water as a
resource for forests, Coweeta comesup," says Ford of the 5.400-acre exper-imental forest. "Coweeta is the HolyGrail of forest hydrology. Et was a greatopportunity."
Following her post doc work she Coweeta Hydrologic Lab project leader Dr. Chelcy Fordstayed with the lab and worked as a full (center, pointing at the poster board) shown during atime scientist as an ecophysiologist. tour at Coweeta for the Interagency Conference on Re-
S«c Cowwta on page IOA
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Rants & Raves (Call 369-0568 after 5QK. There's a scenic overlookon the Franklin side of CoweeMountain. But you can't seeanything because the treesare too tall. Can't they be cutdown oc thinned?
The aldermen and tlw ABCboard should fund the newliquor store out of their own
pockets. That way when thestate privatizes liquor the tax-payers won't be left holdingthe bag.
Why does the town boardand (he town manager actlike the rest of us need tobow down to them?
We need a countywide no«eordinance. You can! even sitdown and have a meal inpeace without your neighborsblaring loud music. Commis-sioners need to seriously lookat this. Even if it addressesloud radios it Mould be some-thing.
See Rants on page 2A
Join Us for a Great Buffet LunchBefore The Peter Pan Show
Sunday. June24 • 12:00 Norm until 3:00 PM
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*n* 21 • 24 .Ttdwto $15 Mulu. S10 StadM**Pmwwd by TM Owttook TfcMtt*C<Mtif>My
GreatMountainMusic.cLocated inside The Factory • 1024 Georgia Rd • Franklin. NC • 828.549.5555 • BoifcrRoomStcakHousc^om
Page 10 Section A —Wednesday. June 20.2012 — THE FRANKLIN PRESS
Coweeta: Research center provides valuable information to scientific communitycontinued from 1A
Since taking over as proj-ect leader her role has ex-panded
"You're »x only doingyour own science, but you'releading the science of yourentire team," she explained
Fix-e scientists, a hydro) -ogisl and a chemist work outof Coweeta. and Universityof Georgia employees alsodo research there through thecollaborative Long-TermEcological Research (LTER)program, which is fundedthrough a gram tn mi the Naluuul Science Foundation.The LTER is a national network of 2f> field researchsites where more than 1.800scientists work cooperative-ly JL n i v disciphnes on Um« -term emiranmemal research.Coweeta was one of me firstLTER sites, and through thepartnership they work withpenpk all over the countryand the world
As Coweeta projectleader. Ford also managesthree oiber small researchlabs across, the Southeast, in-cluding the Santee Experi-mental Forest and a Savan-nah River site i h> nh in SouthCarolina •- and a Fores! Ser-vice lab on the Virginia Techcampus that specializes incold v\r fishes research.\" our environmentCoweeta features the
longest continuous hydro-logic recttrd in the world,"We've been recordingstream flow from 16 differ-ent watersheds every fiveminutes since 1934," shenoted.
The> have five differentclimate stations acrossCoweeta basin throughwhich they monitor thingslike air temperature and pre
R rd expbnned the valueof such kmg term data col-lodion and research.
"Now humans are reallystarting to alter their envi-ronment. We've always al-tered our environment, hutnow it's altering at a veryquick pace,*' she said. "Sowith global climate change,and the uncertainty, how iswater quality and quantityeoine lo be affected as our
precipitation regimechanges?"
What they have found isthat the temperature risemeans more extreme wtttfh-er-more droughts and morereally high rainfall events"And we already see that inour data." Foul sakL
Temperatures started in-creasing significantly (abouta half a degree Celsius perdecade) since the late 70s.carry 80s, and what they lw\teamed further from examin-inc the king lerm precipita-tion record is that our "dryyears are eettine drier and <IITwet years are setting welter."
The mean's not clwng-ing. hut the extreme events,we're seeing more andmure," she said "So if I wantto talk about what I hope tnbring to Cow«eta leadershipwise? 1 want to leverage ourlong-term data to look atsou>e of these questions sur-rounding climate change andthe effects on water qualityaid quantity."
At Coweeta they haveconducted mvriad differentforestw .ter-Jwd experimentsthai rirpre.Mfnl diverse man-agement techniques (selec-tively logged fore-*., forestswhere they have taken outme understory. etc.)
A scientific paper fromCowwia published this \<e,irexamines ihfterwH manage-
and a~*wne (rf those mild heused lo offset the effects ofdnnafc dunge.
"And me aoswvr is '> e>you cm.' You can1) change
Dr. Chefcy Ford
it by much, but you can cer-tainly affect it," she said
One of the earlier exper-iments conducted in theCoweeia Kirest watershed inthe 1950s irwdvcd two dif-ferent basins where in onebasin all of the deciduoustrees were cut and removedand Eastern white pine wasplanted in its place.
They know from thatstudy if they had not treatedthe forest with that prescrip-tion you would see manymore affects of really highrainfall years, including highstream flows. "If you haveEastern while pine planted,you don't see as high of astream flow," Ford sakL The
nces infcrL-qt a high amountof water, making them agood management prescrip-tion if one is worried aboutmore water. There are alsotechniques that can be ap-plied to mitigate the effectsof draight she added
The charge of Forest Ser-vice research is to kick at thefull cycle of science. Wf'redoing very theoretical andhftdc research, hut the goal isto take that basic and theo-retical research and translateit into something usable anduseful for all of our stake-holders." Ford said. Thesestakeholders include the NYtional Forest system man-agers, universities, scientistsand the public.
Referencing climatechange. Ford noted that theyknow increases: in tempera-ture are going to happen, "Ithink intwr important tm thisregion, and our mission inparticular is the affects onwater," Ford said. "So weha\ a few different experi-ments cranking up right nowlooking at the effects ofdrought"Ac
Coweeia has also studiedimpacts of invasive species
on ftmst ecosystems, includ-ing tin- hemkck \vuolry adel-gid and the Southern pinebeetle.
She remarked that whilesome people have a prettygood Kka of what Coweetadoes, she adds that many"don't understand how fa-
place is to the academic andscientific community. Theyjust i Jon" i know the impactit's had on ftneM hydrology."
KnJ addni ti ut equationand outreach are also bigparts of their program. Theyho-a workshops in their con-ference center that draw vis-itors from around the globeand they hold CoweeU"Brown Bag Seminars"where they bring in miringscientists IT ti* lab's own sci-entists to share biKrkgroundon recent scientific research.
Coweeta a\-erages about20 tour gnnips a year at thefacility, which includes inter-national scientists, schoolgroups, universities e\tcnskin agents and stale and pri-vate foresters among others.
To illcMr.ui- a point ahiwtthe significance mid value oflong term research in thestudy' of disturbances in ex-
YOUR GUIDE TO THE AREA'S1*"
perimental forest naiershais.Ford draws a series of grjphs.
She shows what conclu-sions wiuld ha\ been dr.tv.7iif they ended a particular ex-perimental project at 10, 20or even 50-year intervals. Ifstopped earlier, some of thevarious fluctuations and up-ward and downward trendslater observed in these ex-penmen Is would have goneunrecognized
"If we didn't have thislong term record, we wuuld-n't know half of the thingsthat are obviously going onin this watershed" Ford said"We would have had completely different answersevery time.
"It lielps yt»t put into per-spective what you are meas-uring right now," Ford adds."It also helps you decipherwhether what vou arc seeingis a local pattern or a region-al pattern."
This is why researchersfrom all over the world cometo Coweeta, because theymaintain this vast storagehouse of long term data.
"It's absolutely essential."she said. "It's completelyvaluable and very, very rareto have a long-term record"
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