Su2026 Biodiversity Blogs

Adam - Dumbarton Oaks Park
Jack - Shendoah National Park
Dayton - Chincoteague, VA
Allison - Carroll County, VA
Anna - Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
Kellen - Florida Yardening
Elizabeth - Cedar Creek and Belle Grove
Marian - Stoney Creek Farm, VA
Brendan - Washington, D.C.
Jim - South Branch Potomac
Alicyn - Harriman State Park
Zach - St. Mary's County
Joe - Nolichucky River
Brooke - Nara Park (Japan)
Christine - Buffalo Mountain
Samantha - York River Basin

Zillow trick for studying South Branch river property flooding risk

Flooding, fire and wind risk profiles on real estate sites are helpful beyond considering risk as you look for interesting places to live. You can use the mapping tools to identify wetlands, wildlife habitat, and suitability for certain crops and other information that require expert help the when using the otherwise excellent online NRCS WebSoilSurvey and maybe even the County Assessors pages.

West Virginia Zillow data for flood and fire risk is still spotty (and maybe being blocked?), but you can see the same information by going to a property in Maryland or Virginia, choosing the map and then going to the Lot Lines option, choosing Flood, Fire, or Wind. Then scroll into our West Virginia watershed. In many cases you can discern annual risk, 1% risk ("100 year"), or 0.2% risk ("500 year") flood zones. It's good to review this - these zones have changed a lot in the last 20 years.

But as most know, for a specific address, use the FEMA Flood Map Service Center at https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home 

Those crows know you!

 

State Record Golden Rainbow Trout from the South Branch

 This actually happened in early April.  I learned about it only today (June!) in West Virginia Magazine.  The following is an earlier April 13 article by Bob McNally I found in Outdoor Life Magazine online.

‘Too Fat to Jump.’ West Virginia Teen’s Massive Golden Rainbow Trout Is a Pending State Record

Fifteen-year old Hunter Rohr spotted the fish in a deep hole and hooked it on a dead-drifted egg

By Bob McNally

Published Apr 13, 2026 4:36 PM EDT

Hunter Rohr with the pending state-record golden rainbow trout he caught on April 2. Photo courtesy Hunter Rohr

Every spring, West Virginia anglers head out on their own “Gold Rush.” The special two-week event revolves around golden rainbow trout, a unique strain of gold-colored rainbows that are produced in state hatcheries. This year, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources stocked 50,000 of these trout in 69 lakes and streams. One hundred trout were tagged and worth special prizes.

Fifteen-year-old Hunter Rohr was one of the anglers looking for gold this month. On April 2, during his spring break, he and his high high-school buddy Bryar Sandy were searching for fish in streams near Rohr’s home in Buckhannon.

Read Next: Palomino Trout: The Lure of the Golden Mutants

Rohr and Sandy had started fishing at 7 a.m. that morning. They’d each caught a few smaller golden rainbows and released them all as they usually do. Around noon, they found a pile of fish in a deep hole on the South Branch of the Potomac River.

“We call it the South Branch of the Smoke Hole, and we fish it a good bit,” Rohr tells Outdoor Life. “That day we were using light spinning tackle, four-pound test line and floats to try and catch a golden. We wanted one with a tag.”

The water was deep but clear, and there were some other anglers working the same stretch of water. Using a pair of quality polarized sunglasses, he spotted an especially large fish holding near a log on the bottom.

Click <more> below for more photos.

Cresting just below Action Level (12 feet) this week

 

Cresting overnight in the early hours Thursday morning?

Watch for changes at the NOAA site:
https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/sprw2

Recreation is hazardous above 5 feet.

At Action Level (12 feet on the Springfield gauge) there is minor flooding on riverside roads and camps, and docks, steps, and canoes and kayaks can be swept away.  

Sustained Rain Overcomes Virginia - West Virginia Drought Concerns

 Steady moisture over several days is ideal for recovering from the drought. The whole watershed was affected, and you can see the expected change in the river level.

Flight over the confluence of the North and South Branches of the Potomac

Video by Cessna 42A  Branches of the Potomac.

Click here to watch: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1E29ZiyZvW/

The confluence of the North and South Branches of the Potomac just east of Green Spring, West Virginia. In this view, the North Branch is coming from the straight ahead. The South Branch enters from the left, with the rivers joining at the railroad bridge. The old Chesapeake & Ohio canal - with water in it - is to the right of newly formed Potomac, running along the base of that hill. Oldtown, Maryland and Green Spring, West Virginia are visible in the middle distance on either side of the North Branch, with Cumberland hidden in the valley beyond that next far ridge.

Helpful rain passing through the watershed today

 

Understanding Headwaters

From Penn State Extension:

When you imagine where a river begins, you might picture a tiny mountain stream bubbling out of the ground. That’s a headwater—but they can also be hidden springs, wetland channels, or small streams that don’t even show up on maps.

And here’s the surprising part: headwaters make up most of the stream miles in a watershed.

Even though they’re small, they:

💧 Provide drinking water

🌿 Filter pollution naturally

🌊 Help prevent flooding

🐟 Support trout, salamanders, birds, and more

🌎 Power entire food webs

But headwaters are fragile. Development, runoff, and climate change can quickly damage these small streams.

The good news? Planting native trees along streambanks, restoring buffers, and supporting local watershed groups can make a huge difference.

Healthy rivers start small. Let’s protect them at the source.

https://ow.ly/Wq8o50Yh3Fv

Bears in North America