Click to listen to episode (4:01). Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 11-2-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of November 5, 2018. SOUND – ~6 sec This week, that mysterious sound opens a revision of a November 2011 episode about a bird known for its unmistakable wails and yodel-like calls.  Have a listen for about 15 seconds, and see if you can guess this bird. And here’s a hint: even though it doesn’t live on the moon, it’s still LOON-er. SOUNDS - ~14 sec If you guessed a Common Loon, you’re right! The distinctive calls of loons are associated with lakes and other water bodies in Canada and the northern United States, where five species of loons breed.  Virginia’s coastal areas typically provide winter habitat for two species, the Common Loon and the Red-throated Loon. According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, thousands of Common Loons coming from northern breeding areas arrive in the Chesapeake region by October or November.  As winter approaches, large flocks continue southward to North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  They’ll return in February and March on their migration back to their summer breeding areas. Unfortunately for Chesapeake area humans hoping to hear loons, the birds aren’t as vocal in winter as they are in summer. But, according to Alice and Robert Lippson in their book, Life in the Chesapeake Bay, “occasionally on a quiet winter night one will hear [Common Loons’] primeval, tremulous yodel.” Loons are known for their swimming and diving abilities, and they typically go on land only during breeding.   The Common Loon is seen by many as a symbol of wilderness, and the species has been widely studied for its response to water quality, including the effects of acidic precipitation, lead, mercury, and petroleum spills. For an historic account of some of the Common Loon’s compelling characteristics, let’s turn to an excerpt from John James Audubon’s description of this bird—which he called the Great Northern Diver—in his early 19th Century work, Birds of America. Audubon wrote: “View it as it buoyantly swims over the heaving billows of the Atlantic, or as it glides along deeply immersed…on the placid lake…; calculate, if you can, the speed of its flight, as it shoots across the sky; mark the many plunges it performs in quest of its finny food, or in eluding its enemies; list to the loud and plaintive notes which it issues…and you will not count your labour lost….” Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs.  And let’s give the last word to another cool sound from the Common Loon. SOUND - ~ 6 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This episode replaces Virginia Water Radio episode 88, 11-14-11, which has been archived. The loon sounds were taken from the from “Common Loon” on the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/.  The Common Loon sound was also used in Episode 294, 12-14-15.  Another loon recording is available from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Nationa

Click to listen to episode (4:01). Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 11-2-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of November 5, 2018. SOUND – ~6 sec This week, that mysterious sound opens a revision of a November 2011 episode about a bird known for its unmistakable wails and yodel-like calls.  Have a listen for about 15 seconds, and see if you can guess this bird. And here’s a hint: even though it doesn’t live on the moon, it’s still LOON-er. SOUNDS - ~14 sec If you guessed a Common Loon, you’re right! The distinctive calls of loons are associated with lakes and other water bodies in Canada and the northern United States, where five species of loons breed.  Virginia’s coastal areas typically provide winter habitat for two species, the Common Loon and the Red-throated Loon. According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, thousands of Common Loons coming from northern breeding areas arrive in the Chesapeake region by October or November.  As winter approaches, large flocks continue southward to North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  They’ll return in February and March on their migration back to their summer breeding areas. Unfortunately for Chesapeake area humans hoping to hear loons, the birds aren’t as vocal in winter as they are in summer. But, according to Alice and Robert Lippson in their book, Life in the Chesapeake Bay, “occasionally on a quiet winter night one will hear [Common Loons’] primeval, tremulous yodel.” Loons are known for their swimming and diving abilities, and they typically go on land only during breeding.   The Common Loon is seen by many as a symbol of wilderness, and the species has been widely studied for its response to water quality, including the effects of acidic precipitation, lead, mercury, and petroleum spills. For an historic account of some of the Common Loon’s compelling characteristics, let’s turn to an excerpt from John James Audubon’s description of this bird—which he called the Great Northern Diver—in his early 19th Century work, Birds of America. Audubon wrote: “View it as it buoyantly swims over the heaving billows of the Atlantic, or as it glides along deeply immersed…on the placid lake…; calculate, if you can, the speed of its flight, as it shoots across the sky; mark the many plunges it performs in quest of its finny food, or in eluding its enemies; list to the loud and plaintive notes which it issues…and you will not count your labour lost….” Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs.  And let’s give the last word to another cool sound from the Common Loon. SOUND - ~ 6 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This episode replaces Virginia Water Radio episode 88, 11-14-11, which has been archived. The loon sounds were taken from the from “Common Loon” on the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/.  The Common Loon sound was also used in Episode 294, 12-14-15.  Another loon recording is available from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Nationa

Click to listen to episode (3:59). Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 10-26-18.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 29, 2018. MUSIC – ~ 10 sec This week, we mark the harvest season in Virginia with music about a type of agricultural building whose functions have a lot to do with water.  Have a listen for about another minute. MUSIC - 43 sec –Lyrics in the excerpt: “I still love to drive here to see the stars at night, though the cities’ lights grow brighter every year.  Hear the barn creak in the summer breeze, watch the sky for satellites, imagine that old farmer standing near.  And the weather bugs and fungus make the barn lean more each year; the earth pulls on all things that stand above.  Neglect surrenders to the wind, no reason left to stand; next generation’s memories will be towns, and not the land.” You’ve been listening to part of “The Barns,” by Bob Gramann of Fredericksburg, Va., from his 2001 album “See Further in the Darkness.”  The song describes the fading presence of barns in rural areas where working farms have been converted to residential developments, as has happened in much of Virginia in recent decades.  Despite those conversions, however, Virginia agriculture as of 2017 still included over 44,000 farms on over 8 million acres, producing over $3.4 billion in cash receipts from all commodities, from livestock to grains to fruits and vegetables. So the Commonwealth is still home to many functional barns, and those functions are related to water in several ways. Barns keep crops, animals, and equipment dry from the weather’s water.  Barns can also be designed specifically for drying out certain crops.   Livestock barns have to allow for ventilating moisture produced by the animals and for removing livestock wastewater.  And thinking back to the theme of this episode’s opening music, in unmaintained barns water rusts the barn’s iron and supports the fungi, bacteria, and insects that break down a barn’s wood. Virginia’s 21st Century landscape is home to barns old and new.  Round or rectangular, wooden or steel, agricultural or residential—barns display a history of ideas for managing the wet and dry of life. Thanks to Bob Gramann for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of “The Barns.” MUSIC - ~ 15 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “The Barns” from the 2001 album “See Further in the Darkness,” is copyright by Bob Gramann, used with permission.   More information about Bob Gramann is available online at https://www.bobgramann.com/folksinger.html. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com. Virginia Water Radio thanks Lesley Howard for her help with the photos accompanying this episode. PHOTOS A Sampler of Barns in Western Virginia and West Virginia, October 2018. On Waiteville Road near Paint Bank, Va. (Craig County), October 27, 2018. Along State Route 18 south of Covington, Va. (Alleghany County), October 27, 2018. Along State Route 18 south of Covington, Va., (Alleghany County), Oct

Click to listen to episode (4:09). Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 10-19-18.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 22, 2018. This week, we feature a multi-colored, winged, wet-area-inhabiting mystery sound.   Have a listen for about 10 seconds, and see if you can guess what’s making the following calls and whistles.  And here’s a hint: for this mystery, thinking of what makes up trees may bring you good luck. SOUNDS - ~12 sec If you guessed a Wood Duck, you’re right!  This widespread duck has been described as “stunningly pretty” and “startlingly beautiful,” mostly because of the multi-colored, iridescent breeding plumage of the males.  Wood Ducks are found throughout Virginia and much of North America in forested swamps and in woodlands near streams, ponds, or other water bodies.   In those habitats, the bird nests in tree cavities or in wooden nest boxes that humans provide.   It uses sharp claws on its feet to climb and perch in trees, and it uses a long, squared tail and short, broad wings to make rapid, agile flights among trees.   Such flights caught the 19th Century attention of John James Audubon, who noted, “The flight of this species is remarkable for its speed…ease and elegance…. [W]while removing from some secluded haunt to its breeding-grounds, at the approach of night, it shoots over the trees like a meteor, scarcely emitting any sound from its wings.” This bird is also known also as the Swamp Duck, Carolina Duck, and Acorn Duck, the latter because of one of its important food sources.   Wood Ducks will eat a variety of plant seeds, nuts, and fruits as well as flies, beetles, snails, and other animals.  In turn, Wood Duck eggs, ducklings, and sometimes adults are prey for raccoons, snakes, minks, opossums, turtles, fish, and predatory birds. Wood Duck breeding in Virginia is from May to August, but breeding pair bonds can form as early as October and last through the winter.  The species was believed to be near extinction in the early 1900’s. Populations have recovered through protections by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a hunting ban from 1918 to 1941, followed by hunting limits, and other management actions.  Ducks Unlimited currently describes Wood Duck populations as “stable or increasing”; the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, however, currently notes that habitat loss, including draining of wetlands, “prevents the [Wood Duck] population [in Virginia] from returning to [its] former abundance.” Striking in appearance, important as an ecological component, and popular as a game species, the Wood Duck is, as Ducks Unlimited calls it, “one of North America’s most recognizable and celebrated waterfowl.” Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs, and we close with another short listen to a Wood Duck. SOUNDS - ~ 3 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The sounds of the Wood Duck were taken from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site,

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:11) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 10-12-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 15, 2018. SOUND - ~ 13 sec Those were sounds of rainfall, an overflowing storm sewer, and a stream cascading into the New River at Radford, Va., on October 11, 2018, as that river was rising due to heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Michael and an approaching cold front.  Those weather systems resulted in flooding in rivers and streams across the southern half of Virginia.  The arrival of that rainfall and high water made this a good week to revisit a 2011 episode on the High Water Mark program coordinated by the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Have a listen for about two minutes to part of the October 18, 2011, ceremony unveiling the high water mark sign for the New River at Radford.  The comments are by Richard Harshberger, vice-mayor of the City of Radford; Anthony Phillips, who donated the Radford high-water marker; Dave Wert, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service’s Blacksburg Forecast Office; and Peter Corrigan, hydrologist at the Blacksburg office. VOICES - ~ 1 min/53 sec. [Richard Harshberger:] “Good morning. On behalf of the City of Radford, I’m honored and pleased to receive the second high-water-mark sign in the Commonwealth.” [Anthony Phillips:] “The actual hurricane that produced these record floods developed down in the Caribbean on August 5th, 1940..... After it made landfall, it really slowed down, and actually spent three days over the southern Appalachians.  And it started raining here in Virginia on August 13, and of course this flood occurred on August 14.  And it spent three or four days over land, just producing copious amounts of rainfall.  The water that produced this record rainfall actually occurred over Floyd in the Little River, which runs into the New upstream...they got 17 inches in two days in Floyd County.” [Dave Wert:] “It’s flooding, and flash flooding specifically, that produces overwhelmingly the most number of deaths annually across the nation.... Just a simple Category 1 hurricane coming in on the border of Georgia and South Carolina—a lot of people think that Category 1, Category 2, Category 3, the stronger the storm, the more the potential impact.  That’s not the case, especially when it comes to a flash flood or flooding situation.” [Peter Corrigan:] “But, you know, one thing that we’ve noticed in the past five years, 10 years, in increase in massive flooding.  Pennsylvania, Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia—floods that have greatly eclipsed past records.  So, you know, we’re looking at, this is the highest we’ve ever achieved [at Radford] but there’s no reason it can’t be exceeded, even by significant amounts. Iowa broke a record by 10 feet just recently as 2008, a river that had 100 years of records.  So, this is the highest it’s reached, but it’s not to say it couldn’t reach higher.  And we hope not.” As you heard, the record high level for the New River at Radford was produced by rainfall from an August 1940, category 1 hurricane that came ashore along the Georgia-South Carolina border.  That hurricane’s rainfall raised the river level to almost 36 feet, or 22 feet above flood stage.  That compares to the river’s October 12, 2018, crest at about 23 feet, or 9 feet above flood stage, following the impacts of Hurricane Michael. The Radford high-water marker is one of three so far in Virginia, joining ones in Montgomery County and in the City of Franklin.  About 130 markers are in place nationwide.  Silently recalling dramatic histories, the signs are all intended to raise citizens’ awareness of an area’s flooding history

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:01) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 10-5-18.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 8, 2018. SOUND, MUSIC, VOICE - ~17 sec This week, we drop in on the fun and the serious purpose of imagining Elvis Presley participating in a citizen-science effort to help assess sea-level rise in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Have a listen for about 60 more seconds. SOUND, MUSIC, VOICE - ~63 sec You’ve been listening to the audio from a “Catch the King” promotional video produced by WHRO, the public media station in Norfolk.  As you heard, king-tide data-collection events in Hampton Roads, this year on October 27, are an effort to map that area’s highest annual astronomical tide.  Similar king-tide data-collection and mapping events are happening in other states, too, including North Carolina and South Carolina.  In Hampton Roads, WHRO and several partners are also coordinating the participation of area schools in a year-round flood-mapping project, in which students will use a smart phone app to submit quarterly measurements on areas affected by flooding. The effects of current and predicted sea-level rise are a big challenge along Virginia’s coast.  Virginians in the Hampton Roads region are responding with imagination, funding, community spirit, scientific information, and a sense of humor. Thanks to WHRO for permission to use sounds from the “Catch the King” video, which is part of its Batten Environmental Education Initiative.  And if you live in or near southeastern Virginia, our closing words are for you… SOUND, MUSIC, VOICE - ~10 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The audio on the king tide measurement in Hampton Roads was taken from a video produced by WHRO FM in Norfolk, Va.; audio used with permission.  The video (1 min./33 sec.) and the “Catch the King” project are part of the stations’ Batten Environmental Education Initiative; the video is available online at http://kingtide.whro.org/.  More information about WHRO is available online at https://whro.org/; more information about the station’s environmental education programs is available online at https://environment.whro.org/.  Thanks to Brian Callahan, WHRO’s chief education officer, for providing permission to use the audio and for other information. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com. IMAGES Diagram of factors contributing to sea levels, reproduced from a 2001 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Figure 1 in Thomas Doyle et al., “Sea-Level Rise Modeling Handbook: Resource Guide for Coastal Land Managers, Engineers, and Scientists,” U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 185, 2015, online (as PDF) at https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1815/pp1815.pdf. Maps of sea-level changes along coasts of the United States, 1994-2012. Figure 7 from Thomas Doyle et al., “Sea-Level Rise Modeling Handbook: Resource Guide for Coastal Land Managers, Engineers, and Scientists,” U.S. Geo

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:15) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 9-28-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 1, 2018. This week, we feature a series of sounds for a science-project mystery.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds to a Great Egret, Common Eider, and Bald Eagle, and see if you can guess what the names of these three water-related birds have in common.  That will give you a clue to the name of a worldwide collaborative project to gather information about birds. SOUNDS - ~18 sec If you guessed that the names all start with “e,” you’re right!  Not many bird names do, but any feathered creature is an object of interest to eBird, a bird-data-gathering project managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  According to the project’s Web site, eBird.org, “eBird is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen-science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by hundreds of thousands of users.  eBird users provide records of observed bird species, location, numbers, and associated habitat. Such data from so many users give scientists valuable information for identifying large-scale bird-population trends.  Besides its scientific value, eBird helps birdwatchers share information and experiences, including participating in large-scale observation events like the Cornell Lab-sponsored Global Big Day, taking place next on October 6, 2018. eBird is just one of many examples of citizen science, where citizens have opportunities to contribute to scientific information by recording their observations using established protocols.   For example, one center for citizen science, at Colorado State University, is involved with almost 700 projects worldwide.  Activities in Virginia include the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Frog and Toad Calling Survey, the Virginia Herpetological Society’s BioBlitz, and a variety of projects conducted by the Virginia Master Naturalist Program. Back to birds in the sky, trees, waters, and other habitats, if your interest is in watching them and keeping track of what you see, eBird might be the tool for you. Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs.  We close with about 20 seconds of music inspired by birds. Here’s part of “Geese Piece,” by Torrin Hallett. MUSIC - ~ 18 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.   In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The sounds of the Bald Eagle, Common Eider, and Great Egret were taken from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/. The Great Egret was featured in Virginia Water Radio Episode 277, 8-10-15; the Bald Eagle was featured in Episode 375, 7-13-17. “Geese Piece” is copyright 2016 by Torrin Hallett, used with permission.  Thanks to Torrin, a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio, for composing the piece especially for Virginia Water Radio.”  More information about him is available online at http://www.torrinjhalle

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:00) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 9-21-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 24, 2018. SOUND – ~ 4 sec – Smith River – Jan. 15, 2017 This week, that sound of the Smith River at Jacks Creek Covered Bridge in Patrick County, Va., opens an episode about fish in schools, but in this case, it’s human schools.   Have a listen for about 60 seconds to a guest voice, and see if you know what learning program about finned creatures is taking place.  And here’s a hint: it starts in a classroom and ends up getting students out. VOICE - ~60 sec February 2018: “Now when you guys first received your trout, back in December, what were they? They were babies, right? They were actually called ‘eggs’ at that point. … Now at about six months old, they’re about three-to-four inches long, and this is when they are released into the river environments. For you guys, you 3rd and then the older 6th and 7th [graders], will be releasing your trout.” April 2018: “All right, good morning everyone…. You guys have raised your trout to fingerlings, which is about the third stage of the life cycle, and you are going to release them into the Smith River. ... Do you have any questions about your trout before we release them? I know we’ve already talked about the life cycle and all of that stuff at school. … And we’re gonna walk slowly up the river…So just take it nice and easy, and we’ll walk up and release them. And when you get over there to release your trout, make sure you lean down close to the river and gently release it into the stream.” If you guessed, Trout in the Classroom, you’re right!  You heard Krista Hodges, the education manager for the Dan River Basin Association, giving a trout life cycle presentation in February 2018 at Patrick County’s Woolwine Elementary School, and then leading Woolwine students in releasing trout fingerlings into the Smith River in April 2018.  The Association coordinates the Trout in the Classroom program in southern Virginia, while chapters of Trout Unlimited, the organization that began the program, bring it to schools in other parts of Virginia and across the United States.   For over 20 years nationwide and over 10 years in Virginia, the program has helped provide elementary, middle school, and high school students with learning experiences about fish and other aquatic organisms, water quality, and local watersheds. Thanks to Krista Hodges and to students at Woolwine Elementary School for making the recordings used in this episode, and we let two Woolwine 7th-graders have some closing words about the value of the Trout in the Classroom program. VOICES - ~ 19 sec Boy: “It gives you the experience that you see the fish in their actual habitat instead of just in a tank.” Girl: “I will always think about these fish. I will always think about how good they’re doing, how much they like their new home, and I’ll definitely come back and visit them.” SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.   For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Trout in the Classroom in-school sounds were recorded by Krista Hodges in February 2018 at Woolwine Elementary School in Patrick County, Va.  The trout-release sounds were recorded by Ms. Hodges on April 10, 2018, at the Smith River at J

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:03) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. Except as otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 9-14-18.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 17, 2018. MUSIC – ~ 6 sec This week, that excerpt of “Storm,” by Torrin Hallett, introduces an episode marking the Atlantic Coastline arrival of Hurricane Florence on September 14.  At about 7 a.m. Eastern Time that morning, the center of that large tropical cyclone made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, bringing with it high winds, storm surge inundations, and heavy, flood-causing rainfall that would affect areas far beyond coastal Carolina. The unwelcome arrival and impacts of Hurricane Florence made this week an appropriate time for reviewing some basics about hurricanes.  Following are six brief fact sets, based on a Frequently Asked Questions Web page from the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. 1. A hurricane is the strongest type of tropical cyclone, a rotating area of low pressure not associated with a weather front.  Hurricanes are called typhoons in certain regions of the world. 2. Hurricanes are ranked by sustained wind speed on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, as follows: Category 1, 74 to 95 miles per hour; Category 2, 96 to 110; Category 3, 111 to 129; Category 4, 130 to 156; and Category 5, over 157 miles per hour.  Each category has associated estimates of expected damages.  The highest hurricane wind speed recorded was 253 miles per hour from Tropical Cyclone Olivia in Australia in 1996. 3. Hurricane intensity is also measured by how low the sea-level air pressure goes.  The lowest pressure measured for an Atlantic basin hurricane was 882 millibars during Hurricane Wilma in 2005, compared to standard sea-level pressure of about 1013 millibars. 4. Hurricane intensity is essentially independent of hurricane size, so an intense hurricane is not necessarily a big one, as was the case with intense but relatively small Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992. 5. Storm surge is storm-generated, abnormal rise of water generated by a storm above the expected astronomical tide.  Storm surge flooding is one of the major threats from hurricanes, including Florence. 6. In United States history, the largest non-inflation-adjusted monetary damage caused by hurricanes was the estimated $125 billion dollars by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.  Adjusted for inflation, though, the most costly U.S. hurricanes were the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane and the 1900 Galveston, Texas, Hurricane. There’s lots more to know about hurricanes, not least of which is how to prepare for them.  You can get preparedness information from many sources, including the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, online at vaemergency.gov/hurricanes (http://www.vaemergency.gov/hurricanes/). Thanks to Torrin Hallett for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with another hurricane-appropriate piece by Torrin. Have a listen for about 30 seconds to “Tropical Tantrum.” MUSIC – ~ 26 sec SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Storm,” a movement within “Au Naturale,” is copyright 2017 by Torrin Hallett, used with permission. “Tropical Tantrum” was composed for Virgini

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:29) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 9-7-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 10, 2018. MUSIC – ~ 6 sec This week, we feature a Virginia singer/songwriter’s music about his time, and time in general, on one of the Commonwealth’s major rivers.  Have a listen for about 25 seconds. MUSIC – ~ 27 sec - “Roads and boards, mills and mines used to line this stream--all reclaimed by floods and vines, foundations sprouting gums and pines. River flows on, so does time. Canoe splits Rappahannock water; dip my paddle, let it glide.” You’ve been listening to part of “Solitude,” by Bob Gramann of Fredericksburg, on the 2000 album, “That Squirrel Song.”  This and other river-themed songs by Mr. Gramann come in large part from his years of paddling the upper Rappahannock River and its tributaries, in the area between the Blue Ridge and the Fall Line at Fredericksburg.  The part of “Solitude” you heard describes some of the changes along the Rappahannock wrought by time and the effects of water, weather, humans, and other organisms.  Some riverside changes—such as flood impacts—happen relatively quickly.  But typically change along a river takes its time, such as in the slow pace of plants growing over an abandoned building foundation.  Indeed, the expression “being on river time” is widely used to mean following a slower pace—or at least, a less-structured pace—than modern society often demands. Slow or fast, and seen or unseen, Virginia’s rivers are shaped by unrelenting time, unceasing forces, and unstoppable change.  Thanks to Bob Gramann for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with about 35 more seconds of “Solitude.” MUSIC – ~ 33 sec - “Rain and sleet, wind or heat, it’s all the same to me. Weather—you can never choose; each day that’s mine, that day I’ll use, to flee from time in my canoe, its bow splits Rappahannock water. Dip my paddle, let it fly.” SHIP’S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Solitude,” from the 2000 album “That Squirrel Song,” is copyright by Bob Gramann, used with permission.  More information about Bob Gramann is available online at https://www.bobgramann.com/folksinger.html. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com. PHOTOS The following photos along the Rappahannock River in Virginia were taken by Bob Gramann (except as noted) and used with his permission. Rappahannock River at the confluence with the Rapidan River (at juncture of Culpeper, Spotsylvania, and Stafford counties), April 2004. Rappahannock River at low water (view toward Stafford County), August 2011. Rappahannock River in winter (view toward Stafford County), February 2006. Bob Gramann, composer of the music heard in the Virginia Water Radio episode, canoeing in the Rappahannock River’s “First Drop” at Fredericksburg, April 1, 2018.  Photo by Lou Gramann. EXTRA FACTS ABOUT THE UPPER RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER The following text was taken from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fishe