CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:59) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-31-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of September 3, 2018.  This week is a revised repeat of the episode from September 2, 2013. MUSIC – ~9 sec This week, in honor of Labor Day, we feature a traditional tune associated with the river at the geographic heart of Appalachian coal mining and other hard work.  Have a listen for about 35 seconds. MUSIC - ~33 sec You’ve been listening to part of “Sandy Boys,” performed by Sara Grey, Kieron Means, and Ben Paley on the 2009 album also titled “Sandy Boys,” from Fellside Records.  The album’s liner notes state that the title refers to farmers and loggers in the valley, or watershed, of the Big Sandy River.  That river begins with tributaries in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky and ends at its confluence with the Ohio River in Catlettsburg, Kentucky. For centuries, the Big Sandy valley has served as a main transportation corridor for this difficult-to-reach southern Appalachian region—for walkers and horses, boats, railroads, and finally automobiles.  It’s also been the center of two natural-resource based industries—first timbering, then coal-mining—that underlie the region’s complicated history.  That history has featured tradition and change, labor and capital, unions and management, and poverty and prosperity—all part of the lives and labor of Big Sandy boys, girls, women, and men. Thanks to Sara Grey and Fellside Records for permission to use this week’s music.  We close with three sounds of people working—pressure-washing a building, limestone work by stone masons, and a freight train—followed by a few more seconds of “Sandy Boys.”   Happy Labor Day! SOUNDS AND MUSIC - ~31 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 This episode revises and replaces Episode 177, 9-2-13, which has been archived. The 2009 album “Sandy Boys” is copyright by Fellside Records (online at http://www.fellside.com/), used with permission. More information about Sara Grey is available online at http://www.saragrey.net/. The pressure-washing sound was recorded at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in June 2018; the limestone work sound was recorded at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in October 2013; and the train was recorded in Pulaski, Va., in August 2013. 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. IMAGES Big Sandy River watershed, showing its three main forks, the Levisa, Russell, and Tug. Map by Kmusser via Wikimedia Commons, accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Sandy_River_(Ohio_River_tributary)#/media/File:Bigsandyrivermap.png. Made available for public use according to Creative Commons License 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Modern-day “Sandy boys” and “Sandy girls” play on a soccer field created on a reclaimed abandoned coal-mine (AML) site in Buchanan County, Virginia, 2004.  This area is on the watershed divide between the Levisa Fork and Russell Fork tributaries of the Big Sandy River. Photo courtesy Richard Davis, Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energ

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:35) This is the third episode in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels. Previous episodes in the series are as follows: Episode 432, 8/6/18 – Part 1: An Introduction to Mussel Biology and Population Status. Episode 433, 8/13/18 – Part 2: Fish Hosts and Mussel Mimicry. Episode 434, 8/20/18 – Part 3: Raising Mussels in a Lab for Life in a River. Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-24-18.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 27, 2018. SOUND/MUSIC – ~15 sec This week, the sound of the Clinch River and the music of “Clinch Mountain Quickstep,” by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, open the fourth and final episode in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels and efforts to restore the populations of these important, filter-feeding components of aquatic environments.  We focus this week on the river-release phase of mussel-restoration efforts. Virginia’s rivers have given rise to a unique collection of freshwater mussel species, a resource in need of continued scientific study and conservation.  That was an assessment in 2105 by Jess Jones, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the director of Virginia Tech’s Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center.  Along with pollution reduction, habitat maintenance, population monitoring, and public education, release of lab-raised mussels is a key component of mussel conservation.  Three mussel hatcheries currently exist in Virginia: the Virginia Tech Center in Blacksburg, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center in Smyth County, and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Harrison Lake Fish Hatchery in Charles City County.  Since the 1990s, these three facilities collectively have raised and released into Virginia river thousands of mussels from over two dozen species. For more details on releasing mussels, have a listen for about 90 seconds to some comments by Jess Jones during a July 2018 release into the Clinch River in Russell County. SOUNDS AND VOICE - ~94 sec Freshwater mussel restoration is a long process. Releasing mussels follows 12 to 18 months of work to raise the mussels, and that’s based on years of work to develop lab procedures, assess the outcome of releases, and monitor populations in natural habitats.  With over 20 years of experience, Virginia’s mussel-restoration efforts have notable successes and substantial work yet to do. We close this four-episode series on freshwater mussels with about 25 seconds of some appropriately titled music: “Renewal,” composed in 2017 by students at World Community Education Center in Bedford, Va., and accompanied instrumentally by members of the group, Sweet Chalybeate. MUSIC – ~24 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 episode.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Clinch Mountain Quickstep,” from the 2002 album “Sycamore Rapids,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission. More information about Timothy Seaman is available online at http://timothyseaman.com/en/. The freshwater mussel release sounds were recorded in the Clinch River near Bennett Island in Russell County, Va., on July 13, 2018. “Renewal,” copyright 2017, was written and performed by high school students at World Community Education Center, an independent K-12 school i

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:00) This is the third episode in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels. Previous episodes in the series are as follows: Episode 432, 8/6/18 – Part 1: An Introduction to Mussel Biology and Population Status. Episode 433, 8/13/18 – Part 2: Fish Hosts and Mussel Mimicry. Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-17-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 20, 2018.  This week’s episode is the third in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels and efforts to restore the populations of these important, filter-feeding components of aquatic environments. SOUND – ~ 12 sec That’s Jess Jones, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the director of Virginia Tech’s Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center, informally known as the Mussel Lab.  We’re focusing this week on the operations used at the Mussel Lab to raise, or propagate, freshwater mussels. The Mussel Lab follows a complicated, 12-to-18-month process involving mussel larvae, or glochidia; several fish species that serve as hosts for the glochidia; precisely filtered water; a food source of algae and bacteria; and a series of containers to hold and nourish mussel juveniles as they grow from microscopic size to about 20 millimeters, or about three-quarters of an inch.  Those laboratory-raised mussels are then released into suitable habitats in Virginia rivers to help restore natural populations and help the recovery of species listed as endangered or threatened, either on the federal list or Virginia’s state list. For a few more details on the Mussel Lab’s operations, have a listen for about 2 minutes to additional comments by Jess Jones, recorded at the lab in June 2018. SOUND – ~2 min. During the nearly 20 years since the Mussel Lab’s construction in 2000, innovation, experimentation, and practice have developed a successful operation for raising and releasing thousands of mussels annually into natural habitats.  The fourth and last episode in this freshwater mussel series will examine the release phase of Virginia Tech’s mussel-restoration efforts. 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 this episode.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The comments by Jess Jones heard in this episode were recorded June 4, 2018, at the Virginia Tech Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center in Blacksburg. Click here if you’d like to listen to the full (18 min./43 sec.) presentation on freshwater mussels given by Jess Jones on January 13, 2017, to faculty, staff, and students of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Will Pfiel of that college for making a recording of that talk available to Virginia Water Radio. 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. IMAGES Mussel life cycle. Image from Louis A. Helfrich, Richard J. Neves, and Hilary Chapman, “Sustaining America's Aquatic Biodiversity—Freshwater Mussel Biodiversity and Conservation,” Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication 420-523, May 2009, online at https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-523/420-523.html. Following are views from the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center in Blacksburg, Va., operated

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:26) This is the third episode in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels. Previous episodes in the series are as follows: Episode 432, 8/6/18 – Part 1: An Introduction to Mussel Biology and Population Status. Episode 433, 8/13/18 – Part 2: Fish Hosts and Mussel Mimicry. Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-17-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 20, 2018.  This week’s episode is the third in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels and efforts to restore the populations of these important, filter-feeding components of aquatic environments. SOUND – ~ 12 sec That’s Jess Jones, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the director of Virginia Tech’s Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center, informally known as the Mussel Lab.  We’re focusing this week on the operations used at the Mussel Lab to raise, or propagate, freshwater mussels. The Mussel Lab follows a complicated, 12-to-18-month process involving mussel larvae, or glochidia; several fish species that serve as hosts for the glochidia; precisely filtered water; a food source of algae and bacteria; and a series of containers to hold and nourish mussel juveniles as they grow from microscopic size to about 20 millimeters, or about three-quarters of an inch.  Those laboratory-raised mussels are then released into suitable habitats in Virginia rivers to help restore natural populations and help the recovery of species listed as endangered or threatened, either on the federal list or Virginia’s state list. For a few more details on the Mussel Lab’s operations, have a listen for about 2 and a half minutes to additional comments by Jess Jones, recorded at the lab in June 2018. SOUND – ~2 min.25 sec During the nearly 20 years since the Mussel Lab’s construction in 2000, innovation, experimentation, and practice have developed a successful operation for raising and releasing thousands of mussels annually into natural habitats.  The fourth and last episode in this freshwater mussel series will examine the release phase of Virginia Tech’s mussel-restoration efforts. 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 this episode.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The comments by Jess Jones heard in this episode were recorded June 4, 2018, at the Virginia Tech Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center in Blacksburg. Click here if you’d like to listen to the full (18 min./43 sec.) presentation on freshwater mussels given by Jess Jones on January 13, 2017, to faculty, staff, and students of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Will Pfiel of that college for making a recording of that talk available to Virginia Water Radio. 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. IMAGES Mussel life cycle. Image from Louis A. Helfrich, Richard J. Neves, and Hilary Chapman, “Sustaining America's Aquatic Biodiversity—Freshwater Mussel Biodiversity and Conservation,” Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication 420-523, May 2009, online at https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-523/420-523.html. Following are views from the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center in Blacksbur

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:40) This is the second episode in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels. Previous episodes in the series are as follows: Episode 432, 8/6/18 – Part 1: An Introduction to Mussel Biology and Population Status. Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-10-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 13, 2018. SOUND – ~ 4 sec This week, that sound of the North Fork Holston River in Smyth County, Virginia, opens the second episode in a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels and efforts to restore the populations of these important, filter-feeding components of aquatic environments.  We focus this week on the freshwater mussel life cycle, and particularly the use of a fish host during the larval stage of the cycle.  To begin, have a listen for about 30 seconds to these mystery sounds, and see if you can guess what kind of aquatic collecting is occurring.   And here’s a hint: mussel work can be shockingly complicated. SOUNDS - ~33 sec If you guessed, fish collection by electrofishing, you might be a fisheries expert!  You heard Virginia Tech researchers collecting fish in the North Fork Holston on June 19, 2018.  The researchers were using a backpack electrofishing device and a seine, a standard method used by scientists to collect fish.  The objective on this day was to collect darters, a group of fish commonly used by freshwater mussels as hosts for the larval stage.  Fish collection is one part of the mussel-growing operations at Virginia Tech’s Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center. Use by larvae of fish hosts is a distinguishing feature of freshwater mussels, and it involves complex mimicry by the mussels to attract fish.  For more on that mimicry, have a listen for about two minutes to Jess Jones, the director of Tech’s Mollusk Conservation Center, during a January 2017 talk.  In the segment, you’ll hear the words glochidium and glochidia, which are mussel larvae, and conglutinate, which is a collection of many glochidia. VOICE - 115 sec Freshwater mussels follow complicated life cycles in the complicated world of rivers, streams, and lakes.   That, in turn, complicates efforts to grow mussels for restoring natural populations.   Two more episodes in this series will examine the operations used at Virginia Tech to grow freshwater mussels and to release the lab-raised mussels into Virginia rivers. 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 episode.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to several fish-collection workers from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for allowing an audio recording of their work on June 19, 2018. Click here if you’d like to listen to the full (18 min./43 sec.) presentation on freshwater mussels given by Jess Jones on January 13, 2017, to faculty, staff, and students of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Will Pfiel of that college for making a recording of that talk available to Virginia Water Radio. 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://newstandard

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (6:16) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-3-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 6, 2018. MUSIC – ~10 sec That music is an excerpt of “Cockles and Mussels,” a 19-Century Irish song also called “Molly Malone,” whose lyrics are about a fish seller on the streets of Dublin.  That fish merchant would have been selling saltwater mussels, the kind of mussels with which beachgoers or restaurant diners may be familiar. Less familiar to many people, however, are freshwater mussels.  This week, Virginia Water Radio begins a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels and efforts to restore the populations of these important, filter-feeding components of aquatic environments.  To begin, have a listen for about 25 seconds to Virginia’s Clinch River and several guest voices calling out some mysterious, descriptive names. SOUNDS - ~24 sec You heard the common names of 13 species of freshwater mussels known from Virginia.  Some are known from the Clinch and other rivers in the watershed of the Upper Tennessee River in southwestern Virginia, while others are from the Commonwealth’s Atlantic Slope rivers, such as the James.  Ten of the species whose names you heard are listed as either federal or state endangered species.  In fact, of 77 total freshwater mussel species known from Virginia, three have become extinct and 39—or 51 percent—are currently listed as endangered or threatened at the federal or state level.  That gives freshwater mussels by far the highest percentage of threatened or endangered species of any group in Virginia. Freshwater mussels are of interest not only because of this population status but also because of their unusual life cycle and their ecological roles in rivers and other waters.  To learn more about freshwater mussels and their biology, have a listen for about two minutes to Jess Jones, a mussel biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the director of the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center at Virginia Tech. VOICE - ~1 min/55 sec Since 1994, Virginia Tech scientists and students have conducted activities to study mussels, grow them in culture, and restore them to locations in rivers in Virginia and Tennessee.  That work has been done in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and it’s been supported by grants from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the states of Virginia and Tennessee.  The next episodes in this series will examine those mussel propagation and restoration activities. Thanks to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week’s music, and thanks to several Virginia Tech co-workers for lending their voices to this episode. 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 “Cockles and Mussels,” performed by Timothy Seaman, is from the 2004 album “Virginia Wildlife,” on Pine Wind Music; used with permission.  Mr. Seaman’s Web site is http://www.timothyseaman.com/. The freshwater mussel common names called out in this episode are as follows: Deertoe, Elktoe, Rabbitsfoot, Appalachian Monkeyface, Cumberland Monkeyface, Purple Wartyback, Spike, Golden Riffleshell, Slippers

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (6:16) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, an image, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-3-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 6, 2018. MUSIC – ~10 sec That music is an excerpt of “Cockles and Mussels,” a 19-Century Irish song also called “Molly Malone,” whose lyrics are about a fish seller on the streets of Dublin.  That fish merchant would have been selling saltwater mussels, the kind of mussels with which beachgoers or restaurant diners may be familiar. Less familiar to many people, however, are freshwater mussels.  This week, Virginia Water Radio begins a series on Virginia’s freshwater mussels and efforts to restore the populations of these important, filter-feeding components of aquatic environments.  To begin, have a listen for about 25 seconds to Virginia’s Clinch River and several guest voices calling out some mysterious, descriptive names. SOUNDS - ~24 sec You heard the common names of 13 species of freshwater mussels known from Virginia.  Some are known from the Clinch and other rivers in the watershed of the Upper Tennessee River in southwestern Virginia, while others are from the Commonwealth’s Atlantic Slope rivers, such as the James.  Ten of the species whose names you heard are listed as either federal or state endangered species.  In fact, of 77 total freshwater mussel species known from Virginia, three have become extinct and 39—or 51 percent—are currently listed as endangered or threatened at the federal or state level.  That gives freshwater mussels by far the highest percentage of threatened or endangered species of any group in Virginia. Freshwater mussels are of interest not only because of this population status but also because of their unusual life cycle and their ecological roles in rivers and other waters.  To learn more about freshwater mussels and their biology, have a listen for about two minutes to Jess Jones, a mussel biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the director of the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center at Virginia Tech. VOICE - ~1 min/55 sec Since 1994, Virginia Tech scientists and students have conducted activities to study mussels, grow them in culture, and restore them to locations in rivers in Virginia and Tennessee.  That work has been done in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and it’s been supported by grants from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the states of Virginia and Tennessee.  The next episodes in this series will examine those mussel propagation and restoration activities. Thanks to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week’s music, and thanks to several Virginia Tech co-workers for lending their voices to this episode. 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 “Cockles and Mussels,” performed by Timothy Seaman, is from the 2004 album “Virginia Wildlife,” on Pine Wind Music; used with permission. Mr. Seaman’s Web site is http://www.timothyseaman.com/. The freshwater mussel common names called out in this episode are as follows: Deertoe, Elktoe, Rabbitsfoot, Appalachian Monkeyface, Cumberland Monkeyface, Purple Wartyback, Spike, Golden Riffleshell, Slippershell

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:49) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 7-27-18.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of July 30, 2018. This week, we explore a formerly hoppin’ southwestern Virginia crossroads whose two-word name tells a tale of landscape, water, and seasonal aquatic creatures.  Have a listen for about 10 seconds to these mystery sounds, and see if you can guess this crossroads’ name.  The sounds are your hint to the first word of the name, and here’s a hint for the second word: water on it doesn’t flow downhill, and people on it tell the truth. SOUNDS - ~12 sec If you guessed Frog Level, you’re a Virginia geography expert!  Along U.S. Business Route 19 in Tazewell County lies a large, flat, seasonally wet area that attracts lots of loud amphibians in spring and summer.  Just uphill from that area, where Route 19, U.S. Route 460, and State Route 16 all meet, the Frog Level gas station plus store and tavern was a popular spot for gathering, socializing, and politicking from 1932 to 2007.  The colorful history of the business even included the creation by bar regulars of the Frog Level Yacht Club, with t-shirts that joked about refueling schooner vessels. In 2009, the historic building was moved about two miles to a spot adjacent to Tazewell’s Crab Orchard Museum. Tazewell County is by no means the only locality to claim an area called Frog Level.  That water feature-and-creature-based name also is found, for example, in Caroline County, Virginia; in Waynesville, North Carolina; in Carter County, Tennessee; and in Fayette County, Alabama.  In Caroline County, the Frog Level Volunteer Fire Department has held an annual festival and parade since 1969.  In the North Carolina and Alabama cases, the name was applied to low, flat areas where the first railroad tracks were laid.  And in Tennessee, Frog Level is a remote, mountainous area of streams, waterfalls, bogs, and—one can presume—seasonally breeding and calling frogs. Other wildlife-based names also add a natural-resource perspective to Virginia’s geography and history.   The Commonwealth is home to Buffalo Gap, Clam, Dolphin, Ducks Store, Possum Trot, and many others.  But, at least from a water perspective, creature place names don’t get much more descriptive or fun than Frog Level. SOUND - ~4 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 frog sounds heard in this episode—all recorded by Virginia Water Radio in Blacksburg, Va.—were Gray Tree Frog, Green Frog, and Spring Peeper, recorded on May 13, 2013 (first sounds) and Green Frogs, recorded on August 1, 2016 (closing sound). Virginia Water Radio thanks Jess Jones, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, for suggesting and helping with this episode. 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 Wetland area at Frog Level in Tazewell County, Va., July 13, 2018. Frog Level sign at U.S. Route 19, U.S. Route 460, and State Routh 1

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:46). Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 7-13-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of July 16, 2018. MUSIC – ~12 sec This week, that music opens a repeat of a July 2013 episode on marshes, a kind of habitat found around the Chesapeake Bay and in many other areas where water and land meet.  This week’s episode is the first of a two-part series this month on marshes.  Have another listen to the music for about 50 more seconds. MUSIC – ~ 47 sec You’ve been listening to part of “The Prettiest Marsh,” by Teresa Whitaker on “Singing the Chesapeake,” a 2012 songbook and album from Finding Home Productions.  The Chesapeake region has many marshes, ranging from freshwater ones along tidal sections of rivers to grass-dominated salt marshes along the Bay shorelines. Marshes are an example of wetlands, a diverse group of habitats where saturation by water largely determines the soils and living things found there.  Besides marshes, several other kinds of wetlands occur throughout Virginia, including bogs, fens, pocosins, seeps, and swamps.  Topography, climate, water level and timing, and water chemistry all influence the variety and amounts of living things one finds in marshes or other wetlands.  And in any wetlands, you’ll find specially adapted plants and—as Ms. Whitaker sang about—a lot of animals that creep, crawl, whirr, and croak. Thanks to Teresa Whitaker and to Frank Schwartz for permission to use this week’s music. We close this week’s episode, and leave a hint about the next marsh episode, with a few more seconds of “The Prettiest Marsh.” 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 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 is the first of two in July 2018 on marshes.  The second of the series is Episode 430, 7-23-18. This episode revises and replaces Episode 169, 7-18-13, which has been archived.  Minni Gupta wrote most of the script for that episode in the fall 2010 semester as a Virginia Tech English Department intern at the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. “The Prettiest Marsh” and “Singing the Chesapeake” are copyright by Teresa Whitaker and Frank Schwartz, used with permission.  More information about Ms. Whitaker and Mr. Schwartz is available online at https://www.facebook.com/Teresa-Whitaker-Frank-Schwartz-162112866077/.  “Singing the Chesapeake” is songbook and album collection of songs by Tom Wisner, Mark Wisner, and Teresa Whitaker, published by Finding Home Productions, online at www.findinghomeproductions.com.   More information about Mr. Wisner is available from the Smithsonian Folkways “Artist Spotlight” at http://www.folkways.si.edu/explore_folkways/tom_wisner.aspx; and from the following obituary: Thomas A. Wisner, 79: 'Bard of the Chesapeake' sang about the bay he loved, Washington Post, 4/4/10.  “The Prettiest Marsh” was previously recorded by Ms. Whitaker on “We’ve Got to Come Full Circle: Chesapeake Song and Story for Young Hearts,” a 1984 album with Mr. Wisner on Smithsonian’s Folkways Records (http://www.folkways.si.edu/index.aspx). 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

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:44) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 7-20-18. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of July 23, 2018. MUSIC – ~14 sec This week, that excerpt of “Great Blue Heron,” composed by Phil Skeens and performed by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, Va., opens an episode on birds found in Virginia’s marshes.  Have a listen for about 30 seconds to some sounds you might hear while visiting a Tidewater area marsh. SOUNDS - 31 sec You heard a Great Blue Heron, a Wood Duck, a Northern Harrier (formerly known as Marsh Hawk), a Least Bittern, a Common Moorhen, and a Marsh Wren.  Those species represent some of the different groups of birds that inhabit freshwater or saltwater marshes in Virginia’s Coastal Plain, either as summer breeders, winter residents, or migrants. Many birds occurring in Tidewater’s marshes also occur in other kinds of wetlands in other parts of Virginia.  Marshes and other wetlands provide birds with key habitat features, particularly food from plants and many kinds of vertebrate and invertebrate animals; shelter and nesting areas within vegetation; and a watery buffer against land-based predators.  These habitat values lead to use by a large variety of birds; for example, well over 200 species have been observed in Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a 485-acre tidal freshwater wetland along the Potomac River in Fairfax County. For wading herons, dabbling or diving ducks, preying hawks, perching wrens, and many other feathered actors, Virginia’s marshes and other wetlands are essential natural stages. Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs.  Thanks also to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week’s music.  And we let a Marsh Wren have the closing notes. SOUND - ~ 4 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 This episode is the second of two in July 2018 on marshes.  The first of the series is Episode 429, 7-16-18. “Great Blue Heron,” from the 2004 album “Virginia Wildlife,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman, Phil Skeens, and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.  Mr. Seaman’s Web site is http://www.timothyseaman.com/. The sounds of Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Northern Harrier, Least Bittern, Common Moorhen, and Marsh Wren 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/. 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. IMAGES A Great Blue Heron and other birds in a marsh at Wachapreague, Va. (Accomack County), October 5, 2007. Marsh Wren painting originally published between 1827 and 1838 by John James Audubon in Birds of America (Plate 100), as reprinted in 1985 by Abbeville Press, New York.  Photo taken July 23, 2018, from the reprint copy (no. 6 of 350 copies printed in 1985) owned by Special Collections of Virginia Tech Libraries.  Virgini