CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:03) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 4-14-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 17, 2017. MUSIC – ~ 13 sec – Excerpt of “Red Wing” by The Steel Wheels. This week, music from the Harrisonburg, Va.-based band The Steel Wheels introduces a mystery sound that’s common to Virginia’s wet areas.  Have a listen for about 10 seconds, and see if you can guess what’s making the three-note song.  And your hint was in the music you heard! SOUNDS - ~10 sec If you guessed a Red-winged Blackbird, you’re right!   Found year-round throughout Virginia, this bird is often seen, and distinctively heard, around ponds, marshes, streams, and other wet areas.  A black body with red-and-yellow shoulder patches makes the males easy to identify; females, though, are brownish and lack the shoulder colors.  The Red-wing is one of five North American species of blackbirds, and one of about 20 North American species categorized in the family that includes blackbirds, cowbirds, grackles, meadowlarks, and orioles. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes Red-wings as “perhaps the most abundant and most commonly studied bird of North America.”  This species feeds on insects during the nesting season but later in the year switches to grains and seeds, with impacts in some cases on corn, sunflowers, and other crops by birds gathered in large, mixed-species flocks.  About the flocking characteristic, authors Alice Jane and Robert Lippson—in their 2006 book Life in the Chesapeake Bay—wrote that “as fall approaches, [Red-wings] throng in huge mixed flocks with grackles and cowbirds...[gathering] in great clouds and [spiraling] in long, seemingly never-ending smoke-like plumes” until they “suddenly descend into a grove of trees.” Thanks to The Steel Wheels—who put on a summer festival called the Red Wing Roots Music Festival—for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of “Red Wing.” MUSIC - ~33 sec SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  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 “Red Wing” is copyright by The Steel Wheels, used with permission.  The version used in this episode is from the 2011 album “Live at Goose Creek”; the song was first released on the 2010 album, “Red Wing.”  More information about The Steel Wheels is available online at http://www.thesteelwheels.com/. I n 2017, the Red Wing Roots Music Festival will be July 14-16 at Natural Chimneys Regional Park at Mt. Solon, Va. (Augusta County); more information about the festival is available online at http://www.redwingroots.com/. 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 male Red-winged Blackbird in California in 2009, showing the red and yellow wing-bar colors.  Photo by Lee Karney, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/6889/rec/3.  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE One of many Red-winged Blackbird habitats: Stroubles Creek along Plantation Road on the Virginia Tech Campus in Blacksbur

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:17) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 4-7-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 10, 2017. SOUND - ~ 4 sec That’s the sound of water flowing in the South Fork Roanoke River in Montgomery County, Va.   If you were under that flow on a rock, stick, leaf, or sediment on the stream bottom, who, or what, might be your neighbors?  This week, a group of Virginia high school students gives us a quick lesson on that subject.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds. GUEST VOICES - ~18 sec – Males: Black fly! Crane fly! Midge! Females: Riffle beetle! Water Penny! Hellgrammite! Males: Mayfly! Stonefly! Caddisfly! Females: Dragonfly! Damselfly! Males: Lunged snail! Females: Gilled snail! You’ve been listening to the names of 13 kinds of aquatic organisms found in streams, lakes, or other freshwater habitats.  The names were shouted out by students from Patrick County High School, located in Stuart, Virginia, during a visit to Virginia Tech on March 31, 2017.  Collectively, the organisms are called macroinvertebrates: “macro” because they’re large enough to be seen without a microscope; and “invertebrates” because they don’t have an internal backbone. Over 11,000 species of macroinvertebrates are known to inhabit freshwaters in North America, and many more species are found in marine waters.   Some, like freshwater snails, are aquatic for their entire life cycle; others, like many aquatic insects, emerge from water as adults.  Aquatic macroinvertebrates are important components of biological communities, the term for interacting populations of different species within a given area and time.  Within those communities, macroinvertebrates have various ecological roles, such as, as predators, like dragonflies; prey for fish, like many mayflies; consumers of algae off surfaces, like many snails; collectors of floating organic debris, like blackflies; or parasites, like some water mites. They also have various requirements or tolerances for different physical and chemical factors, such as temperature, the level of dissolved oxygen, and the level of pollutants.  This, along with relatively limited movement, makes macroinvertebrates valuable for biological assessments of water quality and aquatic habitat.  For example, freshwater Virginia streams without significant pollutants or other impairments typically have a diverse biological community, with many different kinds of macroinvertebrates.  In contrast, a stream with poor physical or chemical conditions will tend to have less diversity and may be dominated by the more tolerant kinds of organisms. Thanks to Patrick County High School students and the school’s Dan River Basin Association Club for lending their voices and energy to this episode.  As those students did at Virginia Tech, bring your curiosity and observation powers next time you visit a stream or other water body, and you just might have a biological community meeting with...[GUEST VOICES] aquatic macroinvertebrates! SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek 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 guest voices in this episode were students from Patrick County High School, located in Stuart, Virginia, recorded on a visit to the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment on March 31,

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:37) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-31-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of April 3, 2017. MUSIC – ~ 9 sec This week, music called “Storm” by Torrin Hallett, a student at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio, sets the stage for a storm-related mystery sound.  Have a listen for about 15 seconds, and see if you can guess what’s making this sound.  And here’s a hint: What high-altitude, icy creation ranges in size from a garden pea to a softball or even bigger? SOUNDS - ~16 sec If you guessed hail, you’re right!  You heard the sound of small hail hitting a car in Blacksburg, Va., during a brief storm on March 18, 2017.   That relatively mild hailstorm did little damage, but annually in the United States, hail typically causes at least hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to property and agricultural crops.  Hail forms inside thunderstorms, thousands of feet high in updrafts of warm, human air.  There, as moisture rises and cools, water droplets can freeze around particles called ice nuclei.  In strong updrafts, a frozen droplet can be held aloft and repeatedly encounter droplets of supercooled water—that is, liquid water below the freezing point—adding more ice and forming a hailstone.  A hailstone’s size depends largely on how strong, large, and long-lasting the updrafts are, determining how long a growing hailstone can be supported aloft.  Hailstone diameter can range from about the quarter-inch of a garden pea, to the four inches of a softball, to the eight inches of the largest recorded hailstone in the United States, which fell in South Dakota in July 2010. Not all thunderstorms produce hailstorms, of course.  But hail of 1 inch or more in diameter is one of three criteria—along with tornadoes or wind gusts of 58 miles per hour or more—that the National Weather Service uses to categorize thunderstorms as severe. We close with a few more seconds of Torrin Hallett’s “Storm”; followed by about 20 seconds of “Hail Improvisation,” created in March 2017 by Williamsburg, Va., third-grader and hammered-dulcimer student Simon Fass.  Thanks to Torrin, Simon, and Simon’s music teacher Timothy Seaman for providing this week’s music for hail. MUSIC - ~ 35 sec SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  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 from “Au Naturale,” is copyright by Torrin Hallett, used with permission. Click here to listen to the full version (1 min./44 sec.).   In 2016-17, Torrin is a fourth-year student at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio, majoring in horn performance, music composition, and math major.  More information about Mr. Hallett is available at his Web site, http://www.torrinjhallett.com/. “Hail Improvisation” was created March 23, 2017, by Simon Fass in a hammered-dulcimer music lesson with Timothy Seaman; used with permission.   In 2017, Simon is a third-grader in Williamsburg, Va. Click here to listen to the full version (2 min./20 sec.).   More information about Mr. Seaman and his music is available online at http://timothyseaman.com/en/. Click here for 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

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:22) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-24-17.  TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 27, 2017. SOUND – ~4 sec – running water faucet This week, we drop in on an event where people line up to talk about their household water faucets.  Sound plumb unbelievable?  Well, just have a listen for about 70 seconds. VOICES - ~74 sec You’ve been listening to citizen participants and Virginia Tech faculty at the Virginia Household Water Quality Program clinic kick-off in Montgomery County on March 20, 2017. T he program offers drinking-water clinics in which people who rely on private wells, springs, or cisterns can get their water tested inexpensively and receive a report interpreting the results.  Citizens pick up a sampling kit and instructions, collect water from a household faucet (or in some cases, directly from a spring or other water source), and return the samples two days later.  Tech laboratories analyze the samples for bacteria, lead, arsenic, nitrate, iron, sulfate, and several other constituents.  After about four weeks, program faculty hold a meeting to give participants their confidential results, offer interpretation of the analyses, and provide other information on managing water systems.  The clinics in 2017 run from March 15 to November 1 and will cover over 50 Virginia localities.  In operation since 1989, the program has covered the Commonwealth several times, with the results providing valuable information to specific homeowners and offering broader snapshots of groundwater conditions within localities. A companion Tech program, the Virginia Well Owner Network, consists of trained Virginia Cooperative Extension agents and volunteers who assist Virginians with water-well questions and problems.  Both programs are administered by Tech’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering, through Virginia Cooperative Extension.  For more information about these programs, search online for the Virginia Household Water Quality Program; phone (540) 231-9058; or contact your local Cooperative Extension office. SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek 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 Thanks to Kelli Scott of Virginia Cooperative Extension, and to Brian Benham and Erin James Ling of the Virginia Tech Department of Biological Systems Engineering, for their help 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 Sample bottles and instruction sheets included in participant kits in the Virginia Household Water Quality Program, March 20, 2017. Kits containing sampling bottles and instructions await pickup by participants at the Virginia Household Water Quality Program kickoff for Montgomery County on March 20, 2017, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Part of the training video for participants in the Virginia Household Water Quality Program, being shown on March 20, 2017, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. SOURCES  Used for Audio Virginia Tech Department of Biological Systems Engineering/Virginia Household Water

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:29) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-17-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 20, 2017. SOUND – ~ 4 sec This week, we feature a series of downstream-moving mystery sounds.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can guess a southern Virginia river and reservoir that have shaped the history of three counties named for Revolutionary legends Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin. SOUNDS - 22 sec If you guessed the Smith River and Philpott Reservoir, you’re right!  You heard the Smith River at the Jacks Creek Covered Bridge in Patrick County; at the outflow of the Philpott Reservoir dam, located between Henry County and Franklin County; and finally, at a bridge in the Henry County town of Bassett.  Below Bassett, the river continues through Henry County, past the city of Martinsville where it is again dammed, and eventually to Eden, North Carolina, where it joins the Dan River. Europeans first named the river the Irwin or Irvin River after a surveyor in William Byrd’s expedition in 1728.  The relevant “Smiths” are believed to have been Gideon and Daniel, settlers in the 1740s in Pittsylvania County, from which Henry County was formed in 1777.  According to Nancy Bell in her book Philpott Stories, in the early to mid-1900s the people of the “mountains and...hollows around Franklin, Henry, and Patrick counties...both relied upon and feared the mighty Smith River.”  A devastating flood in 1937 helped lead to the plans and funds that eventually resulted in the Philpott Dam and Reservoir, completed in 1952 and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood control, hydroelectric power, and recreation.  Below Philpott, the Smith River offers what the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries calls one of Virginia’s “most unique fisheries,” where the dam’s coldwater releases into a relatively large stream create excellent habitat for trout. The Philpott project was named for a Henry County family that gave up several hundred acres to the reservoir.  That family also produced one of Virginia’s most prominent politicians of the 20th Century, A.L. Philpott, who served as House of Delegates speaker from 1980-1991.   He was a powerful legislative presence during a time when the General Assembly faced many significant water-resources issues, such as a statewide moratorium on uranium mining put in place in 1982, and Virginia’s 1988 Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. In 2017, the Smith River continues as a popular fishery, scenic attraction, and resource for communities. Philpott Dam and Reservoir continue as defining regional features.  And those two surnames—one as common as any English name, and the other distinctive in southern Virginia—continue to be part of our Commonwealth’s water story. SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.   Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.   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 Smith River and Philpott Dam sounds were recorded by Virginia Water Radio on January 15-16, 2017. Thanks to the following people for their help providing information or sources for this episode: Paul Angermeier, Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation; John Copeland, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fishiers (VDGIF); Nima Guerin, Virginia Tech Library research desk; Shannon Ritter, Virginia Te

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:18) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-10-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 13, 2017. SOUNDS – ~ 6 sec – Crowd gathered for January 18, 2017, meeting of the Virginia House of Delegates’ Natural Resources Subcommittee. This week, we drop in on a tightly packed room spilling into a hallway of a historic building in the heart of Richmond, Virginia.  In this room and others like it, people from various backgrounds gather to express concerns, clarify uncertainty, and work towards compromise.  Have a listen for about 90 seconds to an abbreviated version of what was in fact a 30-minute conversation, and try to figure out what’s going on! VOICES – ~84 sec You’ve been listening to a discussion in the January 18, 2017, meeting of the Natural Resources Subcommittee, part of the Virginia House of Delegates’ Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.   In the audio you heard, this subcommittee was discussing House Bill 1679, related to chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. In a subcommittee, members meet with stakeholders from across the Commonwealth to discuss legislation.  Subcommittees are usually the first place where proposed bills get thoroughly debated at the General Assembly, so their meetings can draw a passionate and heated crowd.  Subcommittees are the place to discover the issues of a bill, and clarification is the name of the game at this level.  What happens here is crucial to whether or not proposals move forward from committees to House and Senate floors and ultimately to the governor’s desk. So if someday in January or February you find yourself at the Virginia General Assembly, try to drop into a subcommittee meeting.  You may not have enough room to move, and you may find yourself standing in the hallway or sitting on a table rather than a chair.   But even if you’re crowded, you’ll be sure to witness the interpersonal, relatively informal, and occasionally humorous side of Virginia law-making. Thanks to this week’s guest host, Eryn Turney, the spring 2017 intern at the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. We close with the words of James Edmunds, the chair of the Virginia House of Delegates’ Natural Resources Subcommittee. VOICE – ~6 sec – Adjournment of January 18, 2017, subcommittee meeting. SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek 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 week’s audio was recorded by Virginia Water Radio at the January 18, 2017, meeting of the Natural Resources Subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates’ Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources.  The excerpt you heard was a montage of comments in the original sequence but not the original timing. An audio recording (30 min./31 sec.) of the subcommittee’s full discussion of House Bill 1679 on January 18, 2017, is available at this link. For more on 2017 General Assembly bills on hydraulic fracturing chemicals, please see the Virginia Water Central News Grouper post, Water in the 2017 VA General Assembly: Fracking Chemical Disclosure Bills – Updated February 21, 2017. An excerpt of the January 18 subcommittee meeting was also featured in Episode 353, 1/30/17. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrange

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:13) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-3-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 6, 2017. SOUNDS – ~ 5 sec – Thunderstorm This week we feature a severe-weather mystery sound. Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can guess what this sound might mean on a warm, stormy day or night, any time of year. SOUNDS - ~ 20 sec If you guessed a tornado warning, you’re right!  You heard Virginia Tech’s warning siren, first during Virginia’s 2011 statewide tornado drill, and then—along with rain and thunder—during a real tornado-warning for the Blacksburg area in the early morning of April 28, 2011. In 2017, March 21 at 9:45 a.m. is the date and time for Virginia’s tornado drill.  During the drill, the National Weather Service will send a test warning over NOAA Weather Radios, simulating what people would receive during an actual tornado warning.  Local media will also broadcast the test message over the Emergency Alert System.  The drill is a chance for schools, agencies, businesses, and families to learn about tornadoes and to practice tornado-emergency plans. Information about the drill, including how to register a local event, is available from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, online at vaemergency.gov. Whether by siren, broadcast, cell phone, or some other way, if you receive an actual tornado warning for your location, here’s what Virginia emergency managers recommend you do: *Take shelter in the nearest substantial building, specifically in the basement or on the lowest floor in a windowless, interior room. *Be ready to protect your body from flying debris with a mattress, pillows, or other material. *DON’T stay in a car or a mobile home; instead, quickly seek a substantial building. *If you can’t get to a building as a tornado approaches, DON’T stay under a bridge or overpass; instead, lie flat in a ditch or some other low spot and cover your head with your hands. In such a place, be alert for rising water. *DO monitor conditions on a mobile device, weather radio, or other information source, and stay in your safe location until the danger has passed. Between 1951 and 2015, Virginia experienced 680 reported tornadoes, occurring in all regions of the state and in every month of the year; and at least eight twisters touched down in Virginia on February 24, 2016, killing four people.  So please, make a plan, stay informed, and be tornado ready! SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  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 an update of previous episodes on tornado preparedness (Episodes 102, 3-13-12; 204, 3-10-14; and 256, 3-9-15).  The audio files for those episodes have been archived. Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the Ben Cosgrove's “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com. PHOTOS Heavily damaged house in Pulaski, Virginia, on April 14, 2011, following an April 8 tornado in the area.Sign marking an area in the Virginia Tech Squires Student Center designated as an emergency shelter for hazardous weather, March 19, 2015. EXTRA INFORMATION ON TORNADO PREPAREDNESS Following is the tornado preparedness information available from th

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 2-24-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 27, 2017. This week, we feature another mystery sound, from an amphibian whose population details remain, in fact, mysterious, even to herpetologists, the scientists who study amphibians and reptiles.  Have a listen for about 10 seconds, and see if you can guess what’s making this call.   And here’s a hint: to guess this name, combine a Virginia sunrise’s direction, a playing card suit or garden tool, and what’s in your shoe. SOUNDS - ~12 sec If you guessed an Eastern Spadefoot, you’re right!  This animal—which some reference consider a kind of frog, and others a kind of toad—is one of seven spadefoot species in North America, but the only one found east of the Mississippi River.  It’s 2-to-3 inches long, brownish with two yellow back stripes, and with vertically-oriented pupils, in contrast to the more horizontal pupils of other frogs and toads.  But a spadefoot’s most characteristic features are hard, spade-like projections on the hind feet, with which the animal can burrow into sand or other loose soil in order to avoid dry conditions. In Virginia from early March through spring, Eastern Spadefoots typically emerge in large numbers after heavy rains to breed in seasonal wetlands, flooded fields, or other temporarily wet areas.  They’re mostly known in the Coastal Plain, but much remains unknown about this species’ distribution and habits in the Commonwealth.  That’s why scientists Jason Gibson, at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, and Travis Anthony, at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College in Richmond, are leading a project in 2017 to learn more about the Eastern Spadefoot in Virginia.  Collaborating with the Virginia Herpetological Society and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, they’re inviting other Virginians to participate, too, by watching and listening for this secretive creature, and by submitting information on any encounters.  To learn more about the project, or to submit spadefoot observations, e-mail [email protected], or [email protected]. Thanks to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and to Lang Elliott’s NatureSoundStudio for permission to use the Eastern Spadefoot sounds. SOUND - ~5 sec SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.   Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek 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 Eastern Spadefoot sounds were from “The Calls of Virginia Frogs and Toads” CD copyright 2008 by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) and Lang Elliott/NatureSoundStudio, used with permission.   The calls CD is part of the VDGIF’s A Guide to the Frogs and Toads of Virginia.   For more information, visit https://www.shopdgif.com/product.cfm?uid=1928838&context=&showInactive=N, or contact VDGIF at 4010 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230; phone: (804) 367-1000 (VTDD); e-mail: [email protected].  Lang Elliott’s 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 (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style D

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:15) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 2-17-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 20, 2017. This week, we feature another series of mystery sounds. Have a listen for about 35 seconds, and see if you can guess what’s going on with this music, screams, and water splashing. And here’s a hint: When a good cause needs help, lots of people plunge right in. SOUND - ~39 sec If you guessed, excited people running into near-freezing water, you’re right! But the real mystery is: why did over 200 people jump into the cold New River one day in January 2011? They were Radford, Va., participants in the Polar Plunge Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE ® /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;} , held annually to raise money for Special Olympics, the international organization dedicated to sports for people with intellectual disabilities. At winter water plunges around Virginia and across the country, the charity gets contributions from entry fees and from donations raised by plunging participants. The 2017 plunges in Virginia were scheduled for February 4 into the Atlantic Ocean at Virginia Beach; February 18, into the New River at Radford; February 25, into the Potomac River in Prince William County; also February 25, into an above-ground pool in Richmond; and March 11, into a pool in Charlottesville. Information about these events is available online at polarplunge.com. If you’ve got thick skin, plus a warm heart for a good cause, you could be heading for a plunge! SOUND – ~5 sec Thanks to this week’s co-host, Eryn Turney, the spring 2017 intern at the Virginia Water Resources Research Center. SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek 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 in this episode were recorded by Virginia Water Radio at the Special Olympics Polar Plunge into the New River at Bisset Park in Radford, Va., on January 29, 2011. 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. This episode is an update of Episode 96 (1-23-12), which has been archived. PHOTOS Above: Special Olympics Virginia Polar Plunge in Richmond in 2016.  Photo by Willow Lawn (a Richmond commercial area operated by Federal Realty Investment Trust), courtesy of Nicole Rappaport, Virginia Special Olympics, used with permission. Four photos above: Special Olympics Virginia Polar Plunge in Radford, February 18, 2017.  Top: chute participants use to run into the New River.  Upper middle: Emergency services personnel at the ready in the water.  Lower middle: Participants just before their plunge.  Bottom: Blue Brother impersonator, post-plunge. For photos from the Virginia Beach Polar Plunge on February 4, 2017, please see this WTKR TV-Norfolk link. EXTRA FACTS ABOUT POLAR PLUNGES AND SPECIAL OLYMPICS The year 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of Virginia Special Olympics polar plunges. The funds raise help the Virginia or

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:58) Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below. All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 2-10-17. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of February 13, 2017. MUSIC – ~ 13 sec This week, in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, music by a Harrisonburg, Va.-based band sets the stage for exploring the Shenandoah Valley roots of our 16th president. Have a listen for about 45 seconds. MUSIC - ~44 sec You’ve been listening to part of “Valley,” by The Steel Wheels, from the 2010 album, “Red Wing.” With the band’s home base in Harrisonburg and surrounding Rockingham County, the mountains, waters, and valley mentioned in the song could refer to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River, and Shenandoah Valley.   If Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandfather John or great-grandmother Rebecca had been musicians, they, too might have been inspired by those Virginia land and water features.   In 1768 the John Lincoln family left Pennsylvania and settled along Linville Creek, a tributary of the North Fork Shenandoah River in what was then part of Augusta County, Va., from which Rockingham County was formed in 1778.  In the 1780s, President Lincoln’s grandfather, also Abraham, joined thousands of other Virginians migrating to what was then Virginia’s Kentucky County.  That area became the state of Kentucky in 1792 and, in 1809, the birthplace of the future president.  Five generations of Lincolns are buried at the Rockingham County homestead’s cemetery, where every year—rain or shine—a ceremony is held to remember the most famous descendant of the 17th and 18th Century settlers and migrants along western Virginia’s ridges, rivers, and valleys. Thanks to The Steel Wheels for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of “Valley.” MUSIC - ~ 15 sec SHIP’S BELL For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek 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 “Valley,” from the 2010 album “Red Wing,” is copyright by The Steel Wheels, used with permission.  More information about The Steel Wheels is available online at http://www.thesteelwheels.com/. PHOTOS Three scenes from the Shenandoah Valley and the Shenandoah/Potomac watershed, moving downstream.  Top - North Fork Shenandoah River at Timberville, Va. (Rockingham County). Feb. 26, 2007, downstream of Linville Creek, the river’s tributary on which the Lincoln homestead is located. Middle – Meems Bottom Covered Bridge over the North Fork Shenandoah River near Mt. Jackson, Va. (Shenandoah County), Oct. 13, 2012.  Bottom: Confluence of the Shenandoah River (foreground) with the Potomac River (background) at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., Aug. 14, 2008. SOURCES USED IN AUDIO AND FOR MORE INFORMATION David Hackett Fischer and James C. Kelly, Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, 2000.  According to these authors (p. 137), about a million people migrated out of Virginia in late 1700s to mid-1800s; (and from p. 155): “...a human deluge poured down the western rivers and along the Wilderness Road” into Kentucky in the 1780s and 1790s. Foundation for On-Line Genealogy’s WeRelate Web site, “Early Settlers on Linville's Creek, Augusta County, VA,” online at http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Early_Settlers_on_Linville's_Creek,_Augusta_County,_VA.  According to this source: “Linville Creek was o