Friends of the Russell Fork (ACCWT)

Welcome To Our Part of Earth!

Nestled in the mountains of Southwest Virginia
Dickenson County (Virginia's Baby)
in the Heart of Appalachia, in God's Country.

Mountain Art Works, LLC

Friends of the Russell Fork

Contact Information

OSM/VISTA: Nicole Tucker and Amber Bellamy
Supervisor: Gene Counts
Sponsoring Organization: Friends of the Russell Fork
Address: PO Box 116 Haysi VA 24256
Phone: (276) 865-5651
E-Mail: tuckerforf@gmail.com (Nicole Tucker),
a_bellamy@hotmail.com (Amber Bellamy)
genecounts@hotmail.com (Gene)
Website: http://www.accwt.org/va/forf/index.html
U.S. Congressional Districts: 9th
County: Dickenson

Background
The Russell Fork River runs northward through Buchanan and Dickenson Counties in Southwest
Virginia, passes through a dramatic gorge in scenic Breaks Interstate Park on its way to Kentucky
and eventually flows into the Big Sandy River. The Russell Fork provides recreational opportunities
for locals and visitors alike and has long been popular with paddlers, particularly on October
weekends when John Flannagan dam offers 3-day releases that generate Class IV and V rapids
through the gorge.

On the Virginia side, the Russell Fork cuts through steep terrain and encounters few urban areas
on its route. The economy of this region throughout the years has been founded on coal mining
and logging, and increasingly on natural gas extraction. Some of the environmental issues facing
the Russell Fork are sedimentation, illegal dump sites, poor septic facilities and acid mine
drainage. Sedimentation, which blankets streambeds and damages aquatic habitats, arises from
the steepness of the surrounding landscape coupled with poor resource extraction practices.
Illegal dumping, a chronic problem in the region, contributes to poor drainage and chemical
contamination of waterways. Straight-piping, aggravated by poverty and poor soil, persists.
Dickenson County remains the only county in Virginia still listed by the Appalachian Regional
Commission as economically distressed.

The Friends of the Russell Fork (FORF) is a young watershed group based in the town of Haysi
with an office on the campus of Haysi High School. The FORF comprises local citizens who want
to improve the quality of the waterways in the Russell Fork watershed, restore the diversity of
aquatic life, and promote economic development in their community. The FORF partners with
schools, businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit groups to clean illegal dump sites,
monitor streams, give citizens access to lawful wastewater treatment, and raise public awareness
about environmental issues.

Goals

Recruiting and training volunteers from area residents is central to our work. Local stewardship of
the watershed is critical to the success of our projects and to the organization’s pursuit of funding.
We want not just to write grants to fund our projects, but to teach local citizens how to write grants
for future projects. We anticipate our volunteers helping us to set up and run a DEQ-certified
bacteria monitoring lab in our office in Haysi. Further, we plan to engage volunteers in regular
clean-ups of stream banks and illegal dumpsites.

We hope to take advantage of our on-campus office, which we owe to goodwill of the Dickenson
County School Board, by working closely with area students. We plan to offer environmental
education programs, water monitoring opportunities and guest speakers in the classroom. We are
coordinating and helping fund the publication of a 9th grade Earth Science textbook supplement
that examines issues specific to the local watershed.

We are currently working with the Virginia Department of Health to undertake a systematic removal
of straight pipes from the watershed. Starting at the Kentucky state line, we will work our way
upstream targeting each defective septic system we encounter. This will be a lengthy project but
an essential one. By helping individual citizens who cannot afford proper wastewater treatment to
apply for grant money we will slowly but surely close off the remaining straight pipes that pollute
our waterways.

In an effort to promote economic development, the FORF is coordinating the construction of a
hiking/biking trail connecting Haysi, John Flannagan Dam and the Breaks Interstate Park. Although
substantial grant money was set aside several years ago for this project, construction has been
delayed for various reasons, including difficulties with purchasing the land. Now that the
Dickenson County has the land rights, the FORF will work with the Board of Supervisors to push
this trail through, and apply for further grant money to complete it. Related projects under
consideration are a streambank restoration at the Splashdam trailhead and a visitors’ center in
Haysi.

Finally, to educate the public about their watershed and to keep them informed about the FORF’s
activities, we publish regular newsletters and make them available in schools and local
businesses. We are also teaming up with other area watershed groups to write a rotating weekly
column of environmental information, news and events in the county newspaper.

Partners

McClure River Restoration Project
Equitable Resources
Dickenson County School Board
American Whitewater Association
Virginia Department of Health
Haysi High School
Council High School
Upper Tennessee River Roundtable
Lonesome Pine Soil and Water Conservation District
Big Sandy River Basin Coalition
Dickenson County Litter Control
Dickenson County Board of Supervisors
Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA)
Cumberland Plateau Planning District
Trout Unlimited of Southwest Virginia
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
John Flannagan Water Authority
U.S. Forest Service (USDA)
Office of Surface Mining
Dickenson County Public Service Authority
Veolia Water
Dickenson and Buchanan County 911 Mapping Offices