Skip to main content

Gauley River, WV

 The Gauley River, West Virginia


The Gauley River is located in West Virginia and has three major portions that make up the river in its entirety. 



In the map above, you can see the three locations that are highlighted by the yellow markers. The far right marker is the Upper Gauley, the middle marker is Summersville Lake, and the far left marker is the Lower Gauley. The Summersville Lake is a man-made lake that was built by the Corps of Engineers in 1960 and separates the two portions of the Gauley River. A main part of the lake is the Summersville Dam, which ends the Summersville Lake and begins the Lower Gauley. 

Below are three climographs for the three locations.  





Below are the soil surveys for the three locations.

Upper Gauley:

Summersville Lake:


Lower Gauley:


The soil surveys and climographs of the three locations are very similar. However due to the characteristics of the lake, the Lower Gauley is different due to creation of the dam. The soils differ slightly from the three locations, with the Lower Gauley & Summersville Lake being more stratified. In the Upper Gauley, the elevation falls more evenly which is much different from the Lower Gauley. This leaves the Lower Gauley with much more exposed rock and more erosion, leading to the "Gauley Season" for white-water paddlers. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shasta National Forest: Biotic Communities and Disturbance Regime

  Shasta National Forest's Biotic Communities Western North America Alpine Tundra Conditions Western North America Alpine Tundra (WNA Alpine Tundra) ecosystems are found on mountain ranges along the west coast of North America, including the mid-elevations on Mount Shasta (Billings & Meidinger 2015). This ecosystem is characterized by short growing seasons and long winters with high snowpack. Soils in this ecosystem tend to be shallow, rocky, low in organics, and well drained (Billings & Meidinger 2015) .  Plant Communities Plants commonly found in the WNA Alpine Tundra ecosystem on Mount Shasta include wildflowers in the genus Eriogonum , like Sulphur Buckwheat ( Eriogonum umbellatum ), and some trees at lower elevations such as Lodgepole Pine ( Pinus contorta ) (Billings & Meidinger 2015; Anderson 2003; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) & United States Forest Service (USFS) 2016; USDA & USFS 2014) .  Sulphur Buckwheat. Source . Sulphur B...

Canadian Shield: Biotic Communities and Disturbance Regimes

Biotic Communities and Disturbance Regimes in the Canadian Shield Biotic Communities        Baffin Island T he vegetation of the Canadian Arctic is the tundra. Plants species in the tundra are very limited and the length of their growing season is short. Cotton grass, sedge, dwarf heath, shrubs, mosses and lichens are the most common vegetation in the Canadian Arctic (Aun et al. 2002).  T hree types of ecosystems are contained in the Canadian Arctic: the Arctic Cordillera, Northern Arctic and Southern Arctic, with Baffin Island being in the Northern Arctic.   Because of its harsh climate, high winds and shallow soils, the vegetation of the Northern Arctic is sparse and dwarfed (Aun et al. 2002).   Life in the polar regions is far from easy. Winter temperatures can reach deep into the negatives, and the winter night can last for months (WWF). But these landscapes which are lacking in vegetation are home to a rich diversity of wildlife, both on land and ...

The Gauley River: Stressors and Management

  Anthropogenic Stressor.  In the Upper Gauley, there is less of a chance of having an anthropogenic stressor in this area. Here, human activity is far and few in between. Many locals live here, so the potential stressor would most likely be a lack of governmental management over pollutants.  Both Summersville Lake and the Lower Gauley have a high anthropogenic stressor of pollution from humans. Tourism is highly encouraged and managed in Summersville Lake and the Lower Gauley. Whether that is human waste (defecation or trash), altering of the physical environment, or hunting/fishing, tourism is a huge stressor to the environment here. Many fish species suffer from water pollutants in this area.  In addition, Summersville Lake is drained once a year by the Army Corps of Engineers in preparation for the spring floods. Draining the lake dries out habitats, as well as nutrients and minerals throughout the lake. The riparian buffer surrounding the waters edge loses those...