Displaying items by tag: laurel dace day spring city

A laurel dace (Chrosomus saylori) collected by Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute scientists at Bumbee Creek in Rhea County, Tenn.  Tennessee Aquarium

Spring City set to celebrate a rare denizen of Walden Ridge almost decimated by drought

Wes Boling is marketing communications manager for Nokian Tyres Dayton Factory.

SPRING CITY — Nokian Tyres will serve as presenting sponsor of Laurel Dace Day, a community celebration of an endangered fish, set for Saturday, May 17, in Spring City.  

The inaugural event led by the Tennessee Aquarium raises awareness of the laurel dace, a critically endangered fish found only in the Walden Ridge area 20 miles from Nokian Tyres’ North American factory in Dayton. 

Laurel Dace Day features a 5K race and half-mile family fun run, followed by a festival at the Spring City Nature Park with live music, a farmers’ market, local vendors and conservation education. The event is free to attend, other than registration fees for participation in the races. 

Community members can learn more about the event and register for races at TNAqua.org

Tennessee Aquarium Reintroduction Biologist II Teresa Israel examines a critically endangered laurel dace before its reintroduction to the wild in March 2025. In July 2024, about 300 of these fish — considered by scientists to be among the most imperiled in North America — were rescued out of rapidly drying streams on Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga.  Tennessee Aquarium

Improving drought conditions on Cumberland Plateau enabled return of fish after 2024 rescue

Casey Phillips is a communications specialist at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.

CHATTANOOGA — After being saved from near-certain extinction last summer and overwintering in the expert care of biologists at the Tennessee Aquarium, more than 230 critically endangered laurel dace are finally back where they belong.

Last July, a prolonged regional drought caused many Southeast Tennessee streams to dwindle and, in some cases, dry up entirely. Atop Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga, water flow ceased at Bumbee Creek and Youngs Creek, the last sites known to support populations of Chrosomus saylori, the laurel dace.

When conditions in these rapidly disappearing waterways reached a tipping point, the Aquarium led a series of emergency rescue operations to save as many of these red-bellied, highlighter-yellow-finned minnows as possible. In coordination with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and with assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Georgia, about 300 laurel dace — the majority left on the planet — were relocated into the safety of human care at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery in Jamestown, Kentucky.

According to the most recent report from the USDA’s U.S. Drought Monitor, much of Southeast Tennessee is still experiencing moderate drought conditions. However, a slightly wetter-than-average February made it safe to return these rescued minnows to the wild.