ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Tropical Storm Helene changed the Swannanoa River in countless ways. One of those changes is giving native fish access to stretches of the river they hadn’t been able to reach for more than a century.
A small opening created when Helene partially washed out Lake Craig Dam has restored fish passage upstream of the century-old barrier, and researchers are already finding species in places where they hadn’t previously been documented.
In a report released Sept. 29, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission described the opening as an unexpected positive outcome of the storm.
Surveys conducted by NC Wildlife and Warren Wilson College researchers found smallmouth bass and russet darters upstream of the dam for the first time since it was built. The discovery is one of the more encouraging signs emerging as scientists continue to study the Swannanoa River’s recovery from the September 2024 storm…