On a recent tour of Lake Adger, area officials saw beautiful mountain views and watched a bald eagle fly overhead, but they also saw the lake’s many years of neglect, with fallen trees, eroding stream banks and water depths slowing decreasing as a result of silt.
The Green River Alliance organized the event with Lake Adger homeowners and invited a variety of organizations on Friday, June 1 to tour the lake. Five boats carried approximately 30 people on the tour. Those attending included representatives from the Green River Watershed Alliance, the Polk County Board of Commissioners, the Isothermal Planning and Development Commission, N.C. Wildlife Resources, Altamont Environmental Inc., the Pacolet Area Conservancy and other conservancy organizations, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), local contractors, the Polk Soil and Water Department and local business owners and residents.
Sky Conard, Green River Watershed Alliance organizer, talked about the history of the lake and the alliance’s concerns regarding the lake’s sedimentation and erosion issues. Polk County purchased Lake Adger in 2009 as a future water source and is in the process of getting the Green River Watershed reclassified.
The Green River Watershed Alliance was formed as a group of concerned residents interested in the reclassification of the watershed, which encompasses 156,824 acres or approximately 245 square miles in Polk and Henderson counties. The watershed spans the boundary between the mountain and piedmont regions with nearly 2,000 feet of elevation change between its headwaters and the Green River’s confluence with the Broad River.
The alliance organized the lake tour on June 1 to alert area officials of the need for a watershed assessment and plan, with hopes of obtaining grants to help fund the efforts.
The group visited several sites on the lake that have erosion and other issues, including the marina (at the mouth of the Green River), the mouth of Panther Creek, the waterfall, Little Jackson Cove, the island, Frog Rock, the Turner Shoals Dam and the mouth of Jackson Cove.