South Fork Shenandoah River

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The South Fork Shenandoah River is one of two forks that unite to form the Shenandoah River in northwestern Virginia in the United States. It flows through a long lateral valley in the Appalachian Mountains on the west side of the Blue Ridge.

It is formed at Port Republic in southern Rockingham County, by the confluence of the North River and South River. It flows northeast in a tight meandering course, past Elkton and Shenandoah, in a valley between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Massanutten Mountain range to the west, this valley is known as Page Valley. It joins the North Fork at Front Royal, on the north end of the Massanutten Mountain range, to form the Shenandoah.

Since 2005, the South Fork Shenandoah River has experienced a series of fish kills every spring that have affected several of its native fish species. In the spring of 2005, redbreast sunfish and smallmouth bass along 100-mile stretch of the South Fork Shenandoah River began dying of lesions caused by bacteria and fungi. Although the fish kill eventually wiped-out 80% of the adult redbreast sunfish and smallmouth bass, juvenile populations appeared to be unaffected.^[1] The following year more-localized fish kills in Clarke County spread to two of the Shenandoah's three species of sucker, the shorthead redhorse and the northern hogsucker - the former suffering from similar lesions witnessed in the previous year's fish kill.^[2] Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality again received reports of fish kills near Elkton and between Bentonville and Front Royal in late-April 2007 and observed fish exhibiting lesions and strange behavior. ^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Washington Post (Washington D.C.), 20 July 2005
2. ^ Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), 7 June 2006
3. ^ Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, "Virginia Seeks Public's Help in Fish Kill Investigation," Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, http://www.deq.state.va.us/info/srfishkill.html (accessed 20 July 2005)

[edit] External links

• Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - South Fork
• Virginia Department of Environmental Quality - Fish Kill Task Force
• Shenandoah Valley Pure Water Forum

[edit] See also

• List of Virginia rivers

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