Species Conservation
Location
The North Fork of the Roanoke River (NFRR), approximately 30 miles long, originates between two mountain ridges in Roanoke County, Virginia and flows southwest through Montgomery County, then loops back to the northeast to start the Roanoke River near Elliston, Virginia.
The diversity
The NFRR is a major tributary of the Roanoke River Basin, which hosts a diversity of rare and endemic species of high ecological importance.
The primary target species for many of our projects in this watershed is the Roanoke logperch (Percina rex), a federal and state listed darter endemic to the Roanoke and Chowan river basins of the eastern United States.
Roanoke logperch are found primarily in medium-sized rivers free of silt and characterized by unembedded pebble and gravel substrate.
This species is continually threatened by increased siltation due to anthropogenic impacts, such as agriculture and urbanization, throughout the upper Roanoke basin and including the NFRR Valley.
