You may not realize it, but this region is home to the greatest concentration of aquatic life in North America. A few hundred yards of a single small river here has more fish species than the entire state of California. No place on earth has more diversity of mussels or crayfish. The Paint Rock River, a beautiful but not particularly large river in Jackson County, Alabama, has almost four times as many mussel species as all of Western and Eastern Europe, from Russia to England, from Norway to Spain.
Jackson County is also the national center of cave life. These dark dwellings are a major reason the greatest concentrations of salamanders on the planet are found within a short drive from Chattanooga. The greatest concentration of turtle diversity in the Western Hemisphere isn’t in the Amazon – it’s in Alabama and surrounding states.
Bill Finch – Thrive Regional Partnership
Photo: Thrive Regional Partnership
See earlier post, A Visit to the Paint Rock Forest Research Center.