Blue Ridge Country September/October 2022 - 65

taught other kids how to paddle and
roll on the nearby Hiwassee and Ocoee
rivers. But it wasn't until the economics
major signed up for a forestry class in college
that it occurred to him that he could
turn his love of nature into a bona fide
career. Two leadership-focused internships,
first with Outdoor Chattanooga,
then with Thrive 2055, a regional planning
initiative where he met members
of local, state and federal conservation
groups, opened doors to a vocation that
suited him much better than his original
business track.
In 2016, Berz found a way to use both
sets of skills, and his detail-oriented personality,
when he joined the TRGT. He'd
never paid much attention to birds, he
admits, but an invitation to set up equipment
and help band migrating species
changed that.
" I became awestruck that we were, for
this brief moment in time, interacting
with these little birds that were trapped
in the middle of a 1,000-mile-plus journey
... and spending over half of the year
in the neotropics and then coming right
back to the same spot. "
At first, Berz studied a variety of migratory
birds, monitoring any that flew
through the Tennessee River Gorge corridor.
But he soon zeroed in on the Louisiana
waterthrush, a neotropical warbler
that resides in Mexico, Central America
and the Caribbean through the winter
months and returns to the eastern U.S.
in the spring, only to repeat the cycle the
following year. A ground-nesting species
that feeds on salamanders and other animals
in mountain creeks and streams, it is
drawn to the pristine waters of the Gorge.
Over the course of three years, Berz
and his research team conducted a pilot
study of the birds, equipping some
of them with geolocator " backpacks "
that collected data showing their whereabouts
and breeding habits. Return rates
for the waterthrushes reached 30% to
40%, " which is actually a little high because
some of the birds have a very short
lifespan, " he says. " Some of them don't
make it. Some of them find a new spot
the next year they like better. "
In an effort to conserve the bird's
habitat, not just in the gorge, but in its
southern home in Guatemala, TRGT has
since teamed up with a birders' association,
a wildlife conservation group and
eco-tourism guides in that country to
teach residents how they can help and
incentivize palm oil farmers and other
landowners to leave the jungles intact.
Guatemalan school kids now monitor
the Louisiana waterthrush as part of an
after-school project.
Despite the broader responsibilities
that came with his promotion two years
ago-Berz still leads the organization's
research efforts but also facilitates public
recreation access, building trails and acquiring
land while keeping a finger on the
pulse of the forest to protect it-tracking
the Louisiana waterthrush is still his favorite
project.
" You start to realize that some of these
individual birds have different personalities.
Some were more aggressive than
others. Some were secretive. Some had
different dialects, and you can tell the
difference between some of the individuals
by the way they sing. That was something
I've never experienced before. "
These days, Berz is studying the belted
kingfisher, a showier, blue-and-white
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Blue Ridge Country September/October 2022

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