Only one stream site, Mill Creek (west edge of Cades Cove) has been sampled in the Park to date; this limited survey was conducted on 1 April, during a post-meeting collecting trip by participants of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB), convened in Gatlinburg, TN.

Because of other work-related duties, we have not yet scheduled additional field work for the year.

Specific locality information for the Mill Creek site surveyed in 2006 will be provided HERE soon.

During the field trip to the Park after the annual ASB meeting, MJW had the opportunity to demonstrate collecting techniques to several other biologists.

1. ''An overview of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory Program in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with focus on our inventory of the aquatic Oligochaeta and other annelidan fauna in the Park''. Invited keynote address (one of three parts), presented by M.J. Wetzel at the 33rd annual Indiana Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, Indiana State University, Terre Haute; 9 March 2006.

2. ''The Aquatic Oligochaeta (Annelida, Clitellata) of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee, USA: Helping Man and Worm See Eye to Eye.'' Paper co-authored by Mark J. Wetzel Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign) and Peggy Morgan (Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tampa); presented by M.J. Wetzel at the Annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists, Gatlinburg Convention Center, Gatlinburg, TN, 29 March-1 April 2006. This talk was one of several presented during a special session dedicated to the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory program in the Park; many of the presentations at this symposium were subsequently published in a special issue of Southeastern Naturalist, including our paper:

3. ''An introduction to the taxonomy, systematics, and ecology of North American Freshwater Annelida, with summaries of our surveys for Aquatic Oligochaeta in a) the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, and b) the Colorado River and its tributaries in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.'' This talk was presented to faculty, staff, and students at the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research (Powell Division) at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, on 19 July.

4. ''The Aquatic Oligochaeta (Annelida, Clitellata) of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee. Update: December 2006.'' 10th Annual meeting of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory Program underwritten by Discover Life In America, Inc., Glenstone Lodge, Gatlinburg, TN, 6-8 December 2006. [presentation co-authored with M.A. Peggy Morgan].

I especially encourage you to visit the Discover Life in America, Inc. (DLIA) website; there you will find contact information for scientists associated with the various taxonomic working groups (TWIGS), volunteers already contributing to this project, the administrative and scientific staff of DLIA, and a variety of opportunities for public involvement in research and education in the Park. Please Note: The new DLIA / ATBI website has been expanded extensively over the last two years; please visit and familiarize yourself with its own 'virtual' diversity of information and resources!