Tennessee Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (TNAFS)
2026 Annual Meeting
March 17th – 19th, 2026
Cumberland Mountain State Park
https://oldunitsstaging.fisheries.org/tn/
TNAFS_Final Program_2026
Important Dates:
Feb 11th Pre-Order Ends for TNAFS t-shirts with the new logo
Feb 20th Early Registration Ends – https://tnafs.square.site/
Abstract Submissions Due – Google Form for Submissions
Mar 17-19 2026 Conference!
New T-shirt design
Registration
Early Registration ends on Friday, February 20th
Professional: $100 through February 20th, $120 thereafter
Student and Retiree: $50 through February 20th, $55 thereafter
Guest ticket- Banquet only: $50 each
Please remember to also pay your annual dues of $10.
Visit https://tnafs.square.site/ to register.
Please contact Shawna Fix (shawna@southeastaquatics.net) with the following inquiries:
- Registration questions or issues
- Financial concerns (especially students), problems paying with the Square Store, or if you require alternative payment arrangements such as mailing a check
Lodging at Cumberland Mountain
Lodging for the 2026 meeting will be cabins that sleep 2-10 people and require a two-night minimum stay. There are 35 different cabins available, and as long as members buddy-up and fill cabins appropriately, there will be plenty of space for all attendees. Cabin prices differ based on cabin type and capacity. Cabin rentals cannot be split at the time of payment, so please work out payment details with the other members of your cabin. There is no deadline for booking cabins because there are no room blocks or society discounts. However, cabins are first come, first served, so please book in a timely manner.
Cumberland Mountain State Park | Photo Credit: TNStateParks.com
To book a cabin, use the link below. Once you select the dates you can view available cabins with either a map view, which shows on a map where the cabins are located relative to each other, or the calendar view, which shows a table of prices.
Book your lodging online here or call Cumberland Mountain State Park at (931)-484-6138.
Booking Cabins for State Employees:
- TWRA employees wanting to reserve a cabin should e-mail with reservation information and the approved memo to attend the meeting.
- To reserve your cabin –
- Pick which cabin and your cabin mates.
- Have one person per cabin collect your cabin mate and their budget number (speed chart).
- E-mail Elizabeth.Deaton@tn.gov Elizabeth with Cumberland Mountain State Park with this information and the Journal Voucher Form (sent separately by Sally Petre).
Alternative options to cabin rentals are hotels in Crossville near Cumberland Mountain State Park. We don’t have any contracts with these hotels, and no shuttles will be available between these hotels and the conference.
Cumberland Mountain State Park Recreation
While we hold our annual meeting at one of Tennessee’s beautiful state parks we encourage our members to take advantage of their surroundings!
The park features 5 hiking trails that are between 0.5 miles and 2.5 miles long (Byrd Creek Trail, Byrd Lake Trail, Cumberland Plateau Nature Trail, Pioneer Loop Trail, and Pioneer Short Loop Trail) and some trails feature excellent birding opportunities. Attendees can fish at Byrd Lake, golf at Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain course, and there are 4 miles of dedicated mountain biking trails.
For details about recreation at the park, visit the park’s Activity page.
Abstract Submission
With the success and interest in our first Lightning Talks during the 2025 TNAFS conference, we’ll be bringing those back in 2026! For those of you who have some great ideas you want to connect with people on, are planning to do a project but don’t have any data yet, or if you just don’t have a full presentation, this is for you!
Abstracts for any presentation type can be submitted through this Google Form. All abstracts are due February 20th, 2026.
Ways to present:
- Oral Presentations* – Speakers will be given 15 minutes for talks (including time for questions and/or discussion).
- Lightning Talks- Speakers are given 5 minutes (strictly enforced) for an oral presentation with no time for questions. Students and professionals can submit. There is no competition for this type of presentation.
- Poster Presentations* – The poster session will be held after the business meeting on Wednesday, March 18th. Presenters will be provided with tacks or tape in which to hang their posters.
*Students giving Oral and Poster Presentations will be entered into the student competition where 1st and 2nd place receive monetary prizes!
Continuing Education Workshops
TNAFS is proud to offer six continuing education courses at our annual meeting this year! Courses can be signed up for at our Square Store https://tnafs.square.site/
Tuesday, March 17th
Workshop I: Aquatic Connectivity | All day – 8:00-12:00 & 1:00-4:30
Workshop II: Microsoft Excel | All day – 8:00-12:00 & 1:00-4:30
Workshop III: eDNA | All day – 8:00-12:00 & 1:00-4:30
Workshop IV: Student Professional Development | All day – 9:00-12:00 & 1:00-4:30
Wednesday, March 18th
Workshop V: Basic Fish ID | Morning – 8:00-12:00
Workshop VI: Hidden Rivers Viewing | Late Morning – 10:00-12:00
eDNA Workshop 2025
Workshop I: Aquatic Connectivity Barrier Blitz | Tuesday – All day (8:00-4:30)
Instructor: Shawna Fix
Max number of attendees: No maximum
Cost for attendance: Free
Join Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership in conducting a barrier blitz around Cumberland Mountain State Park and the surrounding Crossville area. This event will be limited to those who have already been trained in or assisted with SARP’s stream-crossing survey. If you have not been trained, but are interested in participating, please reach out to Shawna, shawna@southeastaquatics.net. We might be able to take a few folks who have not been trained out to tag along. Registrants will be split up into teams of 3 or 4 and given a list of culverts to assess with your team. Registration for this workshop will close at the early registration deadline of Feb 20th. The blitz will be dependent on weather. If there has been heavy rain in the area just before or on the day of the workshop, it will likely be cancelled.
Workshop II: Intermediate Microsoft Excel for Fisheries Professionals (Two Parts)| Tuesday – All day (8:00-4:30)
Instructor: Jack Van Deventer
Max number of attendees: 40
Cost for attendance:
- Professionals – $25 (if morning only) | $50 (if all day)
- Students – $10 (if morning only) | $20 (if all day)
Morning Session
The challenge for fisheries biologists is to produce sophisticated stats, analytics, charts, and reports with limited time and resources. The good news: in the last 10 years, Microsoft has greatly expanded the power and capabilities of Excel, while making the functionality easier than ever. The goal: You want to set up your analytics to be quick and repeatable, so that each year (rather than re-inventing the wheel each time), you simply refresh your reports, and your work is essentially done. This workshop shows you how. We’ll focus on solving common issues in fisheries analytics: data setup, flagging anomalies, merging data (multiple sites, multiple years), filtering data (slice-and-dice to get exactly what you want), and building interactive reports. We’ll also look at building high-quality, publication-ready charts. Notes: This workshop will be about 75% “how to” and best practices, and 25% hands-on. The workshop assumes you know the basics of Excel: formulas, cell references, etc.
Afternoon Session (Morning Session Required for Attendance)
This workshop puts you behind the wheel. You will gain expertise in building fisheries solutions in Excel. Which applications? First, we’ll build fisheries data sets from scratch, expanding functionality with calculations and lookups, and doing interactive “just in time” reporting. Second, we’ll show charting tricks for histograms and scatter plots. Third, we’ll build solutions for analyzing stream temperature data. Fourth, we’ll build an interactive reporting dashboard. Fifth, as time permits, we’ll showcase Excel tools for report generation and mass communications. All these techniques save you huge amounts of time. You’ll be surprised how easy these features are to use. Notes: This workshop will be about 25% “how to” and 75% hands-on.
Workshop III: eDNA (Two Parts) | Tuesday – All day (8:00-4:30)
Instructor: Robert Paine
Max number of attendees: 20
Cost for attendance: Professionals: $50 | Students: $20
This workshop offers a crash course on environmental DNA surveillance. Anyone with any level of experience is welcome, but the focus will be on those with little to no experience. Please email Robert Paine (rtpaine@tntech.edu) with any specific questions.
Morning Session
This session of the course will provide an overview of collecting different kinds of eDNA samples in the field, including different collection methods, tools, and protocols to reduce contamination. Participants will not be required to enter the water, but protective gear (i.e.,waders, waterproof gloves) is recommended for participants wanting the full immersive experience.
Afternoon Session
This session will offer a lecture style overview of environmental DNA surveillance. Topics will cover introduction topics to eDNA, eDNA workflow and design, sampling in the environment, negative controls, laboratory methods, and data interpretation. The lecture will cover topics related to single species detection and multi-species detection.
Workshop IV: Student Professional Development | Tuesday – All day (8:00-4:30)
Instructor: Amanda Rosenberger
Max number of attendees: No maximum
Cost for attendance: Free! Including pizza for lunch.
This FREE course will allow students to meet with professionals to learn about different aspects of fisheries employment in the state of Tennessee. Various state, federal and non-profit organizations will be present to answer any questions and help give guidance on how to obtain future employment. Please sign up for this course in the Square store if you plan on attending so that we can get an accurate head count, and plan to bring a draft resume/CV if you wish to receive feedback from the instructors.
Workshop V: Basic Fish ID | Wednesday – Morning (8:00-12:00)
Instructor: Conner E. Ballard & Justin Spaudling
Max number of attendees: 30
Cost for attendance: Professionals – $20 | Students – $10
This course will focus on both the ecology and identification of freshwater fishes found in and around Crossville Tennessee.
Workshop VI: Hidden Rivers Viewing & Discussion | Wednesday (8:00-12:00)
Max number of attendees: No maximum
Cost for attendance: Optional donation to Conservation Fisheries and/or Tennessee Aquarium
Ten years in the making, Hidden Rivers is a feature film by Freshwaters Illustrated that explores the rivers and streams of the Southern Appalachian region, North America’s most biologically rich waters. The film follows the work of conservation biologists and explorers throughout the region, featuring the work of both Conservation Fisheries and the Tennessee Aquarium, and reveals both the beauty and vulnerability of these ecosystems. Discussion of conservation work being done in the state of Tennessee led by Conservation Fisheries biologists to follow the showing.
Business Meeting
Immediately following oral presentations on Wednesday, March 18th we will hold our annual society business meeting. This meeting will discuss topics such as:
- Resolution of the 2025 Business Meeting minutes
- Discussion of chapter finances
- Information and discussion about upcoming 50th anniversary meeting in 2027
- Society officer elections
Officer Elections
The Tennessee Chapter of the American Fisheries Society will be holding an election for the following Chapter officer positions:
- President-elect
- Treasurer
Elections will be held at the Business Meeting on Wednesday, March 18th. We encourage all members to attend the business meeting to be present for the election. In order to vote, members should have renewed their $10 chapter membership dues by the start of the Business Meeting.
Nominations for Officer Elections closed on Friday, December 6th 2025. Bios for the nominees for each position can be found here: Officer Candidates.
Award Presentations
Our membership is full of dedicated professionals, and it’s important to recognize them for their efforts. We will be presenting awards at the Dinner Banquet on Wednesday, March 18th 2025. The awards that will be presented include:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Nominees should either be retired or within five years of retirement and have had a long history of significant contributions.
Outstanding Fisheries Scientist
To be bestowed on the biologist in their early to mid-career for making significant contributions in the past year or over several years.
Distinguished Service Award
To be bestowed on individuals that served as a Chapter officer for more than five years or served the chapter as chair of a long-standing Chapter committee for more than five years.
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 2025: Dr. Brad Cook
2026 TNAFS Tentative Meeting Schedule
All times in Central Time Zone
Monday, March 16th
Cabins will be available for members on Monday, March 16th that are attending workshops on Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 17th
7:30 – 5:30 Registration open
8:00 – 12:00 Workshop I: Aquatic Connectivity
Workshop II: Microsoft Excel
Workshop III: eDNA
Workshop IV: Student Professional Development
1:00 – 4:30 Workshop I: Aquatic Connectivity
Workshop II: Microsoft Excel
Workshop III: eDNA
Workshop IV: Student Professional Development
6:00 – TBD Informal Social (Tentative fish-fry in the park)
Wednesday, March 18th
7:30 – 4:00 Registration open
8:00 – 12:00 Workshop V: Fish ID
Workshop VI: Hidden Rivers Showing
1:30 – 4:00 Oral Presentations & Lightening Talks
4:00 – 5:00 Business Meeting
5:00 – 6:00 Poster Presentations, Auction begins (5pm)
6:00 – 8:00 Banquet, Awards, Auction ends (8pm)
Thursday, March 19th
9:00 – 12:00 Oral Presentations and Lightening Talks Continued
1:30 – 3:30 Meeting Adjourned
Thank you!
Shawna Fix, President | Shannon Murphy-Harty, President-Elect
Sally Petre, Past President | Aaron Burch, Secretar