Each year the Toes in the Toe Watershed Discovery event brings 5th-grade students from North Carolina’s Yancey and Mitchell counties out to a river in their community. On the banks of the river they rotate through a variety of educational stations focused on stream health and the importance of river. Stations include art, farming, energy, fish, and stream macroinvertebrates.

Because the watershed is home to the endangered Appalachian elktoe mussel, the Fish & Wildlife Service helped create the event and continues to help students explore the North and South Toe rivers in search of stream insects, mollusks, and other animals.