The 2011 Conference field trips and field trip/workshop events offer a variety of opportunities to study the diverse natural plant communities of Western North Carolina. Trip leaders are local naturalists and professional scientists with diverse backgrounds.  Field trips are offered on a first come, first served basis.

              The following trips are now closed:  (Current July 11)
                         FT. 4 - Flora of the Little Tennessee River Valley
                         FT . 6 -- Southern Highlands Reserve
                         FT. 7 -- Buck Creek Serpentine Barrens
                         FT. 8 -- Mt. Pisgah to Balsam Gap
                         FT. 9 -- Bear Lake Canoe Trip
                         FT. 10A -- Native Plants in Residential Design
                         FW. 2 - Digital Photography.
                         FW. 4 -- Ecological  Landscape Design
        
The number of participants is limited. Please come equipped to handle changing weather conditions (rain), mountainous terrain, and enjoy the outdoors. Participants should wear comfortable hiking clothes and shoes, have rain gear, a pack to carry lunch (some trips), a water bottle, field guides and hand lenses (optional). Transportation and a bag lunch will be provided. Trips depart from the large parking area near the Ramsey Center at 8:30 a.m. and return by 5 p.m.
        
The fieldtrips with workshops (FW's) are 1 ½ days, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.  Those with Thursday field trips will depart at 1:30 p.m. from the parking lot near the Ramsey Center. After your return from the field trip on Wednesday, a reception and hearty dinner will be offered for all Wednesday event participants at the Ramsey Center at 6 p.m.
 
Hike difficulty ratings:
1– Easy, light walking, in and out of van
2 – Moderate, trail walking, a mile or so
3 – Moderately strenuous, away from bus, four miles or so
4 – Strenuous, uneven trails away from bus, steep terrain, four plus miles
5 – Very strenuous, rough terrain, away from the bus

Wednesday Morning, July 27

8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.  Field trips

FT 1: Blue Ridge Parkway Design with Tracy Traer

We will travel along the Blue Ridge Parkway to explore the exceptional design and meaning of this significant and highly visited American park.  Stops will allow us to study views, construction techniques, design elements, and characteristics that provide a link to the unique natural, social, and cultural heritage of the region.  We will examine and discuss the influence that this remarkable roadway has had on the preservation of the local landscape and culture.  Hike difficulty rating = 1, easy.

A native of Atlanta, Tracy Traer spent her summers wandering the forests and streams of North Georgia and western North Carolina and became enamored of plants and natural systems.  After receiving her master’s in Landscape Architecture, she studied in England for two years and returned to serve on the faculty at North Carolina State University in the Department of Horticultural Science and the School of Design for 18 years.  She has made numerous presentations on design and use of native plants, including the Lehr Symposium at the U.S. National Arboretum and the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference.  Her designs and design process reflect natural systems and emphasize environmentally sound solutions to design problems.

FT 2A: Black Balsam to Skinny Dip Falls with Chris Ulrey and Margaret McLeod

We will visit six plant communities within five miles and a range of 1,800 feet in elevation.  The trip starts with a climb up Black Balsam Knob to 6,214 feet for a 360-degree panorama.  We then visit a birch-sedge escarpment with giant ferns and drop through a beech gap into a “rhododendron hell” at Graveyard Fields, where we will have a streamside lunch and examine a valley with fire-maintained bogs.  Along the way we will discuss natural landscape ecology and aesthetics.  The last leg meanders through a northern hardwood forest, crosses Skinny Dip Falls, and climbs back to daylight over a Galax-covered ridge.  Hike difficulty rating = 4, strenuous.

Chris Ulrey is the plant ecologist for the Blue Ridge Parkway.  He works with rare plant conservation, invasive plant management, and forest pests and diseases.  Chris grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina.  He received his Ph.D. in 2001 from North Carolina State University, where he focused on plant communities of the Southern Appalachians.

Margaret McLeod is the owner of Screech Owl Pottery, where she incorporates botanical patterns into her pottery.  She is also an avid gardener, plant enthusiast, and active member of the Weaverville Garden Club.

FT 2B: Alpine Ericaceae with Randy Burroughs 

Amongst the balds and boreal forest surrounding Graveyard Fields, we will observe five ericaceous genera rarely seen below 5,000 feet, including Pieris, Menziesia, and some delicious Vacciniums.  We will also encounter some plants of horticultural significance, such as the recently available Diervilla sessilifolia and Carex pennsylvanica. These plants will be studied in their natural communities and discussed in terms of their usefulness and cultivation in lower elevation gardens.  The trail can be rough in spots, but the landscapes and views are of extremely high quality.  Time permitting, we will stop at Wolf Mountain Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway to examine a “vertical bog,” with sundews, Grass-of-Parnassus, several Hypericums, green orchid, and bog asphodel.  Please prepare for a heart-thumping 5- to 6-mile hike and cool, changeable weather.  Long pants are recommended.  Bring your daypack with extra water and rain gear, and be sure to wear good walking shoes.  Hike difficulty rating = 4, strenuous, due to uneven trails, steep terrain, and a more than four-mile hike.

Randy Burroughs is a landscape architect and horticulturist with degrees from the University of Georgia.  He spent 14 years in native garden design and maintenance in the Asheville area, four of which were as manager of the 10-acre botanical gardens at UNC-Asheville.  His design portfolio includes projects at Mountain Air, Straus Park, Whisper Lake, Balsam Mountain Preserve, and several Cliff’s Communities, as well as nature parks in Black Mountain, Hendersonville, and Weaverville.  He lectures regularly on native landscape design, meadow construction, invasive exotic plant control, watercourse stabilization, and gardening in the face of changing climate patterns.

FT 3: Panthertown Valley, "Yosemite of the East," with Meredith Clebsch and Wes Burlingame

Panthertown is a very special place in the Southern Appalachians, known for its scenic beauty, as well as its great biological diversity.  Granitic balds tower over the valleys of the upper Tuckaseegee River.  The black water tributaries are laced with waterfalls and alpine meadows. These provide an incredible array of habitats noted for plant and wildlife diversity, including many rare plants.  Our focus is on exploring these wild plants and their communities.  This is a very strenuous hike of more than 6 miles with several, steep, half-hour climbs and descents.  You will want to be in good shape and bring a pack, extra water, and rain gear.  Limited to 20 participants.  Hike difficulty rating = 4, strenuous, due to uneven trails, steep terrain, and a more than four-mile hike.

Panthertown is Wes Burlingame’s favorite place to hike and explore, not only for its beauty, but because it contains many of the native plants that he propagates and grows at Laurel Springs Nursery in Hendersonville, NC.  Wes has worked with native and ornamental plants for the last 30 years.  The meadows and forests of sites like Panthertown provide inspiration for his native landscape designs -- “Nature as the Teacher.”  Wes was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand, where he continues to work with native plants in that country’s national parks.

Meredith Clebsch started Native Gardens Nursery in Greenback, TN, one of the first to offer propagated native plants and has sold more than 300 different species.  She teaches native plant propagation classes, lectures on native plants, and offers garden design and consultation services. Wildlife habitat design and native grasses are her specialties.  Also an active birder, she can often be found wandering the woods and fields with her four-legged friends, still trying to figure out how it all works.

FT 4: Flora of the Little Tennessee River Valley with Peter Loos, Brent Martin, and George Morris

This seven-mile canoe trip will take participants through one of the most spectacular river valleys in western North Carolina.  William Bartram described this landscape in his Travels as “one of the most charming mountain landscapes perhaps anywhere to be seen.”  We will stop for lunch at Cowee Creek for a botanical walk and visit the Cowee Mound to discuss ethnobotanical features of this important archaeological site.  In northern Macon County, NC, the Little Tennessee River passes through a significant section of protected forest and farmland.  This includes conservation easements and state-protected game lands.  It is a fairly low gradient stream with little elevation loss as we proceed downstream.  Riparian species are abundant and include the federally endangered Spiraea virginiana, as well as Helianthus, Arundinaria gigantea, Thalictrum, several species of Solidago, and many, many others.  You’ll study healthy natural riverbank plant communities and observe recovering pastures recently added to the Little Tennessee River Easement.  The canoe trip is an easy paddle of 3 to 4 hours, with little to no experience required.  Limited to 21 participants. Hike difficulty rating = 3, moderately strenuous.

Trip co-leader Peter Loos is a botanist at heart, a horticulturist by trade, and a plant ecologist in his spare time.  His professional experiences and a master’s degree from Stephen F. Austin State University have contributed to his extensive knowledge of Gulf Coast native plants and related ecological issues.  Peter is unyielding in his promotion of biodiversity throughout our environment and is a member of many conservation and green industry organizations.

Brent Martin is the Southern Appalachian Director for The Wilderness Society, based in Sylva, NC.  Previously, he was the Associate Director for The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and Executive Director of Georgia Forestwatch.  He is a recipient of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s James S. Dockery Environmental Leadership Award and holds a B.A. and M.A. in History from Georgia State University.  He has published two collections of poetry, Poems from Snow Hill Road (New Native Press, 2007) and A Shout in the Woods (Flutter Press, 2010).  His essay, “The Dividing Spring,”  was recently published in Wildbranch Anthology (University of Utah Press, 2010), and other essays and poems have appeared in Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, New Southerner, Tiger’s Eye, North Carolina Literary Review, and elsewhere.  He lives in the Cowee community of western North Carolina.

George Morris is a longtime conference attendee and member of the Cullowhee Players.  He has a B.A. in plant science from the University of Delaware and has worked at Mt. Cuba Center for the Study of Piedmont Flora and as superintendent of grounds at Davidson College.  He also owned Landscape Sanctuaries, a landscape company specializing in native plant landscaping, and worked for the Habitat Assessment and Restoration Program (HARP), a habitat restoration firm in Charlotte, NC.  He is currently the vegetation specialist for River Works, Inc., a stream restoration firm in Cary, NC.

FT 5: Max Patch to Lemon Gap (or Vice Versa) with Kevin Caldwell

Participants will hike the Appalachian Trail on the NC/TN line in Madison County north from Max Patch Bald to Lemon Gap (if views are good early in the day) or south in reverse (if fog shrouds the bald in the morning).  At 4,629 feet, Max Patch is among the highest elevations in Madison County along the TN/NC boundary.  From the top, some of the most impressive views in the entire Blue Ridge can be seen: the Balsams, Smokies, foothills of eastern TN, the Bald/Walnut /Sampson Mountains, Roan Mountain, Mount Mitchell, the Black/Craggy Range, Big Pine, the Asheville Basin, Pisgah Ridge, and countless local features.  Elevation ranges from 4,629 on Max Patch to around 3,500 feet along the Appalachian Trail.  Major plant communities are primarily grassy bald and successional shrublands, nestled in high-elevation red oak forest, rich cove and acidic cove forest, montane oak-hickory forest, and rock outcrops. The region also includes many bird species that can be identified by song and habitat.  If you have a pdf-capable I-phone or other device, upload Alan Weakley’s lastest draft of the Flora.  Also bring a backpack, rain gear, binoculars, sunglasses (for bald), snacks (in addition to the provided lunch), hand lens, camera, notebook, and pencil.  Maps and a summary will be provided on the bus.  Hike rating difficulty = 3, moderately strenuous. 

Kevin Caldwell operates Mountains-to-Sea Ecological in Marshall, NC (Madison County) and performs botanical, wildlife, and natural resource inventories and studies in the Blue Ridge and surrounding eco-regions.  His focus includes threatened and endangered species surveys, natural community classification and mapping, conservation planning and design, and applied land management and restoration techniques.

FT 6: Southern Highlands Reserve with John Turner, Dick Bir, and Richard Bryson

The Southern Highlands Reserve is a private native plant garden and research center dedicated to the preservation, cultivation, and display of plants native to the Southern Appalachian Highlands. It is located atop Toxaway Mountain in Lake Toxaway, NC, at an elevation of 4,500 feet, but the  varied topography and forest types on its 120 acres allows replication of many of the plant communities typically found in the higher reaches of the Southern Appalachians.  From windswept cliffs to waterfall seep communities and red oak forests, the Reserve is home to a vast array of naturally occurring native plants, including one of the largest natural stands of Rhododendron vaseyi.  The Reserve is divided into two distinct areas: the Core Park and Natural Woodlands.  The Core Park is home to destination gardens such as The Woodland Glade, The Azalea Walk, The Wildflower Labyrinth, and Vaseyi Pond.  These are display gardens planted with native species and their cultivars.  The Core Park is surrounded by a 100-acre natural woodland that features waterfall and cliff communities.  The few plants that have been added to the natural areas are native species that have been placed in natural settings.  With an emphasis on education and conservation, The Southern Highlands Reserve is a site where horticulture meets ecology and is dedicated to celebrating the natural history of the Southern Appalachian Highlands.  Good boots for natural areas are essential, and a hiking staff is recommended. Limited to 27 participants.  Hike difficulty rating = 3, moderately strenuous (The Core Park section is easy, but the natural areas section is very strenuous with severe grade changes).

John Turner is the Director of the Southern Highlands Reserve.
Dick Bir is a Cullowhee Conference pioneer and Tom Dodd Award winner and has been associated with the Southern Highlands Reserve since its early days.
Richard Bryson is a Southern Highlands Reserve naturalist and native plant specialist.

FT 7: Buck Creek Serpentine “Barrens,” Nantahala National Forest with Gary Kauffman

A series of olivine and serpentine deposits occur scattered in the Appalachian Mountains from Alabama to Quebec.  One of the best-known and floristically distinct serpentine areas occurs in North Carolina within the southern Nantahala Mountains along Buck Creek in Clay County.  Two G1-ranked communities have developed over the ultramafic rock (dunite).  Floristically, the “barrens” or Pinus rigida-Quercus alba woodlands appear superficially similar to prairies or glades.  Dominant grasses include Schizochyrium scoparium, Andropogon gerardii, and Sporobolus heterolepis (one of only two sites in NC where this species occurs). The rocky community contains a unique blend of mesic (Parnassia grandifolia and Gentianopsis crinata) and xeric species within close proximity to each other.  The adjacent white oak forest includes a regionally unique shrub and herb flora including Physocarpus opulifolius, Packera plattensis, Hexastylis arifolia var. ruthii, Thalictrum macrostylum, and Poa saultensis. A total of 22 state-listed (disjunct or peripheral) and seven watch-list plant species have been documented on the site.  An initial survey of butterflies and skippers documented more than 80 species within the Buck Creek area, including five state records and several species unusual for the mountains.  The area is primarily included within a USFS special interest area registered with the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program.  A series of prescribed burns has been completed on the site since 1995, following at least 50 years of fire exclusion.  Three burn blocks, totaling more than 300 acres, have been established to vary the frequency of fire and allow temporal refugia for butterfly and moth species.  The field trip will review the three burn areas and permit discussion of the current restoration and maintenance needs at the site.  The final portion of the trip will examine a wetland on the northern periphery of the Buck Creek area.  Hike difficulty rating = 2, moderate. The hike will include an elevational change of approximately 300 feet, with a total distance less than 1 mile away from the bus, split among four locations.  Elevation: 3,600-4,000 feet.  Please bring a day pack and wear sturdy boots.  Long pants are suggested as green briar and poison ivy are present.  A hand lens is suggested for viewing grass characteristics.  Appropriate field guides include Wofford’s Guide to the Flora of the Blue Ridge, Weakley’s partially completed Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Northern Florida, and Surrounding Areas, and Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide.  Distance is about 40 miles from Cullowhee, an approximately one-hour drive by van.

Gary Kauffman has been a botanist with the U.S. Forest Service in North Carolina since 1992. His duties include analysis of rare plants and rare plant communities, sustainability of special forest products, plant community restoration, and invasive plant management.

FT 8: Mt. Pisgah to Balsam Gap with George Ellison

This outing will consist of 10 or so pre-designated roadside stops at choice sites along the Blue Ridge Parkway (between Asheville and Cherokee) from Mt. Pisgah to Balsam Gap.  Stops will range in elevation from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. At the first stop we will discuss (with a text and map handout) the origins of and distinction between the northern and southern Appalachians, the geographic provinces of the southern Appalachians (Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, and Plateau), and the place of significant natural and public areas (Blue Ridge Parkway, Appalachian Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, etc.) in the Blue Ridge Province, which extends from southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia.  The major forest types sampled will be cove hardwood, northern hardwood, and spruce-fir. Microhabitats visited will be an “alpine” meadow, beech gaps, wind forests, and one of the finest rock seepage faces (featuring Sphagnum mats, sundews, and several Blue Ridge “endemics”) in the southern mountains.  Where they can be viewed from overlooks the distinction between the origins of heath and grassy balds will be considered, if not solved.  Helpful readings prior to the trip include George Ellison’s Blue Ridge Nature Journal or Blue Ridge Nature Notes.  (The latter is a smaller format, less expensive version of the same text.)  In her Smoky Mountains National Park: A Natural History Guide (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993), Rose Houk’s discussions of the distinctive elevational zones and associated plants of the Smokies can be readily applied to the habitats we will explore along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Emphasis will be placed on learning to use Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1977), a non-technical system that will promptly enhance identification skills.  Along the way, some time will be devoted to discussing basics of fern structure and identification.  A handy non-technical field guide is Fern Finder (Rochester NY: Nature Study Guild, 2001, 2nd ed.) by Anne C. and Barbara G. Hallowell.  [The trip leader will provide copies of Newcomb’s and the Fern Finder where necessary.]  Also recommended is A Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of the Southern Appalachians (Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994) by Robert E. Swanson. Items to bring include a hand lens, writing materials, suitable clothing for cooler temperatures at higher elevations, and rain gear.  Hike difficulty rating = 1, easy.

Trip Leader George Ellison writes the “Nature Journal” column for the Asheville Citizen-Times and the “Botanical Excursions” column for Chinquapin: The Newsletter of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society.  He wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics:  Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees.  Collections of his essays, Mountain Passages: Natural and Cultural History of Western North Carolina and A Blue Ridge Nature Journal: Reflections on the Appalachians in Essays and Art, have been published by The History Press in Charleston, SC.  The same press also published Volume I (1674-1900) of his High Vistas: An Anthology of Nature and Descriptive Writing from Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains, with Volume II (1900-2009) scheduled for publication in 2010.  He conducts natural and human history workshops for the North Carolina Arboretum, University of Tennessee’s “Smoky Mountain Field School,” Great Smoky Mountains Association, North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Highlands Biological Station, and other facilities. <www.georgeellison.com>

FT 9: Bear Lake Canoe Trip with Hank Bruno

Enjoy a botanical canoe excursion on Bear Lake near Cullowhee.  This trip involves a flatwater paddle with occasional stops to explore the local flora, geology, and natural history of the area. The botanically rich slopes around Bear Lake are famous with local plant enthusiasts and should afford many interesting discoveries.  Participants should bring sun block, extra water, and rain gear.  Limited to 7 participants.  Participants will also hike up to a waterfall.  Hike difficulty rating = 3, moderately strenuous.

Hank Bruno completed undergraduate degrees in botany and anthropology at Duke University in 1976.  He then entered the Peace Corps, serving in Guatemala.  Hank entered graduate school at Texas A&M University and received an M.A. in archeobotany in 1988.  He joined Callaway Gardens (GA) in October of 1991, and until 2009 served as the Director of Horticulture.  He is now the Director of Horticulture at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Gastonia, NC.  Hank’s interests include plant ecology, ethnobotany, collections management, and landscaping with native plants.   

FT 10A: Native Plants in Residential Design with Cathy Davis

This trip features several sites in Highlands (average elevation of 4,100 feet) that illustrate the use of native plants in design, including a 50-acre estate and a rain garden at the Performing Arts Center.  Native plants, some old favorites and some up-and-comers, have been used extensively in these projects.  We will experience diverse created habitats and have many opportunities to see and identify a large variety of native plants surrounded by beautiful scenery and the coolest weather to be had in WNC. Limited to 7 participants.  Hike difficulty rating = 1, easy.

Cathy Davis is a registered landscape architect in North Carolina.  She received a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture in 1990 from the University of Georgia, where she was heavily influenced by Darrell Morrison’s emphasis on native plants.  Cathy has been designing residential and resort landscapes in the southern Appalachian region for more than 18 years. Creating designs that address both the possibilities and constraints of the challenging mountain terrain and environment has been a large part of her landscape architecture practice.  Cathy has experience with a wide range of landscape styles, from natural gardens to showy floral displays. She is particularly noted for her design work with native boulders.  Her areas of professional interest include garden design, landscape structures, native landscapes, and, especially, native plants.

FT 10B: Highlands Botanical Garden and Satulah Mountain with Jeff Zahner

The first part of this trip is a visit to Satulah Mountain, a granitic dome reaching 4,543 feet above the town of Highlands.  The spectacular view from the summit overlooks the upper basin of the Chattooga River in NC, SC, and GA.  The dome harbors numerous plant species endemic to the Blue Ridge, such as Hartwig’s locust, Biltmore sedge, and granite dome bluets, as well as some unexpected relictual disjuncts, such as ground juniper.  After lunch at the Highlands Nature Center, we will proceed to the Botanical Garden, whose trails cover about six acres on the shore of Lindenwood Lake.  The Garden contains more than 500 labeled specimens of Southern Appalachian native plants, mostly presented in the context of natural communities.  Limited to 7 participants.  Hike difficulty rating = 2, moderate.

Jeff Zahner is a horticulturist and botanist who grew up in Highlands, NC, and has deep insight into the ecology of the area.  With a degree in ornamental horticulture from Clemson University and a lifelong love of plants, Jeff and his wife, Jodie, started Chattooga Gardens in Cashiers, NC, a garden center that emphasizes plant diversity and features Southern Appalachian native species and cultivars.  To further promote knowledge and use of native plants, Jeff serves on the Cullowhee Conference steering committee and annually helps with the Highlands Conference on Landscaping and Gardening with Native Plants, a satellite conference held each September since 2000 to benefit the Highlands Botanical Garden.  Jeff is also a director on the board of the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust and has served as secretary since 2006.  Rare plant rescue is a favorite activity, but outright preservation of land everywhere is imperative, and Jeff encourages everyone to support their local land trust.