Weeds For Your Needs: Celebrating Native Plants—Their Stories, Songs, and Lore with Doug Elliott
Whether he's pointing out poison ivy, pontificating on poke sallet, crooning about creasy greens, jiving about ginseng, or extolling the virtues of dandelions, herbalist, author and storyteller, Doug Elliott is known for his lively presentations as well as his broad, practical scientific and cultural knowledge of the area's many useful wild plants.
He will be presenting an informative slide-illustrated program on traditional and contemporary plant lore and scientific information filled with stories, songs, and outrageous personal narratives celebrating some of America's favorite, edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful wild plants. He flavors his program with regional dialects, lively harmonica riffs, and more than a few belly laughs.
Doug Elliott is an herbalist, naturalist, basket maker, beekeeper, and author. He has spent much time with country folk and indigenous people, learning their stories, folklore and traditional ways of relating to plants. He has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough,TN, and has conducted workshops and programs at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and the Smithsonian Institution. He has trained rangers for the National Park Service and guided people on wilderness experiences from Down-east Maine to the Florida Everglades. He has authored four books and produced a number of award winning recordings. His first book, WILD ROOTS, An Underground Botany and Forager's Guide, has been around for thirty years and is considered an "underground" classic.
Thursday Morning Workshops 8:30 a.m.—12 Noon
Workshop A: Southern Appalachian Plant Communities with Jenny Lellinger and Helen S. Smith
From the violent geological processes that created the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the area we live in has inherited the great soil diversity and complex topography that hosts a rich assemblage of plant communities. Jenny will describe these natural communities and discuss tools that you can use to learn more about those where you live. Helen will follow-up with tips on selecting and growing native plants that are compatible with your natural landscape.
Jenny Lellinger is a certified naturalist and, although ferns are her passion, she conducts field trips, talks, and workshops on a variety of subjects, mostly botanical in nature. She is currently president of the Western Carolina Botanical Club.
Helen Smith, long-time vice-president of the Western Carolina Botanical Club and field trip leader, is also a very successful gardener, because she has learned to observe where and under what conditions native plants grow best.
Workshop B: Marketing and Selling Your Nursery Crop with Bill Jones
If you’re in business already or thinking about starting a full or part time nursery business, this presentation will offer many valuable guidelines for planning and realizing success. For most nursery professionals growing plants is the easy part. Identifying and developing your clients, writing an easy and inexpensive marketing plan, and making sales can be the intimidating parts. We will examine what can go into your marketing plan, and then work on developing your plan and schedule.
Bill Jones is a nurseryman and owner of Carolina Native Nursery in Burnsville, NC. Carolina Native Nursery grows over 90 varieties of native shrubs. He was the 2006 Farmer of the Year in Yancey County, NC, taught Business in Horticulture at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, and is a N.C.A.N. Certified Plant Professional. He is acting chairman of the Asheville Tree Commission, serves on the Boards of Trustees for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, the Strategic Planning Committee for Yancey County and N.C. A&T State University Cooperative Extension.
Thursday Morning Walks, 8:30 a.m.– 12 Noon
Walk 1: Campus Tree Walk with Robert Wyatt
The group will tour diverse landscape plantings on WCU campus discussing woody plant identification, origins, characteristics and landscape uses. Sharing of relevant information and experiences will be encouraged.
Dr. Robert Wyatt obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his doctorate from Duke University, both in Botany. He taught for two years at Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia, where he was a Professor of Botany and Ecology for more than 20 years and still retains an adjunct appointment. From 1999 to 2005, Dr. Wyatt was the Executive Director of the Highlands Biological Station, an interinstitutional center of the University of North Carolina. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, including a Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled him to produce a book entitled Ecology and Evolution of Plant Reproduction. He has trained more than 40 graduate students, received more than a million dollars in research grants, and published more than 150 scientific papers.
Walk 2: Walking Tour of the Cullowhee Creek Stream Restoration with George Morris
We will take a walk on an active stream restoration project that dissects the WNC campus. The project was started during the summer of 2005 and completed during the summer of 2006. We will discuss the structures and construction methods, and explore how vegetation plays a role in stream restoration.
George Morris is a long-time conference attendee as well as a member of the Cullowhee Players. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in plant science from the University of Delaware. His previous experiences include groundskeeper at Mt. Cuba Center for the Study of Piedmont Flora, superintendent of grounds at Davidson College, owner of Landscape Sanctuaries, a landscape company specializing in the use of native plants in the landscape, and 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 construction firm based in Cary, NC.
Walk 3: Vendor Plant Walk: ID, Habitat, and Growing Available Plants with Meredith Clebsch and John Strawn
John and Meredith will walk the participants through the plants that are available from each vendor represented at the conference, pointing out the merits and specific requirements of the displayed plants. Emphasis will be placed on specific growing conditions, culture, and habitat.
Meredith Clebsch propagates and sells native perennials at Native Gardens Nursery in Greenback, TN. Now offering well over 200 species of wildflowers, her work has been instrumental in preventing the wild harvesting of natives to meet commercial demand.
John Strawn, along with his wife Pam, owns and operates Hanging Dog Valley Nursery in Murphy, NC. This wholesale nursery offers woody plants that include many species and cultivars of natives and a few uncommon non-natives. Their production is both field grown and container grown. They propagate 80-90% of their native plants.
Thursday Afternoon General Session, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
The Myth of Progress, Towards a Sustainable Future with Tom Wessels
"All the complex systems that we observe in the natural world (cells, organisms, ecosystems, even meteorological systems) honor basic laws that allow them to sustain themselves. Yet, the generally accepted paradigm of progress in our culture runs contrary to these basic laws of sustainability. Is our concept of progress exempt from the laws of nature or are our beliefs based on myth? Will ever-increasing rates of resource extraction and consumption create a better world or one that will become more impoverished? Is ‘sustainable development’ an oxymoron?" --Tom Wessels 2003
This presentation offers a critical examination of our reigning notions of progress through the lens of complex systems science. There are foundational laws which govern the behavior of all complex systems. We can observe these in the natural world around us. However, the foundation upon which our paradigm of progress rests ignores these laws. This information might prompt us to ask ourselves, "Is our current path to progress truly sustainable?"
Tom Wessels is an ecologist and founding director of the master's degree program in conservation biology at Antioch University New England. He is former chair of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation that fosters environmental leadership through graduate fellowships and organizational grants. He serves as an ecological consultant to the Rain Forest Alliance's SmartWood Green Certification Program. In that capacity Tom helped draft green certification assessment guidelines for forest operations in the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. Tom has conducted landscape level workshops throughout the United States for over 30 years. His books include: Reading the Forested Landscape, The Granite Landscape, Untamed Vermont, and The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future.
Thursday Afternoon General Session: 3 p.m.-4 p.m.
The Cherokee Worldview Garden at the South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University with Karen Hall
The Cherokee Worldview Garden at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens was created primarily to educate visitors about the unique way in which the Cherokee see the world. The garden uses design elements such as water, color and number to interpret the land aesthetic and philosophies of these important and influential Native American people. Plants that they have used throughout time and for various purposes are incorporated in the garden. Additionally, the garden has become a service nexus for students, faculty, Botanical Garden staff and community members for learning about the important contributions of historic Cherokee people and contemporary members of the tribe.
Karen Hall’s formal education began at WCU with Dan Pittillo. She now coordinates the South Carolina Master Naturalist program at Clemson University, a citizen science program focused on helping people learn how to become naturalists and "read the landscape."Additionally, she developed the Cherokee Worldview Garden, an outgrowth of dissertation studies with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Originally from Bryson City, NC, Karen is a fourth generation native plants enthusiast. Formally trained as a botanist/plant physiologist, Karen’s work is ethnobotanical in nature.
Thursday Afternoon General Session: 4:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
The Carolina Native Landscape Survey with Tom Goforth
The CNLS is a proposed new organization with the goal of disseminating ecological knowledge and experience heretofore predominantly the provenance of academia to organizations and individuals that are involved with past, present, and future land alterations. Initial participants of CNLS will include university, government, and private sector field ecologist, landscape architects, horticulturists, nursery personnel, community planners, botanical garden managers, and students. Activities will focus on annual or semi-annual week-long formal field studies of regional ecological landscapes from the coast to the mountains. Studies will blend scientific ecological knowledge with the esthetics, philosophies, and methods of environmental creativity.
Thursday Evening General Session: 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Time and Terrain, Part One of Appalachia with Jamie Ross
The Cullowhee Conference will be honored with a Sneak Preview showing of Part One: Time and Terrain of the much anticipated new PBS series Appalachia that will air nation-wide in early 2009. This event and the entire series will amaze and enlighten you with the incredible natural and cultural history, rich contemporary diversity, and continuing new discoveries that are the Appalachian Mountains. The four part Appalachia series is a production of the James Agee Film Project, www.ageefilms.org/appalachia.html
Jamie Ross was associate producer/ao-writer for Long Shadows: the Legacy of the American Civil War and was researcher/writer for the series Tell About the South: Voices in Black and White. She is a freelance writer, research librarian, and consultant with a wide range of expertise from internet research to film production. Her areas of interest are the history, literature and culture of Appalachia and the American South. Ms. Ross has extensive experience in educational outreach and is the author of several study guides.
In Spring, 2000, Jamie Ross joined the Smithsonian Institute’s curatorial committee working on the 2003 Summer Folklife Festival, which was entirely devoted to Appalachia. As part of that committee, Ms. Ross worked with musicologists, folklorists and historians from throughout Appalachia as they developed the month long festival for 2003. Through her Catawba ancestors, Ms. Ross’s roots in Appalachia stretch back thousands of years.
Thursday Evening Poster Session One: 8:30 p.m.-9:15 p.m.
Each presenter will be at their poster during one of the two sessions for informal discussions with individuals or small groups. Poster presentations are not scheduled individually. A list of poster presenters and their poster session times (either session one or two) will be included in the conference packet. The location of the poster sessions will be announced.
Friday Morning General Session: 8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m.
Dogwoods and Other Creatures with Don Shadow
Don Shadow will delight everyone with his knowledge as he has at the Cullowhee Conference many times. One aspect of his talk will focus on Dogwood problems. Two prevalent leaf and flower diseases of dogwoods are found throughout our area. They are Spot anthracnose, caused by Elsinoe Corni, and Septoria leafspot. Don will offer some effective ways to maintain Dogwood vitaility.
Don Shadow is a Past President of the Southern Nursery Association and a recipient of the SNA’s David E. Laird, Sr. Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding service in the field of environmental horticulture. He has served as past-president of the International Plant Propagator’s Society (Eastern region). Among other honors, he has received the Medal of Honor Award of the Garden Club of America (1989), the Individual Commercial Award of the American Horticultural Society (1993), and the Silver Seal Award of the American Federation of Garden Clubs (1994).
Friday Morning Poster Session Two: 9:30 a.m.-10:15 a.m.
Each presenter will be at their poster during one of the two sessions for informal discussions with individuals or small groups. Poster presentations are not scheduled individually. A list of poster presenters and their poster session times (either session one or two) will be included in the conference packet. The location of the poster sessions will be announced.
Friday Morning Concurrent Sessions: 10:30 a.m.-12 Noon
Concurrent A: Vascular Flora of the Blackland Prairies and Associated Vegetation of Georgia with Lee Echols
Blackland prairies are a globally imperiled, rare plant community only recently discovered in central Georgia. A floristic inventory was conducted on six remnant blackland prairie sites within Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area. The 43 hectare site complex yielded 354 taxa in 220 genera and 84 families. Four species new to the state of Georgia were documented. Eight rare or uncommon species, one candidate for federal listing, and one federally endangered species are reported here as new records for the Oaky Woods WMA vicinity.
Lee Echols received his BS in ecology from Appalachian State University in 2002 and his MS in plant biology from the University of Georgia in 2007. His primary interests include floristic inventories, vegetation classification and conservation biology. He is currently employed as a conservation biologist for North American Land Trust.
Concurrent B: How to Manage Growth and Protect Natural Resources in the South with Brad Wyche
A massive wave of uncontrolled growth and development is sweeping across the South, causing severe damage to the natural resources, scenic beauty and quality of life of the region. The great challenge facing the South is not whether the region will continue to grow—that is inevitable, but rather how and where this growth will take place. This session focuses on these “how and where” issues and on the wide range of policies, programs and incentives that can be used both to accommodate growth and to protect the environment. Suggested reading material: Smart Growth America and EPA, The Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit (2007); Smart Growth America, Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation (2005); and Calthorpe and Fulton, The Regional City (2001).
Brad Wyche is the executive director of Upstate Forever, a nonprofit organization working on growth, land use and conservation issues in the Upstate region of South Carolina. Mr. Wyche practiced law for nearly 20 years, concentrating in the environmental field and earning recognition as one of the “best lawyers in America.” In 1998, he left the law practice to found Upstate Forever, which now has over 3,300 members and a staff of 17. Mr. Wyche is the co-author of Guide to Environmental Law in South Carolina (S.C. Bar 2006), the former chairman of the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control, and the recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from Furman University for his accomplishments in the fields of conservation and sustainable development.
Concurrent C: Drought Resistant Plants: It’s a Matter of Design with Tracy Traer
Growing drought tolerant plants is more than a list of drought tolerant plants! Tracy Traer will provide guidelines and examples of garden and landscape design, soil preparation, plant selection and site management that will help you provide an environment to help your plants through water shortages and droughts.
Tracy Traer has spent most of her life studying plants in their environments. After receiving her Master’s of Landscape Architecture under the direction of J.C. Raulston, she studied abroad and returned to join the faculty at NCSU in the Department of Horticultural Science for 18 years. In retirement, she operates Landscape Design Concepts, specializing in sustainable and environmentally friendly landscapes.
Friday Afternoon General Session 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
How Plants Cope With Environmental Stress with Dan Jones
Short-term environmental conditions often deviate significantly from those optimal for a plant growing successfully in a region. The hot, dry summer weather experienced recently in the Southeast sternly reminds us that a plant must successfully cope with stress factors, such as high light intensity, low humidity, dry soil, and high temperature if it is to survive. This presentation will discuss responses of plants that improve their chances of survival when exposed to environmental stresses. Emphases will be on responses to water related stresses as well as high temperatures and light intensities.
Daniel D. Jones is the professor emeritus of biology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. He served as chairman and as graduate program director of the Biology Department for over twenty years and continues to teach graduate and undergraduate courses in botany and environmental biology. In his home garden, many native flowering perennials and woody plants are blended into the landscape along with a large collection of ferns. He helps maintain the diverse collection of ferns in the Fern Glade at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and as a liaison to the Hardy Fern Foundation, evaluates the garden-worthiness of both native and nonnative ferns for the Birmingham climate.
Friday Afternoon Concurrent Sessions 3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Concurrent D: Islands of Desert in a Forest Sea: Flora and Vegetation of Granite Outcrops in the Southeastern United States with Robert Wyatt
Most of the Piedmont of the southeastern United States is covered with a mixed mesophytic forest of oaks, hickories, and pines. Within this “sea,” however, are “islands” of exposed granite and gneiss. A characteristic assemblage of plants, including an unexpectedly high percentage of endemics, has adapted to the environmental extremes that bare rock provides by strongly altering their morphology, physiology, and life history. This program covers the systematics, ecology, and evolution of the distinctive plants that occur on granite outcrops in the Southeast.
Dr. Robert Wyatt obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his doctorate from Duke University, both in botany. He taught for two years at Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia, where he was a professor of botany and ecology for more than 20 years and still retains an adjunct appointment. From 1999 to 2005, Dr. Wyatt was the executive director of the Highlands Biological Station, an interinstitutional center of the University of North Carolina. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, including a Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled him to produce a book entitled Ecology and Evolution of Plant Reproduction. He has trained more than 40 graduate students, received more than a million dollars in research grants, and published more than 150 scientific papers.
Concurrent E: The Hope Garden: A Wonderful and Diverse Teaching Garden at Pickens Elementary with Marge Moon
During this session Ms. Moon will share her experiences in planning and developing a school yard garden. The Hope Garden was started in 2000 with a 40 foot by 60 foot Bermuda Grass monoculture school courtyard and now is a mature and highly diverse teaching garden with many ecological niches, not only for plants, but also for a myriad of other creatures that have been attracted to those niches. The emphasis has been on providing an outside classroom and relying primarily on native plants to reflect the various habitats of Pickens County, SC, where the school is located. She will share her reflections of what she has learned along the way, and also explore the impact on the students, teachers and parents of Pickens Elementary, and the Pickens community as a whole.
Marge Moon is a third grade teacher at Pickens Elementary in Pickens S.C. She has taught her own three children and many elementary children since 1970. Along with several other teachers, she leads the Hope Club, that is a group of 112 students that works together to create and maintain the HOPE Garden. Her classroom is filled with many natural artifacts, and her windows frame the beauty of the Hope Garden outside. She is a lifelong organic gardener and has been fortunate to combine her love of gardening with her love of teaching...enjoying the best of both worlds.
Concurrent F: A Floristic Approach to Native Plant Conservation in a Public Garden with Keith Tomlinson
Like most native collections in public gardens, our objective is to foster conservation of native plants and their habitats through public education and display. Instead of allowing human abstractions, such as political boundaries, to define the focus of the project, we developed a criteria based on biogeographic factors, to define the collection. Regional geology, hydrology, climate and floristics are central to development of the collection. Within this framework, we identified the Potomac River Basin as a geographic province that determines which native plants we accession.
Keith Tomlinson is an interpretive naturalist and Manager of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens near Washington, DC. Over the past nine years he has coordinated the development of the Potomac Valley Collection at Meadowlark. Keith’s work and travels as a naturalist have taken him to more than 100 botanic gardens in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Pacific.
Friday Evening Chat Session (At Reynolds Hall)
Cullowhee Conference Chat Session with Margie Hunter
Following Friday evening’s picnic, any interested attendee is welcome to return to the Reynolds Hall lobby for an informal and lively group chat session. Topics will include, but are not limited to, conference presentations and current environmental events related to native plants, gardening, ecology, education, etc. This is an excellent opportunity to ask questions, learn from fellow conference attendees, share your insights, and contribute helpful ideas and suggestions.
Margie Hunter is a writer and gardener living in Nashville, TN. She is the author of Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee: The Spirit of Place (2002, University of Tennessee Press) and speaks to various gardening groups and plant societies throughout the Southeast, including Cullowhee. She maintains a native plant Web site at www.gardeningwithnativeplants.com.
Saturday Morning General Session (begins at 8:45 a.m.)
9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.: Production of Native Plant Species to Meet a Regional Demand of a Growing Market with Ron Wik
This presentation will focus on steps being taken at the New England Wild Flower Society to supply many native plant species which have recently become very desirable for landscape and restoration industries, while remaining true to the Society’s mission of promoting the conservation of temperate North American flora through education, research, horticulture, habitat preservation, and advocacy. You will learn about the propagation, production, and distribution strategies used by the oldest plant conservation organization to meet the needs of the new “green” revolution.
Ron Wik is the nursery business director of the New England Wild Flower Society. Based at the Society’s Nasami Farm Native Plant Nursery and Sanctuary, he oversees the production of 100k+ units annually representing 750 species indigenous to North America, with a focus on the Northeast. His primary interests include propagation of “difficult” species, spring ephemerals, plant growth manipulation, and plant nutrition.