Understanding Bog Turtle decline in the Southern Appalachians. Guest post by Mike Knoerr

  Endangered Bog turtles exist in southern Appalachian mountain bogs. These wetlands are incredibly rare and increasing isolated on the landscape. Thankfully, The Nature Conservancy has acquired and actively manages several of these wetlands for rare plants and animals, including the small and secretive bog turtle.  Mark-recapture data and population level analyses suggest that many…

Exploring Mountain Bogs

Great new article appearing in The Transylvania Times by BLN Member, Owen Carson.  Nice job Owen!    

The David Attenborough Style of Scientific Presentation

I’ve been giving more and more talks lately and I came across a couple articles the other  are really spot on so I thought I would share.  The first is by Marshall Shepherd, written for Forbes.com, while the latter is a handout from Will Ratcliff, a Georgia Tech Professor of Biology. 2016 (Shepherd) 9 Tips…

*NEW North Carolina Biodiversity Project Website launched!!

Per Email from Harry LeGrand Fellow biologists and nature lovers: I am proud to announce the opening of a new website — an umbrella website called the North Carolina Biodiversity Project, which serves as the home for a number of existing websites on taxonomic groups of animals found in North Carolina, as well as a…

BLN Steering Committee: Mincy Moffett

Check it out. I wanted to share this piece about the Bog Learning Network’s own Mincy Moffett  and his career path and his career move from economist to biologist.   “I had a career that I hated and two degrees that I didn’t want to use anymore, so I thought, ‘Man, I’ve got to make a change,’”…

Eller Seep and Reed Branch Controlled Burns

From one corner of North Carolina to the other, we burn for pitcher plants.  Earlier this week, TNC-North Carolina and TNC-Georgia teamed up with Southern Blue Ridge FLN partners North Carolina Forest Service, Georgia ForestWatch, KD Ecological Services, MountainTrue, and Wildland Restoration International to conduct some small, yet highly important controlled burns on two of the south’s few remaining…

Scientists Finally Understand How Pitcher Plants Developed the Taste for Flesh

Plants that feast on animals for sustenance are something of a nightmarish novelty in the world of botany, but what’s even more amazing is how distantly related carnivorous plants from different parts of the world separately evolved the same taste for flesh. Highlight Article from Science Alert Full Journal Article from Nature Ecology and Evolution…

Quarry Bog Workday Report

On June 7, 2016, The Nature Conservancy’s Tennessee Chapter hosted a Bog Learning Network invasives field day at Quarry Bog Preserve, Shady Valley, Tennessee.  Quarry Bog Preserve is a 68-acre site where TNC began a large-scale hydrologic restoration project in the early 2000s.  The BLN work day drew 14 participants from Zoo Knoxville, the Natural…

Bog Learning Network Field Trip Report

We had a fantastic Bog Learning Network Field Trip.  We ended up with 22 attendees from NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC Forest Service, US Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, UNC-Asheville, and Warren Wilson College, Mountain True, and the Knoxville Zoo.  We hope to be able to provide video and audio from this…

International Bog Day Event July 29 – 30, 2015

MorPresented by Friends of Plant Conservation, NC Plant Conservation Program and partners US Fish & Wildlife Service, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, and The Nature Conservancy Day One  Wednesday evening, 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  Cedar Mountain Community Center, Cedar Mountain (Transylvania County) NC Jim Fowler – Beautiful & Unique Plants of Southern Bogs  An avowed…