Georgia Outdoors, a Telly-award winning show on Georgia Public Broadcasting out of Atlanta, recently won a Southeast Emmy in the Best Magazine category for the episode “Mountain Magic”. Half of the 26-minute episode was devoted to Mountain Bogs and the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance and collaborating researchers. Watch at http://www.gpb.org/georgia-outdoors/episodes/21/2104. Thanks to Mincy Moffett, botanist with…
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…
Pitcher Plant Extravaganza!
The pitcher plants are putting on a good show for The Nature Conservancy! This Low Mountain Seepage Bog in western North Carolina is home to one of only two North Carolina populations of the green pitcher plant (Sarracenia oreophila). This type of bog is an open, shrub or herb-dominated wetland with acidic soils, often with disjunct populations of species…
Great new video on the Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge
Here is a great new video on the Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge produced by Joseph Coleman and Claire Lamberg, students in a Warren Wilson College documentary class.
New Research Article: Removing Privet has added benefit of removing exotic earthworms
Thanks to Mincy Moffett for sharing this reasearch. This study investigated the possibility of a facilitative relationship between Chinese privet (Ligustrumsinense) and exotic earthworms in the southeast US. Earthworms and selected soil properties were sampled five years after experimental removal of privet from flood plain forests of the Georgia Piedmont region.
Trip Report- TNC Preserves in Shady Valley, Tennessee
Lately we have been placing greater emphasis on getting Bog Learning Network members in the field together to share restoration and management experiences. Earlier this summer, our friends from Georgia hosted a few dozen members and showed some of their rare wetland restoration work. On October 21st, twenty-five BLN members took a day trip to Shady Valley Preserves in Tennessee. Members…
More Not so Good News: Wolf Spiders like living in Microstegium, and they eat alot of amphibians
Thank you to Mincy Moffett for passing this along. Microstegium vimineum (Japanese Stilt Grass) is a plant almost all of us have a tough time dealing with. A new study published in Ecology has found that Microstegium also affects arachnid predators as wolf spiders thrive in the grass. As their populations grow, more spiders then feed on young American toads, ultimately reducing the amphibian’s…
NY Times Article discussess Conflicts of Novel and Traditional Conservation Strategies
This article has been making the rounds lately, but for those that haven’t had a chance to read it. In anticipation of Climate Change, some have been proposing new approaches in conservation such as moving species to new ranges, actively managing wilderness areas, and using non-natives as surrogates for extinct species. However, others prefer to focus on protecting wilderness and classical restoration that keeps ecosystems…
Feature Article: Vegetation of Isolated Montane Non-alluvial Wetlands of the Suthern Blue Ridge of North Carolina
This is an interesting thesis written by Brenda Wichmann. 2009 (Wichmann) Vegetation of geographically isolated montane non-alluvial wetlands of the southern Blue Ridge of North Carolina Abstract – The ecological significance of montane non-alluvial wetlands in the southern Blue Ridge region of North Carolina is well known. However, there is relatively little quantitative documentation of…
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