Focus 2010

The Southern Highlands Reserve will focus on it's new ecological restoration center, phenological monitoring and education in 2010. After years of construction and garden building it is exciting to be making progress towards fulfilling our mission of celebrating the natural history of the southern Appalachian highlands through education, restoration and research.

Southern Highlands Ecological Restoration Center (SHERC)

Construction on greenhouses, over-wintering structures and outdoor growing beds to support propagation for imperiled plant communities in the southern Appalachians has run up on a stump. That's WNC speak for we've been stymied by snow, ice and frozen ground since mid-December. What was to be our winter project will now be an early spring project. We haven't been totally stopped, however. Richard Bryson and Sue Owen have been busy cleaning and sowing azalea and red spruce seed. The azalea seed is being germinated in a propagation chamber under florescent light in the workshop area. The red spruce seed has been sown in flats and placed outside for natural stratification. The spruce seed is somewhere under 12-14" of snow, hopefully happilly stratifying themselves in preparation for a spate of growing come warm weather. Normally, the spruce seed would be sown directly in outdoor beds but, this year, they will be transplanted into the growing beds once the beds are complete.

Initially, SHERC will provide plant material to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission to use in restoration of habitat for the endangered Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel and to the USFS for habitat improvement on heath balds on the Cherohala Skyway.

Phenology monitoring to begin  at SHR.

Simply put, phenology is collecting scientific data about the world around us and how it changes on a day-to-day basis.

It seems like such a simple thing - recording data about the timing of natural events of specified plants. This data, however, collected on a timely and consistent basis, combined with other information about specific plant habitats will prove valuable to researchers in the future as they track the affects of climate changes on the southern Appalachian landscape. From individuals and populations to communities and ecosystems, the phenology of living sytems influence their ecological interactions and therefore the probability of their persistence in the future.

The Southern Highlands Reserve educational focus this year will be on 'horticulture meets ecology'.

The primary interest of most visitors to SHR each year is horticulture.  We all love horticulture and gardening but there is a larger world of nature just beyond our garden walls. Just as we have brought plants from this larger space into our gardens, those same plants can return the favor by providing a bridge to learning about the ecology of the natural systems of the southern Appalachians.