Venus flytrap poaching

Photo by Skip Pudney

Our little neck of the woods is very special for many reasons; oldest cypress trees, high biodiversity, and fire dependent ecosystems to name a few and all of which I have discussed in previous posts.  But one that I think is more special than all of that other stuff is the Venus flytrap.  The name alone conjures thoughts of old horror movies where plants eat screaming starlets, but in reality the plant is the vulnerable one.

The Southeast Coastal Plain is the only region of the world where the Venus flytrap grows naturally; outside.  I say outside because often there is confusion as the Venus flytrap is grown in nurseries all over the world but in the natural world it only grows here.  That is special.  This is incredible for the natural heritage of this region, the coolest endemic species on the planet, one that even Charles Darwin was in awe of.  But life is hard for the Venus flytrap.

Flytrap with prey, photo by Skip Pudney

Development in this region is happening at one of the highest rates in the country, and this is a detriment to the natural populations of Venus flytraps.  Ironically the cool ecology of the plant is also a detriment.  A meat-eating plant that traps its prey with a slingshot mouth covered in “teeth” – what child in America, heck the whole world, wouldn’t want one of these as a pet?  Well this market value has increased the problem of poaching the plants from private property.

In NC the Venus flytrap is a protected species so if the plant is removed from private property without landowner permission it is poaching and is a class 2 misdemeanor.  We have many preserves that have Venus flytraps and we do occasionally catch people poaching the plants from our preserves.  In fact Monday three people were arrested in the Green Swamp poaching, they had 200 plants in their possession.  Check out this WWAY report featuring our own Angie Carl for more details!

Replanting the poached Venus flytraps in the Green Swamp

Since the poachers were caught and the plants recovered we were able to replant them immediately, but the survival rate is usually less that 50%.  What a loss.  Natural populations of Venus flytraps are in trouble.  According to the NC Natural Heritage Program there are only 13 viable populations left in this region and these populations are stressed by development and poaching every day.  It would be a horrible loss for the Southeast Coastal Plain if there were no more natural occurring Venus flytraps.

Check out our new Venus flytrap brochure for more information.  If you would like to help protect the Venus flytrap directly please contact our office.

Official start to burn season!

Clemmons A burn, photo courtesy of Connor Coleman

This weekend marked the official start to the 2012 burn season!  Together with our partners we have already burned 1,500 acres in the Southeast Coastal Plain!  That is huge!

Back Bay burn, photo courtesy of Connor Coleman

On Friday 1/13 our crew along with the NC Division of Forest Resources burned 450 acres in the Boiling Spring Lakes preserve in an area known as Back Bay.  It was an intense burn consuming a lot of fuel, which is great for the safety of the city.  By consuming the fuel in a controlled burn there is less fuel to burn in the event of a wildfire which lessens the possibility of incident within the city.  The wind was strong and pushed the fire well through the thick vegetation.  Here is a video clip of the fire effects on this burn, it was super intense!  Thanks Connor Coleman for the video coverage!

Clemmons A burn, photo courtesy of Connor Coleman

On Saturday 1/14 our crew assisted the NC State Park crew on a burn in Pender County at a preserve called Sandy Run.  The burn was 150 acres and opened up overgrown longleaf pine savanna so now pitcher plants and other flowering herbs can get the needed sunlight to bloom this spring.

Back Bay burn smoke from the Cape Fear in Wilmington

On Sunday 1/15 we burned 100 acres in our Green Swamp preserve with the help of the NC State Parks crew.  The area burned is known as Clemmons A and is a sparsely vegetated, rehabilitated longleaf pine savanna.  By burning we are encouraging wiregrass growth in the understory.  The burn was cut off at 4:00 due to the sun going down but will be finished on another day.

If you are interested in following where we burn visually please check out our interactive Google map.  It is updated every time we burn.

Conservation Retreat

On a different note, last week we had a Conservation Retreat.  Twice a year all of TNC North Carolina’s conservation staff gets together and discusses different conservation issues and strategies.  Our meeting was at the NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill and the focus of our meeting this time was people; how we use, interact, and help people in our conservation work.  It was very informative and a great way to share ideas with our colleagues.

Thanks for looking!

Exciting News! New Preserve Land Acquired!

An aerial look at the dry Pinch Gut Ridge

On December 29th we acquired 463 acres of land in Brunswick County!  This new property is adjacent to the east side of the Green Swamp preserve and includes 100 acres of nice upland longleaf pine.  We call it Pinch Gut Ridge.  The funding for this acquisition came from a  $450,000 Environmental Enhancement Grant (EEG) from the North Carolina Department of Justice, a $300,000 anonymous private donation, and $150,000 from Ducks Unlimited.

Young longleaf pine

The Pinch Gut acquisition is good on so many levels.  It will allow us to burn an area of the Green Swamp that in the past was unable to be accessed for fire.  We will be able to plant trees and manage the longleaf that is there which will benefit plants and animals alike. 

Georgia false indigo (Amorpha georgiana var. confusa) is a rare plant that grows on Pinch Gut Ridge

The Green Swamp is the largest preserve in our management area and we will continue to add to its acreage whenever we can.

Happy New Year!

shoestring savanna burn 2011, photo by Connor Coleman

Well it is 2012, I can’t believe it!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

Along with a new year the beginning of January marks the start of our fire season here in the Southeast Coastal Plain.  So what is this fire season?  It is a very exciting time, and there will be plenty in this blog in the coming months about it.

The pine savanna and pocosin ecosystems in the Southeast Coastal Plain are fire dependent, meaning that in order to be truly healthy systems they need to be burned.  Burning removes the dead understory allowing sunlight to reach plants that grow lower to the ground.  Burning also adds much-needed nutrients to the soil and helps to safeguard against wildfires by removing heavy fuels.

Historically fires were started regularly by lightning strikes and would burn acres and acres across the landscape.  Once settlers came to the Southeast Coastal Plain things changed and most fires were put out to protect communities.  Today in order to maintain the natural fire regime in our preserves we burn manually; it’s our best management tool.

There are many aspects to a controlled burn; weather, temperature, humidity, and wind are a few.  There needs to be a crew that can conduct the burning and that crew needs to be trained with special training.  Every year we hire a crew of 3 people to work through the fire season which starts in January and ends at the end of March.  Angie is a burn boss and leads all of the burns.  Dan and I are both trained to help out too.  Here is this year’s crew:

left to right: Chyu Elguezabal, Kyle Johnson, Connor Coleman

So the plan for this winter is burn as much as the weather will allow us to.  If you are interested in following where we burn check out this Google map, it shows the places we hope to burn and as we burn them it will update with a brief note about how the burn went.  You will also find regular information on this blog about different aspects of burning including details on how we burn, different tools that we use, safety, maps, photos, videos and so much more.  So stay tuned!  Like I said it’s a very exciting time for us and we can’t wait to share it with you!

A Holiday Card

Happy Holidays!!

yaupon holly, a native to southeastern forests

Well as you may have guessed December is a very busy month for us here in the SECP office as we try to juggle saving the planet one tree at a time and Holiday festivities.  We always manage to get things done, conservation is our priority!

I don’t have a formal topic for this post so I would like to take some time to reminisce about some highlights from the past three months, like the American Orchid Society fund drive for our Myrtle Head preserve.  The AOS is doing a fund drive for some much-needed management at Myrtle Head, in order to better preserve the unique orchid species that grow there.  Click here to find out how you can help…it could be a very neat green gift for the person who has everything! And let’s not forget about the Fire in the Lakes Festival!  This is a festival hosted by the City of Boiling Spring Lakes and focuses on fire; specifically controlled burning and wildfire.  There will be games and live music, food and ecosystem informational booths, Smokey Bear and a demonstration controlled burn!!  Something for everyone!!  The Fire in the Lakes Festival is a sponsor supported effort and we certainly could use your help!  For more information on how to donate to the festival click here.

Natasha

It’s the end of another year and with that we must say farewell to 3 very important people, our fall semester UNCW interns.  What would we do without the devoted help from our interns 🙂 

AJ

We had AJ, who took the lead on our yearly conservation easement monitoring; Natasha, who was responsible for photomonitoring (and I might add was finished in record time which allowed her to do some other neat projects with her remaining time); and Tyler, who continued with an ongoing project mapping the ditches in one of our preserve landscapes using GIS.  So here’s to AJ, Natasha, and Tyler!!  May you have a wonderful future in whatever you find yourselves doing.  Thanks so much for your help! 

Have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season from all of us here at TNC Southeast Coastal Plain!  See you in 2012!

Anadromous Fish?

Atlantic sturgeon, picture from Cornell University

Recently The Nature Conservancy joined a working group led by NOAA to pursue options for better anadromous fish habitat on the Cape Fear River.  An anadromous fish is one that is born in fresh water, spends most of its life at sea, then returns to fresh water to spawn.  In the Cape Fear River there are several different anadromous fish, like shad, herring, and Atlantic sturgeon. 

Lock and Dam #1

There are three lock and dams on the Cape Fear River.  At lock and dam #1 the Army Corps of Engineers is halfway through on the construction of a fish passage that will allow these anadromous fish to pass the lock and dam and get to spawning grounds.  They hope to be finished with the fish passage project in the spring of 2013.  The NOAA working group will facilitate decisions for the other two lock and dams in an effort to make them passable for anadromous fish as well.

Lock and Dam #3

Lock and dam #3 will most likely be the focus for the next passage as it is the biggest impediment to upstream migration of anadromous fish.  The working group is confident that there will be a positive return on fish populations with the installation of these fish passages.

Lock and Dam #2

For more information on anadromous fish in the Cape Fear River click here.  For more information on the Cape Fear River lock and dam fish passage project here.

Black Bears!!

photo courtesy of skip pudney

So I was unsure of what to post this week so I decided to pick something random…black bears (Ursus americanus).

Black bears are a prominent large mammal in the southeast coastal plain landscape, though they are not very often seen as they tend to be a bit reclusive.  Black bears are the smallest of the three North American bear species and are only found in North America.  Black bears have uniform colored fur, usually black (which gives them their name), and a lighter colored muzzle.  Some western black bears have lighter colored fur and there is a subspecies of black bears found in coastal British Columbia with blueish white colored fur, they are known as Kermode bears or glacier bears. 

Black bears are omnivores, they eat a number of different things like plants, fruits, nuts, insects, honey, small mammals and carrion.  In some northern regions black bears will eat spawning salmon, small deer and moose calves.  Here in the southeast the black bears mostly live on berries and small mammals.

There are over 300,000 individual bears in the Unites States.  Some populations are threatened however, like in Louisiana and Florida.  Black bears live all over the United State in forests.  Their preference is thick forest that is uninhabited by humans.  In our region of the southeast coastal plain black bears are most likely to be seen in thick pocosin forests like in the Green Swamp or Holly Shelter Gamelands.  A recent study of black bear populations in North and South Carolina shows that the Green Swamp has a healthy and growing black bear population, good news for us! 

Black bears tend to be solitary animals, with the exception of mothers and cubs.  Cubs will stay with the mother for one year after birth.  In cold climates black bears will hibernate due to lack of available food in the winter months.  During hibernation is when the cubs are born, usually January or February, and the number of cubs born is based on the mothers food availability the summer before; the more food available the more cubs she is likely to have.  

Well I hope you learned a little something about black bears from reading this.  I know I did!  Thanks for looking.

wiregrass…wiregrass…wiregrass…

ready for pickin'

Well as you may have guessed this post is going to be about wiregrass; well mostly.  It’s November…the temperatures are dropping in the Southeast Coastal Plain, the leaves on the trees are changing ever so slightly to a bronzed brown hue, and the wiregrass in the pine savannas is ready for pickin’.

andy assessing the seed situation...it looks good

Many of our preserves are in a restoration phase…meaning that we are in the process of converting them back to a more natural state.  Some of the lands we protect, though they are undeveloped, may not be in the best of condition ecologically.  It could be that they had been clear-cut by a previous owner, are overgrown and need to be thinned, or maybe they were used for agriculture at some point in the distant past.  This is where the wiregrass comes in.

andy and angie with the seed collection machine

Part of the restoration process includes planting native seeds to regenerate a natural understory.  Understory is all of the low grasses and herbs in a forest, basically the first layer of growth.  In the southeast coastal plain we have pine savanna forests and the major understory grass is wiregrass. 

some toothache grass seed

Wiregrass plays a very important role in the pine savanna; it carries the much need fire across the ground.  Without wiregrass the fire would not be able to roll over the forest floor and add nutrients to the soil. 

not a bad haul

Well in order to restore wiregrass to the pine savannas we first have to collect the seed.  So that is what we have been doing!  November is the prefect time of year to collect seed so we go out to our preserves that are ecologically healthy and collect wiregrass seeds (and some others too by default).  We use many volunteers with scissors and we also have a fancy machine that “collects” the seeds too.  We then use the seed to replant areas in our preserves that need it. 

bucket-o-wiregrass plugs

In some cases the seeds are grown into plugs in a greenhouse and once they are big enough the plugs are planted into the preserves; we have been doing some wiregrass plug planting as well.  Here is a little demonstration of how to plant a wiregrass seed plug…it’s very technical.

jess and jen from the coastal land trust planting away...thanks for the help ladies!

There is never a dull moment around here, we manage to stay busy all year round!  Many thanks to all of the volunteers that helped us with our collecting and planting…we couldn’t have done it without you!

planted plugs

As an added side note here is a beautiful picture taken by Angie Carl of Carolina grass of Parnassus.  She snapped this in one of the preserves they were doing seed collecting.  Carolina grass of Parnassus is a rare plant that grown in the Southeast Coastal Plain region and it blooms in late fall.  It’s a stunning flower!

Carolina grass of Parnassus

Cheers!

An Afternoon with the Winding River Garden Club

shoestring savanna in the green swamp

As an added bonus to my already awesome job I get to take interested folks, usually in the form of clubs or organizations, out to our Green Swamp preserve for interpretive adventures! 

 

Winding River Garden Club

On this fine October day I had the pleasure of hosting the Winding River Garden Club, a community club located in Supply, NC.  The club was interested in seeing native carnivorous species in their natural habitat, and boy did they get what they asked for and then some!

pine barrens gentian

We saw the vibrant pine barrens gentian, one whose color is so remarkable it doesn’t seem natural.  A true pine savanna gem that blooms in the late fall.

looking at venus flytraps

We saw Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, Barbara’s buttons, and several different asters.  The rain gauge showed 1.5 inches of rain since my last visit a week and a half ago…but we still need much more rain to make up for the drought this past summer.

green swamp rain gauge

Overall I think the Winding River Garden Club enjoyed their trip to the Green Swamp, I know I sure did!