Join us for this year’s Wildflower Weekend, April 3 & 4 in partnership with Natural Bridge State Resort Park. This event offers wildflower hikes Friday and Saturday, led by some of the best botanists in the state. These hikes will explore the region’s rich natural history and resources in the state park and the Red River Gorge. Hikes topics include wildflowers, ferns, woody plants, bryophytes, fire ecology, plant identification 101, and more.
Friday evening, there will be a social to meet your fellow native plant enthusiasts. Saturday morning, we will have a book signing for a recently published children’s book, Wake Up, Woods, with author Mike Homoya present for signing. Directly after the booking signing will be a kid’s creek walk. We are also offering an outdoor yoga class Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening, talks will be given in the Woodland Center. Click on the link below to see the full schedule.
Our keynote speaker Saturday evening is Mike Homoya. Mike is a recently retired botanist and plant ecologist who worked for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Natural Heritage Program since 1982. He discovered, inventoried, and assessed natural communities and surveyed for rare species. He shared his knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm about plants by authoring several books, teaching at the collegiate level, and serving as president of professional science associations.
His most recent publication is a children’s book titled Wake Up, Woods. Mike will give a presentation Saturday evening on the rare plants and natural communities along the Ohio River, from Cincinnati to the Mississippi River. You will also hear from three of our student grant recipients who will present on their graduate research projects.
This event is open to the public and kid-friendly. Registration is on-site at the Hemlock Lodge in the lobby. Admission is $10.00 for adults, $3.00 for ages 12-17, free for ages 12 & under. Discounted KNPS memberships will be available.
Betty Beshoar and Mark Roberts always wanted
to live in the country and moved to their land on Elkhorn Creek in the
Frankfort area over 30 years ago. They love walking through the woods watching and
hearing frogs leaping into the pond as they go by and enjoying spectacular
views. Recently, they partnered with Woods and Waters Land Trust to ensure that
over 57 acres of their land will be wildlands forever. Land trusts have sprung
up all over the nation (there are more than a thousand) to help people
interested in conserving land.
The forest on the slopes of the stream on the conserved land are covered with wildflowers in the spring. One of those wildflowers is Braun’s rockcress (Arabis perstellata), an endangered plant.
Arabis perstellata
Roughly 90% of populations of this plant worldwide are in Franklin County, Kentucky. Because of the unique geologic similarity (and historical links) to the Nashville area, a few populations of Braun’s rockcress also occur in that area. The limited range of this plant and the threats to forest health, like invasive plants and animals, make every population of this rare plant important to its long-term persistence in the Bluegrass forests. And this hill conserved in the Peaks Mill area helps.
There are 10 federally listed endangered or threatened plants in Kentucky. In addition to the rockcress, globe bladderpod is also limited to forests in the Bluegrass and has a disjunct distribution in the Nashville area. It occurs in drier more rocky forests, often on upper slopes.
Kentuckian Karen Lanier’s Wildlife in Your Garden is
a bountiful resource for Kentuckians hoping to turn their property into a wildlife
heaven. This book provides an overview of how to leave the old paradigm of
monoculture yards behind and cultivate your property for the benefit of wildlife—flora,
fauna, and human. In the author’s own words:
“The purpose of this book is to help you reconnect with your
wild side and the green space just outside your door by discovering the
importance of the patch of earth that you tend and the creatures who find sustenance
there.”
That’s a big promise, and Lanier delivers. This book won’t turn you into a landscaper, but it will whet your appetite for change and offer sound advice for implementing that change. Lanier encourages you to observe and learn about the surrounding ecosystem. She advises you to use natives and explains their importance in the big picture—indeed, without natives, there is no big picture. On the practical side, there’s advice on a myriad of gardening topics, from improving your soil, choosing the right plants, solving specific garden-related problems, and much more. Each page is packed with encouragement, advice, and gorgeous pictures.
Wildlife in Your Garden isn’t a step-by-step gardening
manual. Rather than how-to, this book helps you see why you should—and then
helps you evaluate your green space differently, so you can implement a plan
for change. Lanier assures you that becoming a good steward will change your
life, and that of the surrounding wildlife, for the better.
Karen Lanier, naturalist and educator, currently
lives in Kentucky. She has worked as a park ranger from California to Maine in
national and state parks and in wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife education,
and even made a documentary on deforestation in Brazil. Lanier holds degrees in
photography, foreign language, conservation studies, and documentary studies as
well as a professional environmental educator certificate. She is actively
involved with the Lexington, Kentucky chapter of Wild Ones.
With the passing of summer 2019, we are noticing stress on plants flowering or fruiting, dropping of leaves early from drought and heat, but still cooler mornings signaling the start of fall. The lush spring and summer have turned to a drought stricken landscape. But still the asters, goldenrods and ironweeds have bloomed magnificently. I can only hope for some fall colors, but with the record heat and drought for September I’m not holding my breath. My usually late summer/early fall ladies’ tresses orchid studies have been somewhat disappointing this year. Last year at this time we saw an abundance of ladies’ tresses, but this year they have declined possibly due to the drought conditions.
My colleagues and I have been lucky to
have botanized in some spectacular natural areas this season,
studying the riparian vegetation on the Green River, surveying
remnant grasslands in the big barrens and southern Cumberland
plateau, studying bogs and seeps in in the mountains of eastern
Kentucky, and conducting forest biodiversity assessments across the
state. And I know many of our KNPS members have also been seeking
out their own botanical refuges to see familiar (plant) faces and
places, and venturing out across the state to meet some new ones. It
never gets old studying our native plants. There are so many
interesting botanical areas in Kentucky that need further
exploration, conservation and management. We still have a tremendous
amount of underexplored and overlooked botanical diversity in the
state.
Recently we have seen promising results in some of our restoration projects where our unique natural communities and rare plants are returning from the brink of extirpation. This gives us hope. But that does not mean that there are not troubles presently in our plant communities, and major threats on the horizon. Many of the best botanical sites in Kentucky were lost before we even knew they existed. The continuing work of groups like KNPS, Kentucky Nature Preserves, USFWS, land trusts, and others are critical to document and protect plant communities and intact forests before more sites are permanently lost.
Significant reports are emerging weekly
predicting rapid climate changes, with oceans warming, melting
glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost contributing to sea level rise
of possibly one meter by centuries end, flooding coastal areas and
impacting coastal vegetation in enormous ways. Forests are being
burned and cleared in the Amazon, Indonesia, and the Congo with
excessive pesticide and fertilizer likely to occur on agricultural
lands that will follow. Temperatures rise, storms increase in
strength, and precipitation becomes unstable with wetter winters and
hotter summer droughts. The Louisville area is projected a 7-12
degree f. increase by the end of the century. The changes in our
plant communities will be substantial. If these predictions are true,
the children today will see a much different natural landscape in
Kentucky 2080. Species extinction is also expected to rise, with
recent studies predicting as many as 1 million species lost globally
by centuries end? Our challenges are great, but that does not mean
that we cannot be better stewards of our botanical diversity. KNPS
must continue our mission to study and conserve our flora, act
locally, think globally, and work diligently to further the existence
of Kentucky’s native plants in the present and for centuries to
come.
I’m proud of events that KNPS
coordinated this year so far. From our annual spring wildflower
weekend at Natural Bridge, to our popular sedge workshop, and the
many hikes both formal and informal that further our deep connections
with plants. We want to send a big THANK YOU to all the teachers and
instructors who help us provide these programs to Kentuckians from
all walks of life. We also have many people to THANK for leading
hikes to Land between the Lakes, Hazeldell Meadow, Shakertown, and
beyond. We organized an event to create the first updated botanical
inventory in nearly 30 years of Mantle Rock in Livingston County, a
unique property known more for its tragic history than the
spectacularly rare sandstone glades and rock outcroppings protected
on this site. As usual, there is never enough time to visit all the
sites, so some have slipped through the cracks and will have to wait
unit next year.
The KNPS board has been busy planning our fall meeting at the West Sixth Farm in Frankfort on October 12. We are holding our first native seed exchange and preparing for that has been exciting! In addition, we will have a membership meeting and hike around the farm to view any late summer flowers and to learn how to find the federally threatened Braun’s rockcress in a dormant state. I hope to see many native plant enthusiasts there.
We are partnering with Kentucky Nature
Preserves this fall on several stewardship workdays, with bush
honeysuckle removal on state nature preserves and natural areas to
protect critical habitat for several globally rare plants in Franklin
County. So please, if you have some free time in November and
December, join us on those days and help us recover and conserve the
federally listed Braun’s rockcress and globe bladderpod. Stay
tuned for announcements of location and time.
And as always, if you would like to
volunteer to help with any of our programs, please contact us! Check
out the announcement for our native plant stewardship certification
coordinator position with KNPS for 2020. Fingers crossed we will
still get rain and some fall colors at least in our interior forests.
Happy fall!
For this year’s fall meeting, KNPS and West Sixth Brewing invite you to Native Plant Day at the West Sixth Farm in Frankfort, KY. Join other native plant enthusiasts to hear updates about the society, partake in a native plant and seed exchange, and join us on a hike to see a globally rare plant.
Event Schedule (subject to change):
11:00AM to 11:30AM – Register for Native Plant/Seed Exchange; meet other native plant enthusiasts.
11:30AM to 12:30PM – Lunch and review of KNPS 2019 activities and plans for 2020. West 6th Farm has food trucks and beverages on site. You can also bring your own lunch.
12:30PM to 1:00PM – Break
1:00PM to 2:30PM – Native Plant & Seed Exchange Bring native plants and/or seeds you can exchange for other plants or seeds. Guidelines:
Must be native and pest-free.
Please label plants (label tags and markers will be available at event).
No endangered species.
Keep seed packets at roughly 15 seeds/packet.
Maximum 5 entries.
2:30PM to 3:30PM – Native Plant Hike West 6th Farm is one of the few locations in the world where Braun’s rock cress (Arabis perstellata) is found. We will take a short (optional) hike to view this species. The hike will be led by Heather Housman of the Woods and Waters Land Trust.
This
should be a great event. It is open to KNPS members and non-members
alike. If you are a member, you can renew your membership for 2020 at
a discounted rate. If you are not a member, you can join at the
discounted rate. We will be also selling KNPS T-shirts, stickers, and
native orchid posters.
There is no cost for the event, but in order to plan effectively, we are requesting pre-registration. If you are likely to attend, please fill out this REGISTRATION FORM. Thanks, hope to see you there!
KNPS’s native plant stewardship certification program is making a comeback in 2020! KNPS organized this successful program for 7 years but has put the program on hold since 2017. But now, KNPS is planning to offer this series again for professionals, students, landowners, citizen scientists, and anyone interested in learning more about native plant identification and stewardship. This 6-part program will train you on native plant ID basics, Kentucky’s botanical and natural community diversity, invasive species ID and management, rare and native plant management, seed collection, native plant gardening, and more. The goal of the program is to train more botanical stewards/guardians in the state and ultimately connect these graduates with native plant stewardship projects across Kentucky. If you are interested in the coordinator position or would like to help with the program by participating as an instructor, please contact us at KYPlants@knps.org!
Duties of the coordinator position
include:
Emailing
class participants and instructors a few times a month prior to
classes
Distributing/mailing program
packets to class participants
Emails and phone calls about
general program logistics
The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves (KNP) is currently working on a restoration project in southern Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky. The preserve in which the project is located is home to one of the largest populations of the federally threatened white-fringeless orchid (Platanthera integrilabia) in Kentucky. This elusive orchid, also known as monkey-faced orchid, is a beautiful two-foot tall plant with white flowers blooming in late summer. Over a decade ago, the restoration project was initiated to boost population numbers of the orchid as it was experiencing detrimental population losses. As the project progressed, it transitioned into the restoration of the entire plant community, a Cumberland Plateau acid seep, in which the white-fringeless orchid grows.
A Cumberland Plateau acid seep in itself is a rarity across Kentucky’s landscape. These acid seeps occur in the headwaters of streams in eastern Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau. They are transient wetland communities that change over time through the creation of canopy gaps in a forest and the subsequent closing in of the canopy. Historically, these canopy gaps were thought to be the result of natural old-growth tree falls, megafaunal disturbance, flooding and periodic fires. The canopy gaps created from the natural tree falls resulted in a depression in the soil and an increase in solar exposure to the ground. Flooding events would fill in the depression with water and a different suite of plant species were able to come in and thrive. Periodic fire and animal browsing helped to maintain these wetlands as open by keeping woody plants from growing and re-closing the canopy.
Grass Pink (Calopogon tuberosus)
As a direct result of logging and fire suppression, acid seeps disappeared from the landscape. The remaining pockets of these communities in Kentucky are often associated with rare plants as the suite of species that grow there can be limited to this unique habitat type. Habitat loss is the biggest threat to the white-fringeless orchid. Other plants associated with acid seeps include white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus), sedges (Carex spp.), regal fern (Osmunda regalis), cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomea), club-spur orchid (Platanthera clavellata), yellow-fringed orchid (P. ciliaris), crested yellow orchid (P. cristata), peat moss (Sphagnum spp.), and netted chainfern (Woodwardia areolata).
The ideal habitat for white-fringeless orchid is not entirely known to scientists as there are many factors involved (hydrology, solar exposure, pollinators, plant associates, etc.). For the past 13 years, KNP botanist Tara Littlefield has been collecting data on this population of white-fringeless orchid to track the progress of the restoration project, as well as glean information about what makes an ideal white-fringeless orchid habitat. This research has led to a better understanding of the seep hydrology, orchid population trends, as well as pollinator dynamics.
KNP determined the best method to save the white-fringeless orchids was to recreate its ideal habitat. To restore the acid seeps, KNP land managers have maintained them in a static state of open canopy rather than letting the canopy naturally close over time. They have maintained the seeps in this way by thinning the canopy and understory through intensive manual removal of woody and invasive species from the interior and fringes of the seeps. In the coming years, prescribed fire will also be utilized once the effects of the fire on the orchid are better understood. These methods have allowed KNP to achieve their goal of increasing the orchid population numbers.
Now that the Cumberland Plateau acid seeps are in better conditions, KNP’s restoration project has once again evolved and expanded to include the uplands adjacent to the seeps. These uplands are heavily forested with low plant diversity and the management goal is to restore them to Cumberland Plateau pine-oak barrens, another rare plant community in decline in eastern Kentucky. Pine Barrens are open woodlands made up of a mix of sandstone outcrops, grasslands, and open pine-oak woodlands with an open understory.
Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum)
Historically, pine barrens were maintained by periodic fire keeping the understory and canopy open. Due to logging and fire suppression, this community is greatly reduced and altered in Kentucky. The majority of the remnant pine barrens in Kentucky are restricted to powerline corridors and roadsides in the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF). Consequently, many of the plants once associated with this plant community are also rare. Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) for example, is restricted to this habitat in Kentucky and can be found primarily on roadsides of the DBNF. Population numbers of wood lily have plummeted in recent decades. Numerous other plants of concern also depend on this habitat including Ten-lobed False Foxglove (Agalinis decemloba), Yellow Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria), Bearded Skeleton-grass (Gymnopogon ambiguous), Southern Crabapple (Malus angustifolia), Appalachian sandwort (Minuartia glabra), Racemed Milkwort (Polygala polygama), Hairy Snoutbean (Rhynchosia tomentosa), Chaffseed (Schwalbea americana), Eastern Silvery Aster (Symphyotrichum concolor), and Roundleaf Flameflower (Talinum teretifolium).
Currently, KNP land managers are restoring the uplands to pine barrens by thinning out softwood trees, such as black gum and maple, and leaving hardwood trees, such as shortleaf pine and oaks. They have left a buffer of forests around the white-fringeless orchid seeps until there is a better understanding of how the orchids will react to periodic fire. Prescribed fire will be utilized in coming years to maintain the woodlands in an open state and help rejuvenate the grasslands. Josh Lillpop, KNP Natural Areas Branch Manager, said of the project, “so much of what we are trying to do right now is related to increasing the sunlight on the forest floor. We have already seen some interesting things showing up where canopy gaps have been created.” In the future, they may be able to reintroduce some of the rare plants, such as wood lily, to these pine barrens where they can thrive.
KNP’s restoration project has changed from a single species focus to overhauling an entire ecosystem in eastern Kentucky. Littlefield said of the project, “it’s important to protect this federally threatened plant, but it also led us down this path of restoring all of these rare ecosystems that are interconnected in the Cumberland Plateau. We’re hoping to eventually connect the pine barrens project to the seep project as we learn more about the fire effects and get a handle on the invasive species.”
