Outdoors
Up Moses Creek: Coyote Howl
I was hiking in the woods above our house at sunrise when coyotes began to howl behind me, and they howled and howled.
Notes from a plant nerd: Barking up the right tree
To get through the winter, some plants go underground to take advantage of the earth’s insulation, while others stay above ground and protect themselves in other ways.
Notes from a plant nerd: Hey Buds!
Hunkered down for the long winter, wrapped in multiple layers and prepared for the cold, I have a lot in common with the flower and leaf buds of woody plants.
Up Moses Creek: I’ll Fly a Ways
It takes something special to draw me out of Moses Creek — there’s so much here to see and do and write about.
Notes from a plant nerd: In the pines
In the Cherokee cosmology, evergreen trees were given their ability to hold onto their leaves all winter as a reward for s taying up all night long for seven days, keeping the sacred fire lit.
Word from the Smokies: At 50, Endangered Species Act continues to protect life in the park
It’s no secret that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hotspot of biological diversity. Not only does it offer a range of environmental conditions to support plant and animal life, no ocean or glacier has disturbed it for over a million years, giving species lots of time to evolve.
Notes from a plant nerd: Oh balsam tree, oh balsam tree
At the highest elevations of the Southern Appalachians grow two evergreen trees that give the Balsam Mountains their name — red spruce (Picea rubens) and Fraser fir (Abies fraseri).
Up Moses Creek: The Red Maple
The air was still and frosty when I started up the trail that November morning to watch Black Mountain light up in the sun.
Notes from a plant nerd: Like a podium
Creeping along the forest floor is a group of native plants that look like mosses, but aren’t mosses.
