Southern Appalachian Creature Feature

The US Forest Service, has begun taking a predictive look at the future of Southern forests, coming out with an initial report looking at the Southern Appalachians. The results aren’t especially unexpected, but still warrant the attention of forest users and community leaders, because it does show a change in our forests and how they are used.

The interrupted rocksnail, rough hornsnail, and Georgia pigtoe mussel are all endangered species, having disappeared from 90 percent or more of their historical ranges, largely due to the damming of rivers where they live. All three are native to the Coosa River drainage in Alabama and North Georgia, the Georgia pigtoe also occurring in east Tennessee.

In 1910, there were 1251 people living in Cataloochee Valley – divided between Little and Big Cataloochee, making it collectively the largest community in the Smoky Mountains at the time. The coming of Great Smoky Mountains National Park brought an end to the community, but the creation of the park also meant the preservation of several buildings in the Cataloochee Valley, providing us a glimpse of what life was like there one hundred years ago. Unfortunately, recently life in Cataloochee hasn’t been so tranquil.

Officials at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are proposing to help protect park forests by further limiting the type of firewood brought into the park.

As the fatal bat disease white nose syndrome continues to spread, leaving millions of dead bats in its wake, land managers continue working to check its spread. In an effort to prevent the human spread of the disease by clothes or equipment, most federal and state caves have been closed to the public, and the Regional Forester for the Southern Region of the U.S. Forest Service recently announced an extension of the closure order for all caves and mines on southeastern National Forest system lands until 2019 to help prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome.

Seeing redhead ducks in the local pond on my drive home from work is a little treat. Overall redheads aren’t rare ducks, but the Southern Appalachians are not a hotbed of duck activity and it’s nice to see some migrant ducks amidst the resident mallards that seem to dominate the local waterfowl scene.

After looking at more than 3,800 free-ranging deer in 2013 and 2014, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has not detected the fatal, untreatable wildlife affliction, chronic wasting disease, despite its presence in Virginia and other nearby states.

It was quite balmy in Asheville on that particular late-May morning. While the weather may be warm and clear in town, it’s no indication of conditions above 6000 feet, on the shoulders of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

A look at this rare plant

On July 4, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission invites anglers and would-be anglers of all ages to go fishing — for free.