Go Take A Hike! ... on One of Our ATBI 2012 Conference Field Trips, that Is!

Thursday, March 22 - 9:00 a.m. – 4: 00 p.m.

FIELD TRIP A- Animal Tracking with Wanda DeWaard

Every clue or sign that an animal leaves behind is a track. Tracking is an ancient skill, but for us it can open up a whole new world. Tracking is a way to be more aware, to experience, and see much more out on the natural landscape. We don’t have to see the animals to tell that they were there, what they were doing, and when they may come back. We’ll learn their stories from the traces they have left behind. Slow down, look closer, ask a lot of questions, and accept the challenge of tracking in the Smokies. You may be surprised by what you find. We will start in Cades Cove and see what we find. Leader: Wanda DeWaard, M.S., recreation and environmental education, is an outdoor educator who has shared Earth Kinship and Environmental Awareness programs with community groups, schools, colleges, camps, nature centers, and teacher conferences since 1974. Anything and everything in the natural world brings out her enthusiasm and contagious sense of fun.

Thursday, March 22 - 9:00 a.m. – 12: 00 p.m.

FIELD TRIP B- GPS: Where am I Now? With Tom Colson

This course is designed as a general introduction to Global Positioning Systems (GPS). You'll discover some basic GPS concepts including what equipment to use, how to choose the equipment, how to collect data, and some basic field usage. Leader: Tom Colson, GIS Specialist with Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has applied GIS to numerous wetland, stream, and land planning projects throughout the southeast. These projects include GIS support of field work, due diligence assessments, planning, flood modeling, site design, construction, and permitting tasks.

Thursday, March 22 - 1:00 p.m. – 4: 00 p.m.

FIELD TRIP C- The Best Wildflower Hike in the Smokies with Janet Rock

As spring awakens, numerous wildflowers and ferns make their appearance in the Smokies. We’ll take what we consider to be the best wildflower hike in the Park, and take short walks over moderate terrain to find and identify a variety of species. Anticipate seeing mayapple, fringed phacelia, spring beauty, hepatica, wild geranium, several trilliums, showy orchis and others. And you’ll learn to identify ferns like the wood ferns, bracken, lady fern, hay-scented fern, and many others by close observation of their distinctive fronds and spore cases. The emphasis will be on appreciating the delicate beauty of wildflowers and ferns while learning nontechnical identification methods. Leader: Janet Rock has been a botanist for the Park since 1989. She has studied effects of white-tailed deer on vegetation, impacts of ramp harvesting, and population dynamics of ginseng. Her job focuses mainly on rare plant monitoring and inventories.

Thursday, March 22 - 1:00 p.m. – 4: 00 p.m.

FIELD TRIP D- Butterflies and Moths: Ecological Role, Collection, and Basic Taxonomy of Smoky Mountain “Leps” with Moria Robinson

Where do butterflies and moths go in the winter? How diverse are the Smokies “leps” (butterflies and moths)? This field trip will guide participants in an exploration of the small, yet vital denizens of the Great Smoky Mountains. We will search for them in both their larval and adult life stages, to help explain how these very different points in development affect the ecosystem they live in. As caterpillars, butterflies and moths munch away at plant tissues of plants and trees, often causing great impact as herbivores and perhaps influencing the diversity of trees in the Park. In contrast, as adults these insects facilitate plant reproduction, passing gametes from male to female flowers. We will examine a blacklighting sheet set out the night before to learn basic moth taxonomy, use “beat sheets” to collect caterpillars from foliage, and discuss application of techniques to the classroom and outdoor curricula. We will also explore family-level identification of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), and their role as ecosystem engineers. Leader Moria Robinson recently graduated from Middlebury College and will be attending graduate school in entomology in the fall. She has been studying butterflies and moths for much of her life.

Saturday, March 24 - 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

FIELD TRIP E- Basic Field Botany with Dr. Dan Pittillo

This basic botany, native plant ecology and plant identification field trip is designed for teachers, wildlife biologists, government regulators, planners, landscape architects, general contractors and other professionals who wish to expand their knowledge of native plants and field-based botany. We will be in the field visiting different plant habitat types, such as oak woodland, cove hardwood, and many others. Please bring Newcomb’s Guide to Wildflowers if you have a copy. Leader, J. Dan Pittillo, Dan is a retired biology professor from Western Carolina University and former curator of their herbarium. He also served many years as director of Highlands Biological Station and the Bartram Trail Society as well as newsletter editor for Southern Appalachian Botanical Society. Author of numerous professional publications, his interests include regional floras, rare plant distributions, conservation, and land development planning.