Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05

Spring Naturalists’ Rally at Roan Mountain Friday through Sunday

Story by Kathleen McFadden

The Spring Naturalists’ Rally at Roan Mountain is the ultimate field trip for those with an unnatural interest in wildflowers, birds, butterflies, ferns, geology, history, medicinal and edible plants, mushrooms, salamanders, stream ecology and astronomy. And doesn’t that sound like just about everyone?

Sponsored by the Friends of Roan Mountain, the 49th annual rally is this Friday through Sunday, May 4 to 6.

Friday

Activities don’t get started until 6:30 p.m. on Friday, although registration begins an hour earlier at the Roan Mountain State Park Conference Center. Friday night’s program is a dinner and presentation double header.

The dinner, catered by City Market in Elizabethton, includes baked chicken, two vegetables, salad, dessert selection, bread and drinks. The cost is $8.50 for adults and $4 for children 12 and under.

After dinner at 7:30, Dr. Pete Lemiszki, chief geologist for the State of Tennessee, will present Rummaging in the Basement of the Appalachian Mountains: Appraising the Rocks for Rare Clues about the Geologic History of the Roan Mountain Area.

Saturday

Saturday morning is for the early birds—literally—with a birdwalk beginning at 6:30 at Sycamore Shoals State Park in Elizabethton.

If you can’t make it out quite that early, several morning tours convene at 8:30 at Roan Mountain State Park in the first field on the right after the Visitors Center. Choose from another birdwalk, forest ecology, wildflowers, Cate’s Hole Trail, salamanders, Hack-Line Road Historic Trail, Twin Springs to Carver’s Gap and nature observation for kids.

For folks who have always wanted to get into birding, a beginners’ birding field-shop is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.

Noon brings a lunchtime workshop on Managing the Highland Balds. Bag lunches are available by reservation only and include your choice of sandwich, chips, cookie and a drink for $5.

All the Saturday afternoon tours begin at 2:00 and also meet in the first field on the right after the Visitors Center. Choose from three different wildflower tours, as well as aquatic insects as water quality indicators, morels on the mountain, highland geology, nature discoveries for young folks and ecological adventures in Twin Springs.

Dinner on Saturday is at the Conference Center at 6:30 p.m. and includes lasagna, salad, breadsticks, dessert selection and drinks. Also catered by City Market in Elizabethton, Saturday’s dinner costs $8.50 for adults and $4 for kids 12 and under.

After-dinner programs include an update from the Friends of Roan Mountain and a presentation by Dr. Jay Franklin, assistant professor at East Tennessee State University, entitled Cave Archaeology In Southern Appalachia.

For those who aren’t too tired, Saturday concludes with a 9:00 p.m. field trip to view the summer skies.

Sunday

Sunday’s activities include a birdwalk, an Appalachian Trail Conservancy Rare Plant Slide Show and Walk, a rare plant hike and a butterfly and wildflower tour.

More Info

Membership in Friends of Roan Mountain is $15 for an individual, $20 for a family or $250 for a lifetime membership. For rally participants who join the organization and support the group’s nature education efforts, the $4 weekend fee to attend the rally will be waived.

For a complete schedule of events, click to www.etsu.edu/biology/roan-mtn/. For more info, contact Jennifer Bauer at 423-772-4772 (home), 423-543-5808 (work) or highlandlady@naxs.net. If you email Bauer, type Roan Mtn. Nat. Rally in the subject line of your message.