The Nickajack Naturalist

Virgin Falls State Natural Area Dedicated

  Recently, Tennessee's Governor Bill Haslam and other state officials met on site to celebrate the state's acquisition of 1,157 acres comprising the Virgin Falls State Natural Area, near Sparta.  In addition to Virgin Falls, the tract includes Sheep Cave Falls, Big Laurel Falls, and Big Branch Falls.

  While I haven't made it by there for a number of years now, Virgin Falls, once a Bowater Pocket Wilderness and located near the Caney Fork River in Scotts Gulf, is one of my favorite locations in Tennessee for a dayhike or a backpack trip.  Managed for decades as a State Natural Area, the land was still privately owned until November 2012, when the state acquired 1,157 acres with help from the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.  

  The water of Vigin Falls emerges from a cave, flows a few yards, then drops 110 feet into an amphi-theater shaped sinckhole, where it disappears again into the ground.  While I now know this type of stream feature to be fairly common (even if not usually as impressive) in the Cumberland region, my introduction to Virgin Falls in the late 1980's was my first awareness of such a concept.  The Natural Area adjoins the 10,000 acre Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness.

Click here to read a Nooga.com article about the dedication by Jenni Veal.

See a collection of photos of the event on the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation Facebook page here.

There's even a brief mention of the land acquisition at the Huffington Post.

Visit the Tennessee Division of Natural Areas' official page on Virgin Falls, which contains a link to a good trail map, here.

Bob Butters 

The Kimball Park Project--2013__December 21

  Welcome to the final installment of the Kimbal Park Project 2013!  This completes the documentation of a one year cycle in the natural environment of the Kimball Park.  These photos were taken under an overcast sky within a couple of hours preceding the Winter Solstice.

Click here to see the project's introductory post from January.  Compare the November issue here.

 

The Pond.  The most noticeable difference compared to last month is the lack of wetland vegetation in the pond, perhaps at least partly due to a higher water level currently.

 
The Tree.  With a perspective of the big red oak similar to last January's, you can see it is now bare of foliage.  What I discovered for the first time, though, is that it has a lot of nodules on twigs, which my research has indicated are gouty oak galls (See photo below).  They are created by a tiny wasp species, c.quercuspunctata, which lay their eggs in the twigs in spring.  The wasp has specialized glands which secrete chemicals that interact with certain plant chemicals to create the galls.  It takes two or more years for the young wasps to reach maturity, during which time they feed only on gall tissue.

The Field.  During last month's visit, the field was being sprayed with a herbicide.  In this view, you can see brown vegetation resulting from that spraying.

  Notice the clump of trees in the field on the left side of the photo.  They are there because of a sinkhole which contains a small pond (See photo below).  I'm told that the water level of the pond corresponds to the level of the Tennesse River.  This would suggest that there are probably limestone passageways underneath the fertile river bottom soil which connect the sinkhole to the river.

Sinkhole pond.

 

The Mountain.  The view of the now bare mountainside forest is somewhat dimmed by a light drizzle.

The River.  This view of the river and Burns Island is quite similar to November's.  While it's hard to see well from this distance, I suspect some of the green vegetation on the far bank is river cane, which is an evergreen plant.

 

Random Shot--Canada Geese.  A flock of about a dozen Canada geese flew directly overhead, then circled back to where they came from.  Other wildlife that I wasn't able to get good photos of included a large flock of gulls in the neighboring field, a flock of killdeer, a flock of doves sitting on the ball field fence, and a deer that I think I probably flushed from the the trees around the sinkhole pond when I went in to photograph it.

  I hope you've enjoyed this year long project to document the changing seasons at Kimball Park, or if this is your introduction to it, you'll check out the previous installments.  

Bob Butters                                                                             All photos:  Bob Butters

Back from the Brink: The Endangered Species Act at 40

                                                                           From Nooga.com

 This month marks 40 years since Congress passed the Endangered Species Act.  The bald eagle is an example in the Tennesee Valley of the act's success.   Read more.       

A Year Observing Nature in Sewanee's Shakerag Hollow

 

  Over the past year or so, you may have encountered some of the buzz about David Haskell's book, The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature.  In it, Haskell, a biology professor at Sewanee's University of the South, recounts a year's experience observing nature in and from a one-square-meter patch of ground in Shakerag Hollow, which is located on the University domain.

  Haskell uses the square-meter patch, which he calls a mandala, as focal point for exploring everything from insects, plants, and animal tracks within the site to eco-systems of the Cumberland Plateau region and the eastern U.S.  For example, he uses signs of deer in the mandala as the basis for an extensive treatise on the digestive system of the white-tailed deer, as well the deer's historical affect on forest eco-systems.  Nearby Carolina chickadees on a below-freezing winter day lead to an in-depth study of how the birds survive the winter.

  While obviously on a different level, this book was the primary inspiration for my Kimball Park Project series of posts.  Perhaps a bit in-depth for someone wanting a lighter read, I believe anyone with a deep interest in nature will find The Forest Unseen an absorbing experience.

  To learn more about, or to purchase the book, click on the link under Recommended Books in the sidebar.

Bob Butters