Date of trip: July 29, 2023 Start time: 9AM CDT Location: Ballard WMW, Ballard Co., KY Difficulty of hike: Easy. We will car pool/caravan on the gravel roads in the WMA, getting out to walk short distances on flat terrain. Conditions will be hot and humid.
Join KNPS President, Jeff Nelson, as as we explore the native plant ecosystems in the wetlands and river bottoms of the Ballard WMA in Ballard Co.
Ballard Wildlife Management Area is 8,000 acres located in the Ohio River bottomlands ecoregion in far western Kentucky. The WMA is mostly wetland with 39% of the acreage in wetland, 28% forest, 27% open land, and 6% open water. Much of the wetland is comprised of rare, cypress-tupelo swamps and sloughs which many Kentuckians have not had the opportunity to experience. The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves lists cypress-tupelo swamp as a state endangered ecosystem.
We will drive as a caravan around the WMA, making several stops where we will get out and observe the botany of Ballard’s diverse ecosystems. We will carpool as much as possible to reduce the number of cars in the caravan, but anyone who prefers to drive themselves is perfectly welcome to do so.
Carolina spiderlily (Hymenocallis occidentalis)
We should see several uncommon, wetland plant species. We hope to find Carolina spiderlily (Hymenocallis occidentalis) in flower.
Although we will not be hiking any distance, we will be taking walks of less than 1/2 mile at a couple of stops, all on the road or trails. We will walk into areas off the road to get a better view many of the plants. There is likely to be some muddy spots where we will be walking, so be prepared.
There are no bathroom facilities or water available at the WMA. It will be hot and humid. If conditions are such that the heat index will be over 100, we will cancel the trip. We will email you on Friday the 28th if the trip is canceled.
This should be a great field trip with many native species in flower, some that are rare or uncommon in KY. If you have any questions, just email us at KYPlants@knps.org. Register for this field trip using the form below.
[THESE WORKSHOPS HAVE COMPLETED] Some spaces are still available in both of the upcoming KNPS workshops. There will be both a beginner level and an intermediate level, Wetland Plant Identification workshop at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY on June 27th for the Beginner class and June 28th-29th for the Intermediate class! The workshops are field courses, exploring the Ohio River wetlands and learning how to ID the plants that are found there. The workshops are conducted in sequence and interested parties can sign up for just the Beginner workshop, just the Intermediate workshop, or both. To register for the workshops, use the form at the bottom of this page.
The Beginner Wetland Plant ID workshop will be one day long, on June 27th, from 9AM CDT – 5PM CDT. The Beginner workshop will cover basic flower structure, leaf arrangement, etc. while highlighting plants as we go. It will be less technical with a focus on demystifying the nomenclature so as to be able to start keying plants out. The instructor will introduce C-values, wetland indicator status, and the basics on how to see the landscape in a broader, phytological way. There is a $25 registration fee for this workshop.
The Intermediate Wetland Plant ID workshop will be held over two days, June 28-29th, from 9AM CDT – 5PM CDT each day. This workshop is aimed towards individuals with some prior experience in field identification of wetland plants and will focus on how to identify more complicated genera and groups (i.e. graminoids and asters). An understanding of basic floral morphology (petals, sepals, tepals, stamens, etc.) is more or less expected. We will be looking at keys and getting a bit deeper in the descriptive elements of the flora.In addition to Audubon State Park, there may be a visit to other close natural areas. There is a $75 registration fee for this course.
Courses will take place from 9am-5pm CDT each day and have a 1-hour break for lunch (bring your own lunch). You will need to bring a notebook, loupe or hand-lens, phone or camera, pencils, and preferred reference book if you’d like. Remember that these are field courses and may get into wet areas, so please wear appropriate clothing and bring water.
If you have any questions, email us at KYPlants@knps.org
*About the Instructor
Nathanael J. Pilla is a botanist for Midwest Biological Survey, LLC. He also is an adjunct professor at University of Notre Dame, hosts the YouTube series, Botany and Beer, and is part of the Chicago Wilderness Alliance Steering Committee. Nathanael is well versed in the terrestrial and aquatic flora of the Midwest bringing his knowledge and charisma with him in and outside the workplace. He has experience in botanical research and identification, hands-on resource management, project management and plant identification, and his written work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals. He recently co-authored the book, Wildflowers of the Indiana Dunes National Park, which was published through Indiana University Press. When he is not botanizing, he spends his time writing and singing ridiculous songs.
Registration Form for Workshops
Use this form to register for the workshop. The Intermediate workshop is now full, You can still sign up for the Beginner workshop on June 27th .
Date of trip: June 17, 2023 Start time: 10AM EDT Location: Lilley Cornett Woods, Letcher Co., KY Difficulty of hike: Medium difficulty, approximately 1.5 miles
Join us for a hike at one of the most notable natural areas in Kentucky and a registered national landmark, EKU’s Lilley Cornett Woods. Located in Letcher County, Lilley Cornett Woods is an old-growth forest, a forest that has not undergone any man-made changes in 150 years. During your hike LCW guides will provide you with an educational experience on various topics ranging from the 12 characteristics of old growth, mixed mesophytic forest, diverse flora and fauna native to Appalachia, and most notably LCW’s incredible “big trees.”
The Shop Holler trail is LCW’s shorter trail at approximately 1.5 miles with medium difficulty. Plan to be on the trail for about 3 hours with the guide, while you traverse the mountainside through different forest communities. This is LCW’s most popular trail due to its shorter length, but don’t be fooled, you will be amazed by the diversity of the area and be able to truly understand a mixed mesophytic forest.
No pre-registration is required for this hike. You will meet, register, and sign waivers at the Visitors Center. From the parking lot the Visitors Center building is on the hill, up the sidewalk. Hike leaders will be outside the Visitor’s Center waiting for you.
Lilley Cornett Woods is located at 91 Lilley Cornett Branch, Hallie, KY. Driving Directions.
If you have any questions, email us at KYPlants@knps.org
John James Audubon SRP, Oct 26 2022, photo by Haley Owens
Save the date for the KNPS 2023 Fall Meeting at John James Audubon SP, in Henderson Co., KY, on Saturday, October 28. There will be a KNPS member and friends meeting in the morning, with informative talks and updates about the Society. After a break for lunch, there will be hikes, led by experienced botanists and naturalists that know the park, to look at the plants and plant communities that occur at the state park.
John James Audubon State Park is located just south of the Ohio river in Henderson County in western Kentucky. The park preserves the peaceful woods where John James Audubon walked as he studied the subjects of his paintings. The park museum features the largest collection of original Audubon art in the world in addition to personal artifacts about his life.
The surrounding forest along the bluffs of the Ohio River is mature, almost old growth in nature with some trees more than 200 years old. Approximately half of the property has been dedicated as a state Nature Preserve. At least 61 species of trees and more than 200 wildflowers have been documented from the site. The north facing, mesic forests are dominated by American beech, sugar maple, and American basswood whereas the more south facing slopes are dominated by sugar maple, various oaks, and tulip tree. At least 169 bird species have been observed in the park.
The 650-acre Audubon Wetlands was added to the park by the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund in 2016. There are bald eagles nesting and a heron rookery, as well as habitat for waterfowl and amphibians. The Friends of Audubon, a local nonprofit, has installed a wheelchair accessible boardwalk through the wetlands with plans to install more.
We have just begun the planning process for the 2023 Fall Meeting. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions, email us at KYPlants@knps.org.
When: Tuesday, June 27th, 2023 Time: 9am-5pm Central Time Where: John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, KY. Meet at the Museum parking lot. Cost: $25 Bring your own lunch. This is a field course, so please wear appropriate clothing and shoes and bring water.
Instructor: Nathanael J. Pilla*
Intermediate Wetland Plant ID
When: Wednesday & Thursday, June 28th & 29th, 2023 Time: 9am-5pm Central Time Where: John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, KY. Meet at the Museum parking lot. Cost: $75 Bring your own lunch. This is a field course, so please wear appropriate clothing and shoes and bring water.
Instructor: Nathanael J. Pilla*
KNPS is delighted to offer two new workshops this summer. We will be offering both a beginner level and an intermediate level, Wetland Plant Identification workshop at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY! The workshops are conducted in sequence and interested parties can sign up for just the Beginner course, just the Intermediate course, or both.
The Beginner Wetland Plant ID workshop will be one day long, on June 27th, focusing on learning botanical lingo and key features of common wetland plants in Kentucky. There is a $25 registration fee.
The Intermediate Wetland Plant ID workshop will be held over two days, June 28-29th. This workshop is aimed towards individuals with some prior experience in field identification of wetland plants and will cover more challenging taxa with an emphasis on grasses, rushes, and sedges. In addition to Audubon State Park, there may be a visit to other close natural areas. There is a $75 registration fee for this course.
Courses will take place from 9am-5pm CDT each day and have a 1-hour break for lunch (bring your own lunch). You will need to bring a notebook, loupe or hand-lens, phone or camera, pencils, and preferred reference book if you’d like. Remember that these are field courses, so please wear appropriate clothing and bring water.
*About the Instructor
Nathanael J. Pilla is a botanist for Midwest Biological Survey, LLC. He also is an adjunct professor at University of Notre Dame, hosts the YouTube series, Botany and Beer, and is part of the Chicago Wilderness Alliance Steering Committee. Nathanael is well versed in the terrestrial and aquatic flora of the Midwest bringing his knowledge and charisma with him in and outside the workplace. He has experience in botanical research and identification, hands-on resource management, project management and plant identification, and his written work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals. He recently co-authored the book, Wildflowers of the Indiana Dunes National Park, which was published through Indiana University Press. When he is not botanizing, he spends his time writing and singing ridiculous songs.
Registration Form for Workshops
This form is used to register for either or both of the workshops. You can sign up for either one of the two courses (Beginner on June 27th or Intermediate on June 28th-29th) or you can sign up for both.
On April 14th & 15th, over 150 KNPS members and friends came together at Cumberland Falls SRP for the Society’s 34th Annual Wildflower Weekend. For the first time since Wildflower Weekend began in 1989, the event was held in a different location from Natural Bridge SRP. This change from years past gave us the opportunity to discover botanically, ecologically, and geologically unique areas of Kentucky as we explored Cumberland Falls, Natural Arch Scenic Area, & the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
Rest assured, we are not abandoning our friends at Natural Bridge SRP, who have hosted Wildflower Weekend for over 30 years. KNPS plans to now alternate Wildflower Weekend locations between Natural Bridge SRP in even numbered years, and other Kentucky parks in odd numbered years. Planning has already begun for next year’s Wildflower Weekend 2024 and to pique your interest for April 2024, enjoy the following images and discussion of Wildflower Weekend 2023.
Wildflower Walks
Wildflower walks and hikes are the defining activities of every Wildflower Week. This year, beginning at noon on Friday and running through the end of the day on Saturday, we enjoyed a record number 19 wildflower walks, led by 30 of the best botanists and naturalists in the country. Exploring the amazing diversity of the plant communities in Cumberland Falls state park, Natural Arch Scenic Area, & the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, participants learned about and enjoyed dozens of native plant species, the fauna associated with them, and the amazing geology and hydrology that surrounds them.
Friday Night Members & Friends Campfire Social
Friday night was our campfire social. Dozens of KNPS members and friends came together for an evening of fun, fellowship, and s’mores around the campfire next to the Cumberland River.
During the social, James Kiser, naturalist, hike leader, and Sat. night speaker, took several groups out to search the cliff face for salamanders. The searches were great fun and successful as the groups made multiple observations of several different species of these shy, nocturnal amphibians.
Green salamander (Aneides aeneus)
Red salamander (Pseudotriton ruber)
Long-tailed salamander(Eurycea longicauda)
Saturday Night Presentation & Raffle
On Saturday evening we came together for a KNPS update, evening talks, and our annual raffle. An overflow crowd filled the Moonbow Room at the Cumberland Falls DuPont Lodge.
James Kiser
James Kiser gave a fascinating presentation on “Southern Kentucky Landscape Features and Associated Rare Species“. The number and diversity of rare species in McCreary and nearby counties is much higher than in many other parts of Kentucky and James explained how the variety of landscape features likely leads to this. James is a senior biologist with Stantec Consulting Services. He grew up along the base of Pine Mountain in Letcher County, Kentucky, received a B.S. degree from Morehead State University and completed courses toward a Master’s Science Degree at Eastern Kentucky University. James moved to the Big South Fork area in McCreary County in 2003 when he took a biologist position with the Daniel Boone National Forest. He is an old fashioned Naturalist spending the last 32 years studying the flora and fauna of Kentucky.
Chris Benda
After a short break the group came back together to listen to an informative and fun talk by Chris Benda, the Illinois Botanizer. Chris’s talk was “Botanical Humor: You Never Knew Plants Were So Funny“. Chris kept the group laughing, while at the same time presenting a wealth of interesting botanical observations. Chris is a botanist and past president of the Illinois Native Plant Society (2015-2016). Currently, he works as a Researcher at Southern Illinois University, where he coordinates the Plants of Concern Southern Illinois Program and teaches The Flora of Southern Illinois. Besides working at SIU, he conducts botanical fieldwork around the world, teaches a variety of classes at The Morton Arboretum and leads nature tours for Camp Ondessonk. He has research appointments with the University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory, and is an accomplished photographer and author of several publications about natural areas in Illinois. He is also known as Illinois Botanizer and can be reached by email at botanizer@gmail.com.
The Bidwell’s with Bob Van Hoff’s carving.
The evening ended with the annual raffle. The grand prize of the raffle, as has been the case for many years, was a beautiful carving by KNPS member, Bob Van Hoff. This was a hand-carved, hand-painted depiction of a flowering pink lady-slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule) at three stages of inflorescence development. The winners of the carving were Mary Alice and Chris Bidwell, long time members of KNPS. Besides the carving, we also raffled off over 30 native plants. The plants were generously given to KNPS by our partners Ironweed Nursery in Waddy, KY, Dropseed Native Plant Nursery, in Goshen, KY, and The Arboretum at the State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
Discussions about next year’s Wildflower Weekend 2024 are already happening. Dates are not set yet, but be thinking about the first half of April as the general time-frame. If you have any thoughts about how the event could be made better, we would love to hear from you. If you would like to lead or co-lead a walk next year, let us know. KYPlants@knps.org.
I was seven years old when my aunt and uncle took my sister and me bird watching in the woods of wild, wonderful West Virginia. While vacationing with them at a very nice state park, they decided to give my parents a break from us for the morning. To them, we were “city kids,” having lived all our lives in a house that was built in an old farm field along with 150 identical units about 20 miles from downtown Philadelphia. I have construction photos of the property from 1950 and there isn’t a tree to be seen anywhere.
On the other hand, my uncle had lived his whole life in the Mountain State and was an avid hunter, fisherman and nature lover. My mother said that her brother would never live anywhere else in the world other than West Virginia. Years later, I finally understood the spell the mountains had placed on him and why he could never leave.
My sister and I were doing what kids our ages would normally do, running ahead of our caretakers by a good 20 or 30 yards at least. I don’t know exactly what we were looking at or listening to. Maybe we were “watching for birds” because we were on a “bird watching” trip, right?
“Kids, come back! I have something to show you!”
After repeating himself a few times (maybe several times), we finally turned around and trudged back down the trail, reluctantly retracing our steps. When he came into view we could see him bending down looking at something on the ground in the middle of the trail.
Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina). The reddish eye indicates that this is a male.
“It’s a box turtle and you guys ran right past it. I’m glad you didn’t step on it. Have you ever seen one of these before?”
The answer to his question was a resounding no, because we were city kids and box turtles usually don’t hang around in old farm fields surrounded by 150 houses. He went on to explain to us, very gently as I remember, that there are a lot of things to see in the woods, but you have to slow down and take your time, or you might miss some of the amazing things that are out there.
There was a character named Ferris Bueller in a movie several years back about this one day he took off from school. He went joy riding in a sports car, took in a Major League Baseball game and sang on a float in a parade. At one point in the movie, he turns and speaks directly into the camera.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
If Ferris and my uncle had ever met, I feel like they would have gotten along just fine.
So that’s what it’s all about. Go slow, take your time, and look all around…. rocket science, huh?
Of course, there are plenty of folks who go into the woods and completely ignore this advice. The current world record for completing the Appalachian Trail in the shortest time is held by the Belgian ultrarunner Karel Sabbe who traversed the 2,173-mile trail in 41 days, 7 hours and 39 minutes, which means he averaged 53 miles per day! He accomplished this feat, which is equivalent to running 20 miles more than a marathon every day for 41 days straight, during July and August of 2018. Can you imagine how many box turtles he missed on this trip?
Actually, I don’t begrudge Mr. Sabbe too much because he accomplished a truly amazing feat of athleticism, and he did something no one else in the world has done. And maybe he turned around in Maine and leisurely retraced his steps back to Georgia at a 5-6 mile per day pace so he could see everything that he missed. No, probably not…
I have a few other rules/guidelines I follow every time I head to the woods. Obviously, I always take precautions against biting insects and the burning rays of the sun. I have an old smartphone and the GPS app I use to navigate to avoid getting lost drains the battery quickly, so I take a couple of power sticks along. I carry a roll of orange flagging tape to mark the locations of interesting plants so I can find them again. I wonder what the occasional deer or squirrel hunter thinks when they see my orange flags tied to random tree branches out in the middle of nowhere?
The most valuable implement to take into the woods, however, is the hiking stick. I use a wooden one that was hand-crafted (paw-crafted?) for me by a beaver. While it is useful for maintaining one’s balance climbing over downed trees or scampering up and down creek banks, I find it indispensable for removing spider webs. While bushwhacking through the woods, I wave my stick around in circles or just swing it up and down in front of me. Alternatively, If you are trapsing through the woods with another person or group, always hang back in second or third place, never lead. This will ensure that the other person gets a face full of spider web, not you.
I recently discovered another reason to use a hiking stick. A few weeks ago, I was crossing a field on my way back to my vehicle after an enjoyable walk in the woods. The field had been subjected to a controlled burn a few months earlier and I was concentrating on the wide variety of plants that were popping up all over the place. Suddenly, I heard a clunk as my stick hit something solid, which was unusual for western Kentucky (we don’t have many rocks here). I looked down and sure enough, my stick had landed on top of a box turtle who had sealed itself up tight in its shell. As I was taught when I was seven years old, I picked it up and checked the shell for damage (there was none) and waited for a while, hoping it would decide to check me out also. Unfortunately, it declined to make an appearance, so I returned it to the ground and continued across the field.
And as I made my way back to my car, all I thought about was my uncle and all the other things he taught me besides how to take a walk in the woods.
Robert Dunlap is an amateur naturalist living near Paducah who owns every Peterson Field Guide that has ever published.
