2020 Wildflower Weekend

Join us for this year’s Wildflower Weekend, April 3 & 4 in partnership with Natural Bridge State Resort Park. This event offers wildflower hikes Friday and Saturday, led by some of the best botanists in the state. These hikes will explore the region’s rich natural history and resources in the state park and the Red River Gorge. Hikes topics include wildflowers, ferns, woody plants, bryophytes, fire ecology, plant identification 101, and more.

Friday evening, there will be a social to meet your fellow native plant enthusiasts. Saturday morning, we will have a book signing for a recently published children’s book, Wake Up, Woods, with author Mike Homoya present for signing. Directly after the booking signing will be a kid’s creek walk. We are also offering an outdoor yoga class Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening, talks will be given in the Woodland Center. Click on the link below to see the full schedule.

Our keynote speaker Saturday evening is Mike Homoya. Mike is a recently retired botanist and plant ecologist who worked for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Natural Heritage Program since 1982. He discovered, inventoried, and assessed natural communities and surveyed for rare species. He shared his knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm about plants by authoring several books, teaching at the collegiate level, and serving as president of professional science associations.

His most recent publication is a children’s book titled Wake Up, Woods. Mike will give a presentation Saturday evening on the rare plants and natural communities along the Ohio River, from Cincinnati to the Mississippi River. You will also hear from three of our student grant recipients who will present on their graduate research projects.

This event is open to the public and kid-friendly. Registration is on-site at the Hemlock Lodge in the lobby. Admission is $10.00 for adults, $3.00 for ages 12-17, free for ages 12 & under. Discounted KNPS memberships will be available.

If you would like to volunteer and help out with the registration desk, please sign-up here: Volunteer Signup Sheets for the 2020 Wildflower Weekend.

To see full schedule: https://www.knps.org/2020/02/24/2020-wildflower-weekend-agenda/

One Hill In Peaks Mill Saved

By Deborah White

Betty Beshoar and Mark Roberts

Betty Beshoar and Mark Roberts always wanted to live in the country and moved to their land on Elkhorn Creek in the Frankfort area over 30 years ago. They love walking through the woods watching and hearing frogs leaping into the pond as they go by and enjoying spectacular views. Recently, they partnered with Woods and Waters Land Trust to ensure that over 57 acres of their land will be wildlands forever. Land trusts have sprung up all over the nation (there are more than a thousand) to help people interested in conserving land.

The forest on the slopes of the stream on the conserved land are covered with wildflowers in the spring. One of those wildflowers is Braun’s rockcress (Arabis perstellata), an endangered plant.

Arabis perstellata

Roughly 90% of populations of this plant worldwide are in Franklin County, Kentucky. Because of the unique geologic similarity (and historical links) to the Nashville area, a few populations of Braun’s rockcress also occur in that area. The limited range of this plant and the threats to forest health, like invasive plants and animals, make every population of this rare plant important to its long-term persistence in the Bluegrass forests. And this hill conserved in the Peaks Mill area helps.

There are 10 federally listed endangered or threatened plants in Kentucky. In addition to the rockcress, globe bladderpod is also limited to forests in the Bluegrass and has a disjunct distribution in the Nashville area. It occurs in drier more rocky forests, often on upper slopes.

Deborah White is the Director of the non-profit Woods and Trust Land Trust. You can contact her at Deb@woodsandwaterstrust.org to learn more about donating funds or property.

Wildlife in Your Garden: A book review

A bit of everything for the Kentucky naturalist

Kentuckian Karen Lanier’s Wildlife in Your Garden is a bountiful resource for Kentuckians hoping to turn their property into a wildlife heaven. This book provides an overview of how to leave the old paradigm of monoculture yards behind and cultivate your property for the benefit of wildlife—flora, fauna, and human. In the author’s own words:

“The purpose of this book is to help you reconnect with your wild side and the green space just outside your door by discovering the importance of the patch of earth that you tend and the creatures who find sustenance there.”

That’s a big promise, and Lanier delivers. This book won’t turn you into a landscaper, but it will whet your appetite for change and offer sound advice for implementing that change. Lanier encourages you to observe and learn about the surrounding ecosystem. She advises you to use natives and explains their importance in the big picture—indeed, without natives, there is no big picture. On the practical side, there’s advice on a myriad of gardening topics, from improving your soil, choosing the right plants, solving specific garden-related problems, and much more. Each page is packed with encouragement, advice, and gorgeous pictures.

Wildlife in Your Garden isn’t a step-by-step gardening manual. Rather than how-to, this book helps you see why you should—and then helps you evaluate your green space differently, so you can implement a plan for change. Lanier assures you that becoming a good steward will change your life, and that of the surrounding wildlife, for the better.

Karen Lanier, naturalist and educator, currently lives in Kentucky. She has worked as a park ranger from California to Maine in national and state parks and in wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife education, and even made a documentary on deforestation in Brazil. Lanier holds degrees in photography, foreign language, conservation studies, and documentary studies as well as a professional environmental educator certificate. She is actively involved with the Lexington, Kentucky chapter of Wild Ones.

President’s Message

With the passing of summer 2019, we are noticing stress on plants flowering or fruiting, dropping of leaves early from drought and heat, but still cooler mornings signaling the start of fall. The lush spring and summer have turned to a drought stricken landscape. But still the asters, goldenrods and ironweeds have bloomed magnificently. I can only hope for some fall colors, but with the record heat and drought for September I’m not holding my breath. My usually late summer/early fall ladies’ tresses orchid studies have been somewhat disappointing this year. Last year at this time we saw an abundance of ladies’ tresses, but this year they have declined possibly due to the drought conditions.

My colleagues and I have been lucky to have botanized in some spectacular natural areas this season, studying the riparian vegetation on the Green River, surveying remnant grasslands in the big barrens and southern Cumberland plateau, studying bogs and seeps in in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, and conducting forest biodiversity assessments across the state. And I know many of our KNPS members have also been seeking out their own botanical refuges to see familiar (plant) faces and places, and venturing out across the state to meet some new ones. It never gets old studying our native plants. There are so many interesting botanical areas in Kentucky that need further exploration, conservation and management. We still have a tremendous amount of underexplored and overlooked botanical diversity in the state.

Recently we have seen promising results in some of our restoration projects where our unique natural communities and rare plants are returning from the brink of extirpation. This gives us hope. But that does not mean that there are not troubles presently in our plant communities, and major threats on the horizon. Many of the best botanical sites in Kentucky were lost before we even knew they existed. The continuing work of groups like KNPS, Kentucky Nature Preserves, USFWS, land trusts, and others are critical to document and protect plant communities and intact forests before more sites are permanently lost.

Significant reports are emerging weekly predicting rapid climate changes, with oceans warming, melting glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost contributing to sea level rise of possibly one meter by centuries end, flooding coastal areas and impacting coastal vegetation in enormous ways. Forests are being burned and cleared in the Amazon, Indonesia, and the Congo with excessive pesticide and fertilizer likely to occur on agricultural lands that will follow. Temperatures rise, storms increase in strength, and precipitation becomes unstable with wetter winters and hotter summer droughts. The Louisville area is projected a 7-12 degree f. increase by the end of the century. The changes in our plant communities will be substantial. If these predictions are true, the children today will see a much different natural landscape in Kentucky 2080. Species extinction is also expected to rise, with recent studies predicting as many as 1 million species lost globally by centuries end? Our challenges are great, but that does not mean that we cannot be better stewards of our botanical diversity. KNPS must continue our mission to study and conserve our flora, act locally, think globally, and work diligently to further the existence of Kentucky’s native plants in the present and for centuries to come.

I’m proud of events that KNPS coordinated this year so far. From our annual spring wildflower weekend at Natural Bridge, to our popular sedge workshop, and the many hikes both formal and informal that further our deep connections with plants. We want to send a big THANK YOU to all the teachers and instructors who help us provide these programs to Kentuckians from all walks of life. We also have many people to THANK for leading hikes to Land between the Lakes, Hazeldell Meadow, Shakertown, and beyond. We organized an event to create the first updated botanical inventory in nearly 30 years of Mantle Rock in Livingston County, a unique property known more for its tragic history than the spectacularly rare sandstone glades and rock outcroppings protected on this site. As usual, there is never enough time to visit all the sites, so some have slipped through the cracks and will have to wait unit next year.

The KNPS board has been busy planning our fall meeting at the West Sixth Farm in Frankfort on October 12. We are holding our first native seed exchange and preparing for that has been exciting! In addition, we will have a membership meeting and hike around the farm to view any late summer flowers and to learn how to find the federally threatened Braun’s rockcress in a dormant state. I hope to see many native plant enthusiasts there.

We are partnering with Kentucky Nature Preserves this fall on several stewardship workdays, with bush honeysuckle removal on state nature preserves and natural areas to protect critical habitat for several globally rare plants in Franklin County. So please, if you have some free time in November and December, join us on those days and help us recover and conserve the federally listed Braun’s rockcress and globe bladderpod. Stay tuned for announcements of location and time.

And as always, if you would like to volunteer to help with any of our programs, please contact us! Check out the announcement for our native plant stewardship certification coordinator position with KNPS for 2020. Fingers crossed we will still get rain and some fall colors at least in our interior forests. Happy fall!

For the love of Kentucky Plants,

Tara Rose Littlefield

Ashland Clean-Up Day: Protecting Running Buffalo Clover

Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate in Lexington is having a clean-up day on Saturday, November 2nd from 9:00am-12:00pm. Join Heidi Braunreiter with Kentucky Nature Preserves to help pull winter-creeper from populations of running buffalo clover populations on the estate. Ashland will be providing coffee and krispy kreme donuts in the morning and Donato’s pizza at noon. Bring gloves, water, knee pads, and pruners if you have them.

Federally-endangered plant running buffalo clover

Running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) is a federally-endangered plant that requires periodic disturbance and a partially shaded canopy. Historically, it occurred along bison trails but today it is most commonly found along forested stream terraces, trails, and lawns of old homesteads. Running buffalo clover was found at Ashland in 1989 as part of Kentucky Nature Preserves effort to survey lawns of historical homes to locate more populations. The Ashland staff have utilized mowing as a tool to create disturbance and benefit the growth of their running buffalo clover. However, an invasive vine called winter-creeper has become established in many of the running buffalo clover patches at the estate. Winter-creeper (Euonymus fortunei) is an aggresive weed that can out-compete native flora. We will be pulling winter-creeper around the patches of running buffalo clover in an effort to keep it from taking over.

Franklin Co. Volunteer Work Days

KNPS is organizing several work days at state nature preserves and natural areas in Franklin County on November 8 and 15, and December 6.  Volunteer activities involve manually removing invasive shrubs, such as bush honeysuckle and privet. Assisting in invasive species management at these sites will have a direct impact on rare plant recovery as the sites are designated as critical habitat for federally listed plants.  

Once you are registered, you will receive instructions via email a week prior to the workday(s) you signed up for with directions to the site. Workdays are from 10:00am – 3:00pm and volunteers should bring lunch, water, steady boots, gloves, and loppers if you have them. Also, please arrive on time to sites as we may be hiking in to where the field work will be conducted. If you have any questions about the workdays, email jessica.slade@ky.gov.

Please join us by registering and help us restore these rare plants and communities, and build up the local botanical community along the way!

Click here to REGISTER