0299-GCG-FoothillsConservancy ESG24-FINALb (1) - Flipbook - Page 15
2024 Impact Report
the also-rare Carolina Hemlock or Eastern Hemlock
- both trees having experienced a 95% population
decline since 2001 due to the invasive Hemlock Woolly
Adelgid. In many areas of the property, thousands
of the rare and Blue Ridge endemic plant, Carey’s
Saxifrage, thrived in wet, dead-end rock outcrops,
often leading me to backtrack.
One of our goals was to determine if any rare forest
interior bats utilized the property for breeding, and
we detected Tricolored Bats and Little Brown Bats
throughout the forest using acoustic bat detection
devices. Unfortunately, bears destroyed two of our
four microphones.
Exploring the cliff edges and shelves, I frequently
encountered Golden Tundra Moss and Rockshag
Lichens, along with Heller’s Blazing Star in the rare
High Elevation Granitic Dome natural communities –
an imperiled habitat limited to the southern
Blue Ridge. The rare Downy Goldenrod was also
scattered throughout forest areas that lacked
heath-shrub thickets.
surveys, a wildlife biologist colleague and I focused on
Back to the bears: one day, while setting up bat
rare wildlife, using acoustic bat detectors and remote
black bear standing face-to-face with me. Terri昀椀ed,
extensively explored the site.
tirade and informed the bear I would continue yelling
Access was the primary and initial obstacle, often
nonchalantly saunter off as if to say, “I’ll touch base
breeding bird species and previously undocumented
microphones, I turned around to 昀椀nd a massive
cameras. In between setting up these devices, I
I somehow managed to yell an expletive-laced
requiring parking a quarter mile to a mile away and
traversing rugged terrain. Parking at The Blowing Rock
attraction, though convenient, involved a perilous
descent through cliffs and outcrops frequented by
expletives. I’m certain this prompted the bear to
later.” It was truly a stunning moment. Luckily, I was
near the northern boundary of the property, so I
left immediately.
bears that raid the attraction’s dumpster. While many
Since the 2019 and 2023 inventories of the Johns
successful in attracting the rare, high-elevation
acres in far more remote locations. Nonetheless, that
our bait stations.
one of the most remarkable tracts I’ve ever worked
While navigating the northern and western
wild streams, and high-elevation wild places, it has
bears appeared on our cameras, we were particularly
River Headwaters tract, I have surveyed about 15,000
Allegheny Woodrat, which frequently took sel昀椀es at
property, with all its beauty and challenges, remains
boundaries, I found myself trapped on angled rock
shelves with ancient trees, home to Brown Creepers
and Red-breasted Nuthatches, both birds on the
North Carolina Natural Heritage Program’s Rare and
on. With its bears, cliffs, heath-hells, rare species,
provided both good and challenging times. I consider
myself a lucky man and I have one of the best jobs in
the world.
Watch lists. The Nuthatches need evergreen trees like
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