Nature

Although the city arborist says Charlotte’s trees are healthy enough, for now, that no more aerial spraying to kill cankerworms is planned for next spring, the city’s infestation with the leaf-munching caterpillars remains high. Learn More Click here to see all of City Arborist Don McSween’s presentation. At a City Council meeting Monday, City Arborist […]

I’ll admit it – I was a little delirious. The first day of summer year before last, I was out at first light, pacing the driveway and cradling our elderly Jack Russell in my arms. He’d been in a slow decline for months, but when he took a sudden turn for the worse, I knew […]

Can you identify 50 species of plants and animals native to your region? Naturalist Kenn Kaufman believes making the effort to do that will profoundly enhance your connection with the natural world. Kenn Kaufman has been an avid birder and naturalist since his childhood in the Midwest. In 1970, at 16, he dropped out of […]

Recently, I participated in a survey of mussels as part of a post-dam removal monitoring effort at the Densons Creek Nature Preserve in Troy (60 miles east of Charlotte). I joined folks from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the N.C. Natural Heritage Program as we donned wetsuits or waders and carried viewbuckets (imagine […]

When the flush of spring ephemeral wildflowers begins to fade, several shrub species come into their own. Mountain laurel ought to be at its peak in the coming week. Their enchanting masses of light pink flowers are found throughout the Uwharries, but some of our most interesting and attractive spring-blooming shrubs aren’t nearly so abundant. […]

The term “parasite” may bring to mind something that at best is an ugly nuisance, and at worst is a gruesome horror story – everything from common ticks and chiggers to one particularly disturbing story that popped up in my Facebook feed recently with images of a botfly being removed from someone’s eyeball. I did […]

Have you ever been out swimming or kayaking in the streams and lakes of North Carolina and seen turtles sunning themselves on rocks and logs? If so, then chances are that you have spotted the painted turtle at least once. The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is one of the most common and widespread species of […]

The LandTrust for Central North Carolina and staff from the North Carolina Museum of Sciences will host the second annual Uwharrie Naturalist Weekend on May 10 and 11, 2014. This naturalist weekend is the only one of its kind in the area and showcases the 1,300-acre Low Water Bridge Preserve on the Uwharrie River. The […]

In the Uwharries, raptors make their presence known in late winter and early spring. A lone female northern harrier has spent the winter skimming our fields of native warm season grass. I’ve come to wonder if she’s the same one who shows up every fall, who chased away another pair of harriers who tried to […]

Although bear sightings in the Piedmont are not uncommon, the bears are usually just passing through. However, black bears are gradually expanding their habitat into the Piedmont region, and their range now extends over 60 percent of North Carolina. Though historically they were found across the state, black bears had very low population numbers in […]