NEWS

Botanists, naturalists to take "pulse" of Carolinas’ plant life

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – On May 10, a modest volunteer army of botanists, field naturalists, students and others from across the Carolinas will converge for four days on land just east of where the two states meet Georgia to take the "pulse" of plant life in the area. Brevard, N.C., is the closest town.

Now in its 15^th year, the Carolinas Vegetation Survey and its supporters will once again brave insects, poison ivy, hot weather and maybe the odd snake or two to inventory, describe and classify all kinds of natural vegetation over an important part of the Carolinas landscape.

The target of the spring "pulse" is the 32,000-acre South Carolina portion of the Jocasse Gorges tract Duke Power sold to the two states in 1998 and 1999. Volunteers scoured North Carolina’s 10,000-acre share of the tract in 2000.

"Since 1988, we have contributed more than 2,300 days of mostly professional time to this effort and roughly a half-million dollars of free labor," said Dr. Robert K. Peet, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In the process, said Peet, one of the survey’s founders, volunteers have identified new plant species and species not thought to be native to the Carolinas. They also have described reported threats to the natural flora such as ground-chewing all-terrain vehicles in North Carolina’s Uwharrie National Forest and exotic plants from overseas quickly crowding out native species near the coast.

Beginning July 6, they will conduct a similar search for eight days in the northwest N.C. Piedmont on lands near Hanging Rock, Stone Mountain, Pilot Mountain state parks and the Thurmond Chatham game lands.

"The techniques we use are pretty much the same from year to year to assure compatible data, but the places we go are novel and haven’t been looked at carefully before," the botanist said. "We’ll visit a range of different habitats within each area, and in the past we’ve ranged from the Blue Ridge to the beaches."

During the May "pulse," the naturalists will investigate the Lake Jocasse region of South Carolina with special emphasis on the unusual cove forests and glades recently discovered to occur there on particularly fertile, nutrient-rich soils, Peet said. Such fertility is unusual for the Carolinas, and he and colleagues expect surprises from some plants they find there.

"While the ancient soils of the Carolinas are generally infertile, poor soil still can support fascinating plants," he said. "Venus flytraps, for example, are found on infertile, frequently burned sites in a relatively small part of the Coastal Plain surrounding Wilmington and nowhere else in the world."

A few years ago in the Uwharrie Mountains, the team found a species of goldenrod that had not been seen for a century, Peet said. Typically, each "pulse" contributes much information to a growing plant database, involves 60 to 65 volunteers and is done "on the cheap."

"We have stayed in Boy Scout, church or YMCA camps, while at other times we’ve used vacation houses for a few days," he said. "We don’t have megabucks to support the effort, but we have been able to get small amounts from several sources such as the U.S. Forest Service, the N.C. Department of Natural Resources, the National Science Foundation and The Nature Conservancy."

Volunteers take home a free T-shirt, stories to share with family and friends, substantial new knowledge of botany, perhaps a few bug bites and the satisfaction of knowing they have contributed in a small but meaningful way to preserving the Carolinas’ diverse plant life, Peet said.

"These pulses are great fun," the scientist said. "Some people call them boot camp for botanists or botanical Woodstocks. They have almost a cult feeling to them, and it’s fun to see a T-shirt from five or six years ago on somebody at RDU Airport."

Volunteers range from uninitiated amateurs to seasoned professionals and represent institutions from across the Carolinas, with the primary organizers based at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. Other important participating groups are The Nature Conservancy, the N.C. Heritage Program in the N.C. Department of Natural Resources, the National Park Service, the N.C. Department of Agriculture and such universities as Clemson, Western Carolina, the Citadel and Duke.

Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Peet at UNC at (919) 962-6942 or peet@unc.edu.

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