Piedmont Savanna Restoration @ Hebron Road

STAR indicates Preserve location,
ARROWS point to surrounding "urban interface"

                                                        The Hebron Road Plant Conservation Preserve, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, is actively managed with the goal of restoring open, savanna-like habitats and a naturally-occurring suite of rare plants. At this site in particular this goal poses many management challenges.  The site is ringed by development including well traveled roads, an elementary school, and a massive subdivision. All these factors make prescribed burning difficult.  

Evening prescribed Burn conducted March 29, 2012

North Carolina has smoke management guidelines that must be followed when conducting prescribed burns.  Our site has a very narrow set of conditions under which it can be burned, meaning only a few days are available each year.  In order to capitalize on one of these infrequent events, in 2012 we burned at dusk, with direct input from the National Weather Service.

4/10/2015 after most recent prescribed fire.
Redbud (Cercis canadensis) and Dogwood (Cornus florida) flowering in background
Brown unburned patches are mostly Indiangrass (Sorghatrum nutans)

The site was burn again in Spring 2015 (regular fires are needed to control woody plant growth, encourage flowering of rare perennials, create seedbeds for germination, etc).  Like many other "growing season" burns, the fire did not consume the undergrowth entirely across the the site.  The most open, grassy areas burned less completely than those where hardwood leaf litter predominated.

Last year's growth of Smooth Coneflower (Echinacea laevigata) stands tall in one of the unburned patches (4/10/15)

4/19/2015 regrowth of Ironweed (Vernonia sp) after prescribed fire. 

The Preserve was established to protect a remnant population of the federally endangered Smooth Coneflower (Echinacea laevigata). When acquired, all the Coneflower stems were found along the roadside.  Slowly, but surely the population continues to expand at the site. Importantly many of the current plants are now found further away from the roadside and the threats that come with it.


 (left): Vigorous patch of Smooth Coneflowers (06/11/14) established from seed collected on-site. Boulders of diabase rock are present.

E. laevigata seedling sprouting after fire (04/07/15)

Narrow-leaf Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve var. concinnum)
seedling sprouting after fire (4/07/15)

Several other rare plants found on the Preserve also appear to benefit from the restoration and management activities. The Narrow-leaf Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve var. concinnum), listed as Threatened in North Carolina and known from only a handful of sites in the Piedmont, is expanding. 

Narrow-leaf Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve var. concinnum)
Fall flowering, Durham Co, NC (10/10/11) 

Erect Bindweed (Calystegia spithamea)
Spring flowering, Durham Co, NC (05/14/15)

Erect Bindweed (Calystegia spithamea), considered a "watch list" species in NC, occurs at the Preserve at what appears to be the easternmost location documented in North Carolina.  This low growing species doesn't appear to compete well as vegetation becomes taller and more robust in the absence of fire. Another rare plant found on the site, Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), also reaches its approximate eastern occurrence in North Carolina here and thrives with fire. I previously discussed this species http://ncplantcon.blogspot.com/2014/08/prairie-flora-in-north-carolina-all.html

Prairie Dock sprouting after spring fire@ Hebron Road Preserve

Prairie Dock flowering @ Hebron Road Plant Conservation Preserve
Fall Flowering (8/23/14)

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more news soon...

 The Adelaide Potters surface decoration and printing workshop was fab with such a great group of peeps. Our day was jam packed! Thanks so much for the invite Jan Twyerold and for the pics from my handy assistant on the day Anna Couper and Stephanie James Manton! We had a fab time looking at influences, getting a bit tech with surface marking ideas and getting down to it with image prep and screen making. Cheers all, here's some of the results.

and a final piece raw glazed and fired to c9 in reduction.

A big shout out to the lovely Euan Craig who was guest editor for the Mag last month, my awesomeness friend and photographer Derek McClure Photography stepped in with some lovely portraits and shooting around my studio, a couple of his pics were chosen for the layout.

All up I'm happy with the layout a nice simple clean grid, it's quite strange being one step removed from the design process tho.

It wouldn't be a blog post without mention of lil birdie!

He's popped up in Aspire a local lifestyle mag! And when I get some c6 white clay back in stock, the beakers will be back in production ;) Well that's a catch up for now… more news soon, stay in touch for quick snippets on the dreaded facebook ang walford ceramics or instagram angelawalford

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Going with the flow or against the grain? The promise of vegetation for protecting beaches, dunes, and barrier islands from erosion.

 Our latest barrier island review article was published in this month's issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment  http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/140218.  As part of the Coastal Barrier Island Network, we worked with an integrative group of coastal scientists including ecologists, engineers, and landscape remote sensing specialists to examine the role of vegetation for protecting coastlines.  Traditionally, coastline protection has been largely engineered to maintain structural stability and protect property.  However, we propose that ecological solutions can be mixed with engineering to create more resilient solutions as storms and sea-level pose threats to coastal stability.  Our article also made the front cover!

 

This summer we will continue with research investigating three dune building grasses: Ammophila breviligulata, Uniola paniculata, and Spartina patens.  Grad students Joe Brown and April Harris spent the last few weeks potting thousands of plants for greenhouse and field experiments.  Through a series of experiments they will determine species responses to salinity, drought, sand burial, and competition.  This work will contribute to our understanding of how different species shape barrier islands in response to climate change. 

 

April and Joe planting for greenhouse experiments.

 

Planting for field experiments on Hog Island, Virginia.  Winds were >20 mph that day, so we all received a free exfoliation.  The area was cleared of all vegetation prior to planting.  We will simulate overwash on one half of the plots to quantify how individual species respond to sand burial.

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