Roan Mountain Spring Naturalist Rally scheduled this weekend

The 65th Annual Roan Mountain Spring Naturalist Rally will be held this weekend. Featured speakers are Marci Spencer and Sharon Mammoser.

The opening sessions will be held Friday evening and will include a history of Pisgah and Cherokee National Forests by Spencer. She will share the National Forest Service’s history of land acquisitions, wildlife protection, and resource management and their human history of the Cherokee people, settlers, and explorers.

The Saturday program will also feature a buffet dinner, and a night walk and moth viewing at 9 p.m.

Saturday’s programs will feature an Early Birds Walk at 6:30 p.m.; field trips at 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Some of the subjects covered by the field trips include wildflowers, birds of Roan Mountain, salamanders, wildlife tracking, mosses and liverworts, foraging and ethnobotany. The program will also include hikes to Jones Falls, Hampton Creek Cove, a geology-paleo-ecology hike, and a geo adventure hike on Peg Leg Mine Trail.

A bagged lunch will be distributed at 11 a.m.

There will be conference center activities from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The Saturday evening program will feature Sharon Mammoser, who will share about nature’s magic markers – fireflies and glowworms.

Sunday will also feature field trips to Twin Springs, Doe River Gorge, and Hampton Creek Cove  to study birds, plant ecology, and butterflies.

All weekend activities are $15. Field trips Saturday and Sunday are $10.

Registration can be done online at friends of roanmountain.org or on-site at the rally.

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