NCBartramTrail.org

The 2009 Annual membership meeting of the NC Bartram Trail Society will be held on Saturday, September 19 in the Canon Lounge of the Morse Science Building on Warren Wilson College campus in Swannanoa, NC.

This year’s keynote lecture is by Dr. Jim Costa, Executive Director of the Highlands Biological Station and Professor of Biology at Western Carolina University. The lecture is entitled “Darwin and Dixie”.

Click here to download the full announcement!

About the Speaker

Dr. Costa is the well-known author of The Other Insect Societies, which explores the social structure of insects such as beetles, caterpillars, cockroaches, mantids, membracids, and sawflies. In his Commentary, Dr. Edward O. Wilson proclaimed the book “will henceforth be the standard reference work on the subject.” And just this year, Dr. Costa cemented his position as a Darwin scholar with his book The Annotated Origin. Publishers Weekly declares his “thoughtful and informative notes enable readers to gain a much fuller appreciation for Darwin’s genius and breadth of knowledge.”

Even with his busy schedule, Dr. Costa finds time to lend his expertise to the NC Bartram Trail Society. He has been a member of the board since 2007. Invaluable contributions include Bartram exhibits at Highlands Biological Station and display panels that tour libraries and museums. Please join us as Dr. Costa pulls together science and history to explore the intriguing connections between Bartram and Darwin for the NCBTS annual meeting.

Driving Directions to Warren Wilson College Campus

If you are arriving by car via I-40 from areas west of Asheville, take Exit 55 in East Asheville, turn left and go under the interstate. Go to the first traffic light (at the intersection with US-70/Tunnel Road), and turn right onto US-70. On US-70, go 1.5 miles until you reach the next traffic light and turn left onto Warren Wilson Road. Travel about 1.5 miles until you reach the campus. Turn right at the South entrance. You will pass the library and the Morse Science Building is on your right.

A campus map is accessible online at:
http://www.warren-wilson.edu/info/campus_map.php

We learned of Jeremy’s tune about William Bartram by way of a listserve message posting of Dr. Kathryn Braund, president of the Bartram Trail Conference. BTS Newsletter Editor Ina Warren knew Jeremy as a teacher/naturalist from past conferences at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont .

We were so impressed that we approached him and asked if we could share his music with our members and web guests. He graciously has offered a free download of The Second Travels of William Bartram. Jeremy is a songwriter and author, feel free to visit his website and support him. Scroll down for more information about Jeremy and lyrics to the song.

Listen to or download The Second Travels Of William Bartram (mp3)

As a bonus, Jeremy also has offered NCBTS web guests his instrumental ode to the Hemlock tree Tsuga Canadensis (mp3)

About Jeremy

Jeremy Lloyd is a native of Western Pennsylvania. Since 1996 he has lived and worked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park where he teaches environmental education and coordinates natural and cultural history programs. He has written two small books, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Pocket Guide & Journal and A Home in Walker Valley (forthcoming), both published by Great Smoky Mountains Association, in addition to a number of articles that have appeared in Smokies Life, Grays Sporting Journal, North Carolina Literary Review, and The Sun. In addition he’s recorded a number of albums in the folk/Americana vein. His music is available on CDBaby.com.

Lyrics

TRAVELS OF WILLIAM BARTRAM PART II

I come from Pennsylvania, land of milk and honey, an outdoorsman’s paradise
With paper, pen and pouch I aimed straight for Appalachia’s mouth to get spat out on some far distant shore

And it’s a long way back from where I came
And when I get back there will things still be the same
Don’t you wait up for me, I’ll be going slow
With an open hand I walk into the woods, deep in the woods,
That’s where I long to go.

Here on the second time around things look a little bit unsound
All my landmarks are in English furniture
And all my friends are gone, the ones who knew the songs
And lit up a bright new flame every year

And it’s a long way back from where they came
And when they get back there will things still be the same
Don’t you wait up for me, I’ll be going slow
With an open hand I walk into the woods, deep in the woods,
That’s where I long to go.

Now let me lay it out on the table,
let me speak the truth if I’m able
Even if my voice shakes some.
It’s a mess what you’ve done to the place,
half the freedoms and no more space,
It’s a crime, it’s a sin, it’s a disgrace.
So take your love down through the fields
Tale your love down to the water
Pollinate and wounds be healed
Second growth for sons and daughters

It’s a long way back from where we came,
And when we get back there will things still be the same,
Don’t you wait up for me, I’ll be going slow.
With an open hand I walk into the woods, deep in the woods –
That’s where I long to go.

The  Albert Carlton – Cashiers Community Library is currently hosting the professional exhibit, Bartram’s Travels, on display in the Carlton Library through December 2009. It is provided courtesy of the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University and curated by the Cashiers Historical Society.

 Click here for details and directions to the library.

The BTS was fortunate to be able to host ten Warren Wilson College students and one staff member over their week-long alternative fall semester break in October, 2008. The students are pictured above on one of the board walks they constructed near Wallace Branch on Section 4 of the Bartram Trail. The Nantahala Outdoor Center (www.noc.com) kindly provided lodging for the students for the week. Another BT project for the week was trail construction on the Western Extension of the NCBT in what we hope can become a spur trail in memory of their beloved WWC chaplain, Rev. Andy Summers.

Pictured Left to right: Wendy Thoreson, Kelsey Brown, Jourdi Bosley, Ian Higgins, Carroll Anderson, Will Fortembaugh, John Wright, Sarah Larsen, Ali Yee, Natasha Shipman of WWC Biology Dept., Misha Louden Lebell and Mr. Keith Day. Photo by Tim Warren.

During rainy days during the Warren Wilson College alternative fall break in October, 2008, the students worked on two indoor projects. One project was folding hundreds of newly printed BTS promotional brochures that will be distributed to Ranger Stations and Visitor Centers. Another project was removing milkweed seeds from the pods, separating the fluff from the seeds, for use in the new program called “Bartram Butterfly Gardens.” The seeds will be distributed to interested area schools in the springtime for creating “Monarch Waystations” in the school yards.

Pictured left to right in the Community Room at NOC, holding pods of Asclepias syriaca and A. incarnata and/or brochures are: Sarah Larsen, John Wright, Misha Louden Lebell, Ali Yee, Wendy Thoreson, Kelsey Brown, Jourdi Bosley and Ian Higgins. Sitting: Will Fortembaugh and Carroll Anderson. Also participating in the project but not in photo was Natasha Shipman, staff leader. Photo by Ina Warren, NCBTS.

At its meeting last summer, the NCBTS Board voted to increase our lifetime membership contribution level from $250 to $500, effective January 1, 2009.

IF YOU ACT NOW you can acquire a life membership for you and your family for only $250! Send in your check or contribute via PayPal between now and December 31 and have a life membership that will help the Society and make future renewals of membership unnecessary.

To sign up for a life membership at this special price, please go to our online store.

Event Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008

The North Carolina Bartram Trail Society will hold its annual fall meeting on Saturday morning, October 25, 2008 at the Jane Woodruff Clinic Community Meeting Room on the campus of Highlands-Cashiers Hospital. The public is cordially invited to attend.

The morning schedule is as follows: 9:30 a.m.: Social (with light refreshments); at 10 a.m., a brief business meeting for team reports of club activities and reports from area college students earning Service Learning credit hours doing trail maintenance. From 11 a.m. until noon: guest speaker; and at noon, an optional bring-your-own picnic lunch. Also, since the BTS was recently featured in a video recording in The Heartland Series of WBIR-TV, Knoxville, the DVD will be shown during the business meeting.

The lecture will be provided by Dr. Gary Wein, Executive Director of the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust. Dr. Wein’s talk, GPS for Dummies, will attempt to demystify the concepts behind Global Positioning (GPS) Technologies and explain how it works to find one’s location. He will also discuss how GPS is being used to update the maps for the Bartram Trail and how the Society will use the data they collect for better trail maintenance.

Bartram Trail President Tim Warren of Brevard enthusiastically invites the public to attend the annual meeting as well as to access the club’s website at www.ncbartramtrail.org to learn more about the Bartram Trail, its monthly trail work hikes and other community service projects.

The NCBTS is an all-volunteer, non-profit trail club, working with the US Forest Service, to maintain eighty-plus miles of woodland trail in the beautiful Nantahala National Forest.

Driving directions to the Jane Woodruff Clinic: It is located at 209 Hospital Drive on the campus of Highlands-Cashiers Hospital, just off US 64 between Highlands and Cashiers, NC — approximately four miles east of Highlands and eight miles west of Cashiers.

For an area map, access http://highlandscashiershospital.org/location.htm

House of Representatives to Vote On No Child Left Inside Act Next Week

The NCBTS supports the No Child Left Inside Coalition. We have posted their Action Alert below: 

We received word today that the House of Representatives will vote on the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008 next week - either Tuesday, September 9 or Wednesday, September 10.

As we prepare for this critically important vote, now is the time for members of the Coalition to contact Congress. Please take a few minutes between now and next Tuesday and contact your representative to urge them to vote for the legislation (H.R. 3036) on the floor.

Below, we have included a Sample Letter to help you craft letters or emails to Congress. Customize your letter by including information about your organization’s interest in environmental education.

You can also email your representative through our website, www.NCLICoalition.org, by clicking on “Contact Your Congressperson” and filling out the short form. If you want to place a phone call to your representative’s office, click here for their phone number.

The No Child Left Inside Coalition is growing every day and now has 700 member organizations, representing more than 40 million people who understand the value of environmental education. Now is the time for their voices to be heard in Washington.

For more information about the NCLI Act and our Coalition, visit www.NCLICoalition.org. And thanks for your support!

Abby Ybarra, Grassroots Coordinator

No Child Left Inside Coalition

Mark the date: You’re cordially invited to join the NC Bartram Trail Society from 12 to 5 pm on Saturday, May 31, in Frankin, NC, to celebrate the historic trek made by naturalist William Bartram across the Nantahalas in the year 1775. Contemporary local writer and naturalist, George Ellison, will join us for a brief reading, picnic, and afternoon hike along the Nantahalas’ Wayah Crest.

We will meet at the Arrowwood Picnic Area across from the L.B.J. Job Corps on Wayah Road. Click here for a google map of the site.

Bring a picnic lunch–and, if you like, bring an eighteenth-century food that Bartram may have enjoyed to share with the group. After lunch, we will drive up to Wayah Bald and break into hiking groups. Families with young children and others who wish to take it easy can join Dan Pittillo for a short hike along the AT-BT to Winespring Bald, while those up for a challenge can enjoy a trek down the west side of the crest to Sawmill Gap.

To coincide with William Bartram’s birthday, we have launched our new website on April, 20th. The site has been completely re-developed and filled with important trail related content and news. You’ll notice straight away many new features on the site including:

• An Online Store where you can purchase newly added merchandise and set up an account to pay your annual membership fees
• A News & Events page to which you can subscribe
• An Events Calendar with every NCBTS related activity
• A new “Kids’ Corner” page with articles for/about children and families
• Expanded information about our trail sections
• A new Contact Form to help report trail conditions or simply to correspond with board members
• A Trail Advisories page that will display up-to-date information about any poor trail conditions reported after severe weather events

The great news is, this is only the beginning! As time allows, our volunteer website team will put together other features to enhance your site “surfing” experience. To do this, though, we need your help! If you know of a feature you would like added to our site, or if you would like to make a suggestion for new content, please use our new contact form found here and drop us a line! Our website team will review all suggestions sent through the contact form.

-NCBTS Website Team

To learn more about how our site was built, please check here.