Copy
Here's all the latest news and happenings from the Friends of South Cumberland State Park!
View this email in your browser
August, 2018

GET OUTDOORS ... THE PARK IS YOURS!


August Hikes & Programs
All ranger-led hikes and programs are now listed on the Tennessee State Parks website.
Please bookmark that page to get info about all the latest ranger-led hikes and programs!

 
Mary Priestley recognized by state
Mary Priestley, associate curator of the Sewanee Herbarium and active Friends volunteer,
receives the Robert Sparks Walker Lifetime Achievement Award from TDEC.
From left are Deputy Governor Jim Henry; TDEC Deputy Commissioner Brock Hill;
Priestley, and TDEC Commissioner Shari Meghreblian.

Mary Priestley, associate curator of the Sewanee Herbarium and longtime Friends volunteer, is this year's recipient of the Robert Sparks Walker Lifetime Achievement Award. She received her award on July 9 in Franklin.  In addition to her 20-plus years as a Friends volunteer and leader, she has worked to obtain funds to expand the park's resources for outdoor youth education, including the transformation of the park's visitor's center into a hands-on museum. She is also instrumental in the newly transformed Meadow Trail, which has become a Storybook Trail complete with a nature play area, garden, bees and a free library.  Mary is also the author of several publications. Currently, she is working on a botany book for all ages entitled Ask the White Oak.
 

The Friends are now on
Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter!
 
Be among the first to follow us and share your adventures in the Park
on these new Friends of South Cumberland pages:
 

Celebrate Bees, August 19!
 
National Honey Bee Day will be celebrated at South Cumberland State Park from noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 19. (NHBD is officially Saturday, August 18, but will be celebrated here on Sunday, for scheduling reasons.)  Tennessee Naturalist and FSC member Nathaniel Mann is a noted beekeeper and bee expert.  He will set up a temporary hive, do demonstrations and bring honey. Paula Yeatman will do a program for children based on Mary Priestley's book, William's Wildflowers. Emily Heid, a local SCCF/Sewanee VISTA, will do a program in the new Visitor Center garden, and there will be walks on the Meadow Trail and other events.
  
For more information on the event, email Ranger Jessie McNeel at Jessie.McNeel@tn.gov.

 


Share your most amazing moments and places
in the Friends ‘Picture the Park’ Photo Contest!
 
The Friends of South Cumberland, in conjunction with
SCSP Ranger Jessie McNeel, invite you to send us your
most awesome photos for our 2018 Picture the Park Photo Contest!

 
We all know that South Cumberland State Park is beautiful and breathtaking, and we know many of you have taken some amazing photos during your visits to the Park.  Now is your opportunity to share some of your favorite photos with the world and show everyone what you think are some of the most amazing places and moments you’ve experienced in the Park! As long as your photo was taken in South Cumberland State Park, it is eligible -- even old favorites you took years ago!  And, you may enter as many entries, in as many categories as you like!

We’ll offer great prizes for the best photos in the following categories:
 
Scenic Vistas
Moving Water
Wildflowers of the Park
Ferns and Mosses
‘Shrooms, Fungi & Lichens
Mammals of the Park
Birds of the Park
Insects of the Park
Ol’ Man Winter
The Rites of Spring
Cool and Shady Summer
Fabulous Fall
“It’s the Little Things…”
“Wow, That’s Big!”
“A Piece of History…”
The Most Awesome Rock(s)
The Most Awesome Trail
The Most Awesome Tree(s)
The Most Awesome Lighting
The Most Awesome Color
Abstract Composition
A Moment of Solitude
Rock Climbing
Trail Running
Hiking
Camping

 
Just click here to upload your photos with this entry form!  (You must log in via your Google account in order to use the entry form.)  One photo per form submission; minimum photo size: 3000 pixels on the longest dimension (wide or tall). Photos not meeting the size requirement will be disqualified.  We'd like to feature your photos on the Friends' website, printed literature, and in physical products we may offer in exchange for donations to the Friends, or sell in order to raise money for projects we facilitate for South Cumberland State Park.  It's your opportunity to support the park in a very real and tangible way, and showcase your awesome photographs at the same time!
 
CONTEST RULES
One photo per form submission; minimum photo size: 3000 pixels on the longest dimension (wide or tall). Photos not meeting the size requirement will be disqualified.  By submitting this image, you certify that this is an original photo that you or a member of your immediate family took, and that the photo was taken within South Cumberland State Park. If there are any recognizable people in the photo, you hereby certify that you have their permission to enter a photo of them in this contest, with the understanding it may appear online or in other public media.  All entries become the property of the Friends of South Cumberland State Park, Inc., without reservation.  Any entry may be used in Friends media content, including, but not limited to, online, print, or broadcast form; as well as in physical products we may offer in exchange for donations to the Friends, or sell in order to raise money for projects we facilitate for South Cumberland State Park. This contest runs until November 1, 2018, at 11:59 pm Central Time.  Decisions of the judges are final.  Winners will be notified via email, at the address provided with each submitted photo. Winners can pick up their Winner Certificate(s) and prize(s) at the South Cumberland State Park Visitor Center, 11745 US 41 Monteagle, Tennessee 37356-7609, during normal business hours between the date of notification and March 31, 2019.  A valid photo I.D. will be required in order to claim your certificate and prize. Sorry, but we cannot ship prizes.  
 
Thank you for your support of South Cumberland State Park!
 

 
The Park turns 40!
On July 1, the South Cumberland State Park celebrated its 40th anniversary!
The park was originally dedicated as a recreational area on July 1, 1978.

 
This year's Tennessee Naturalist Program
class is now full, but you can still sign up
to get on the wait-list...
The Friends' 2018-2019 class for the Tennessee Naturalist Program (TNP), is now full, but you can still sign up to get on the wait-list, in case there are any cancellations; and to be notified when registration will open for the 2019-2020 class next year!

The ten, four-hour sessions run from September to May with meetings averaging once a month, usually on Saturday mornings, with a "winter break" in December and January. Classwork is divided between lectures, hands-on activities and many hours of outdoor immersion. Topics include local geology, forests, animals, plants, fungi, aquatic biology and astronomy. The fieldwork portion of the course can be physically demanding, with hikes on steep hills, rough terrain and some night activities.

The cost of the course is $250 per person if you are a current Friends member. Non-members may participate for $275, which includes a year's membership in the Friends. Participants receive a field notebook, hand lens, and a jump drive containing all class materials. Registration is limited to the first 22 individuals.

 
It's a great year for the
White Fringeless Orchid!
South Cumberland State Park is home to a number of rare and endangered plants and animals, one of which is the White Fringeless Orchid (Platanthera intergrilabia).  The Savage Gulf area of the Park is home to one of the largest remaining populations of these beautiful plants.  SCSP Ranger Murray Gheesling has been monitoring the WFO populations in that area, and is excited to report that one population has between 400 and 500 plants, many of them flowering this summer!
 
In the United States, Platanthera integrilabia occurs in areas underlain with sandstone on Appalachian Plateaus of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, as well as on the Coastal Plain of Alabama and Mississippi; the Blue Ridge Province of Georgia and Tennessee; the Ridge and Valley Province in Alabama; and the Piedmont of Georgia and South Carolina. Despite occurring across a relatively wide geographic range, Platanthera integrilabia is listed as "Near Threatened” because of continuing declines in its area of occupancy and number of plants in each subpopulation. The plant has all but disappeared from North Carolina, where it was once thriving. At last count, there were between 50 and 60 existing subpopulations. 29 subpopulations have disappeared since botanists began monitoring the plant, mainly because of highway, residential and commercial development, impacts from off-road vehicle use, and other human actions that altered growing conditions, particularly with regard to soil moisture. Population declines continue in some subpopulations, and today, many subpopulations have fewer than 100 plants. 

 
Read more at http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/64176733/0
 
Watch the Tennessee Wild Side TV episode about the White Fringeless Orchid:
 https://youtu.be/YX_E3aHaDws
 

 
Check out the new Storybook Trail

Be among the first to join our storytellers and explore the trail — literally! — of a childrenʼs nature story, Over in the Forest: Come and Take a Peek. This new, permanent exhibit features book “pages” which are posted on signs along the Meadow Trail behind the parkʼs Visitor Center.


Visit the new Demonstration Garden

Take a short walk to the parkʼs new Native Specialty Crops Demonstration Garden, featuring herbs, elderberry, echinacea, and other therapeutic plants which are being developed as commercial crops in our area. The garden is in the Meadow Trail behind the Visitor's Center.


State requests Liability Release forms

Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation need your help!  Before you volunteer for your next activity in the Park, TNSP and TDEC urgently request that you download and complete a Volunteer Liability Release FormYou will only need to do this once; the Friends, and the Park, will keep it on file for as long as you are an active volunteer.   Thank you for your time, and for all you do in support of the Park!

IF YOU ARE A FIRST-TIME VOLUNTEER, when you go to the Volunteer Sign Up Form on the Friends' website, the Volunteer Liability Release language will be included as part of your first sign-up.

 
PictureShop and support the Park
at the same time!
 
When you shop at smile.amazon.com, Amazon donates a portion of your purchase directly to the Friends of South Cumberland State Park. Click the logo below to begin, and bookmark that page as your Amazon starting point in order to designate the Friends as your preferred recipient!
 


Thanks to all who supported the Goldenrod Gala!
Thanks to everyone who donated and/or attended this fall's Goldenrod Gala fundraiser!  Special thanks to the Gala's major sponsor, Solid Ground Shelters, for its dedication to the event, as well as these supporting sponsors: 
Smoke House Lodge & Restaurant
Tower Bank
Prichard’s Distillery
Prologue Fire Logs
Tennessee Brew Works
Ben Lomand Connect
Sequatchee Valley Electric Co-op
Joseph's Remodeling Solutions
Monteagle Piggly Wiggly
 

 

Join or renew your Friends membership today!

Now it’s easier than every to join or renew your Friends membership online!  Just visit the Membership page of the Friends website.  If you’re renewing, there will be a link on that page for current Friends members to use.  If you’re a current member and follow that link, it will ask you to enter your email and password to log into the Member Services area of the website.  If you have not yet set up your password, enter the email address you believe we have on file for you, and then click the “forgot password” link, which will allow you to set up a password to access your info in our system.  Once you’re set up, it will be much easier to do future membership renewals; register for Friends’ events; make gifts or donations; and any other kind of transaction you’d like to make in support of the Park!
 

Add our new address to your Contact list!

The Friends now offer online Member Services functions (click here to learn more)!  Please add FriendsOfSouthCumberland@gmail.com to your device’s contacts or address book.  This email address is the official address for communications from the Friends (including TrailTracker!), so please add it to your contacts to be sure important messages from us aren’t landing in your junk mail folder by accident.
 

Why should you join and support the Friends?

Now protecting more than 30,000 acres, South Cumberland is the largest State Park in Tennessee. Although this is great news, more land, and more visitors, creates new and urgent unmet needs for the park. New trails must be built, and existing trails must be maintained or upgraded. New and expanded parking areas, restrooms, camping and picnic facilities, and directional signage are needed. Invasive pests, like the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, and invasive plants must be controlled. Guided hikes, seminars and historical re-enactments, including programs for area school children, must be prepared and delivered. And, the work of conserving additional environmentally-significant lands is far from complete.  By becoming a member of the Friends, you can help insure that South Cumberland will always be a safe, well-maintained and amazing place to experience world-class natural beauty!

Q&A:  HOW TO SET YOUR FRIENDS MEMBER SERVICES PASSWORD IF THE EMAIL YOU RECEIVED SAYS “LINK IS EXPIRED”

Q: The email I received from the Friends has a link to activate membership accounts and set up a password.  However, when I clicked the link the message came back that the link is expired.  What should I do?

A: The link has a "time out" on it for security reasons; if it's not opened within a couple of hours after you receive the email, it "expires".  However, if you click on that link, in the email, it will take you to the screen where it says it expired, and on that same page there is also a link titled Request a New Verification or Reset Password link.  Click on that, and it will ask for your email address. Enter your address and then the system will email you a fresh link or code that will allow you to get into the system and set up your account password.

Share
Tweet
Forward
Copyright © 2018 Friends of South Cumberland State Park, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Friends of South Cumberland State Park · Post Office Box 816 · Sewanee, TN 37375 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp