North Carolina
Native Plant Society
Southern Piedmont Chapter
November 2020 Meeting
Water You Doing With Your Rain?
with
Kristen Haas and Alice Chambers
Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation
Virtual Meeting
Open to the Public Sunday
November 8, 2020 2:00pm
In this newsletter... Water You Doing With Your Rain? Virtual Meeting
December Seed Share
October Members Only Hike Photos
Paula and Larry's Picks
NCNPS Shinn Grants Join NCNPS
NEW! Follow us on Instagram
Follow Us on Facebook Native Plant Stars
NCNPS Handouts
UNCC Native Plant Studies Classes
Water You Doing with Your Rain?
What the Stevens Creek Restoration Project can teach you about stormwater management in your home landscape.
Join us on November 8th for a virtual meeting with Kristen Haas and Alice Chambers of Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department.
Kristen and Alice will talk about water quality influences on Stevens Creek in Mint Hill and the County's restoration of the creek, considered critical habitat for the endangered Carolina Heelsplitter mussel. They will show what the creek was like before restoration and how it was restored to better manage flooding. The presentation will include take-home tips on how to harness rain water in your home landscape.
The 281-acre Stevens Creek Nature Preserve is Mecklenburg County's newest nature preserve. It features a network of pedestrian trails and exhibits that teach visitors about stream ecology and stormwater management. It is located along recently restored Stevens Creek considered to be a critical habitat for the federally endangered Carolina Heelsplitter. Stevens Creek will open to the public in early 2021.
Kristen Haas, Stevens Creek Nature Center Manager
Kristen hails from Maryland and has lived in Charlotte with her husband and daughter for 8 years. After receiving a degree in Animal Science at Rutgers University, Kristen went straight into the field of environmental education and loved every minute of it! Her experiences working for working for Audubon, US Fish and Wildlife, and a small nature center in Pennsylvania prepared her for an educator position at McDowell Nature Center. In 2019, Kristen was promoted to manager of the brand new (still to be opened to the public) Stevens Creek Nature Center in Mint Hill. While her programming knowledge covered basic stormwater management and water quality protection, she is excited to expand her understanding to do justice to the nature center’s exhibits and natural features.
Alice Chambers, Environmental Education Manager Alice Chambers is Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department’s Environmental Education Manager. She has more than 25 years’ experience in environmental education and interpretation, including a strong record of program and curriculum development, nature center facility management, natural resource and land management, exhibit design, and green building construction.
Chambers graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a BS in Botany and Environmental Biology. She has since earned professional status as a Certified Parks and Recreation Professional (CPRP), a Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT) and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP). She has also served as an adjunct instructor at West Liberty University in the College of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and a Regent for both NRPA’s Supervisor’s Management School and Green School.
Southern Piedmont Chapter Seed Share December 13th
Are you saving your seeds from your favorite plants to share with fellow native plant lovers?
Our socially distanced and safe seed exchange will take place outdoors this year and will be limited to 50 NCNPS members to comply with COVID restrictions.
To make this event COVID friendly, we recommend that you
dry and clean seeds of fluff, stems, leaves, flower parts
place a small amount of seeds in individual envelopes or small plastic bags.
label seeds with common name and Latin name
Stay tuned for more details in our next newsletter and enjoy collecting seeds to share this fall.
Southern Piedmont Chapter October 2020 Hike
Who are these masked people?
Dr. Larry Mellichamp, Laura Domingo and Carrie DeJaco led a hike at UNCC Botanical Gardens on a beautiful day in October. That's Jean Wilson with a collection of bottlebrush buckeye nuts.
Paula and Larry's Picks
New to gardening with native plants?
The photo above shows Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticilliata), a shrub recommended by Paula Gross and Dr. Larry Mellichamp as one of the best plants for going native in your garden. According to Paula and Larry, this is a great deciduous shrub for winter color because the red berries persist into the winter. Plant these as an emergency reserve for the birds in your garden. Not as nutritious as other food sources, the birds will eat them later in the winter.
It's important to note that the male and female flowers of hollies are on separate plants so you must pair the female plants with the appropriate male plant to get pollination. The 'Winter Red' pictured above needs a 'Southern Gentleman' as a pollinator.
You can learn more about the best native plants for your garden in their new book The Southeast Native Plant Primer. The UNCC Botanical Gardens offers copies of their book to purchase at this link: https://bit.ly/3h8QoiF
North Carolina Native Plant Society
Shinn Grants
Fulfilling an important mission of the North Carolina Native Plant Society, Shinn Grants support university students who are conducting basic or applied research in botanical or horticultural research.
Katherine Culatta visited 1200 bridge crossings and boat landings across 32 NC counties and 6 SC counties to document locations of Nuphar sagittifolia (Cape Fear Spatterdock). Cape Fear Spatterdock is a Southeastern coastal plain endemic plant. After collecting morphological and leaf tissue from many populations in the field, Katherine is now working in the lab to extract DNA and genotype individuals from the collected materials. Katherine’s work will clarify their taxonomic identity and inform conservation decisions for this plant.
Not a NCNPS Member?
Don't miss out on members only hikes. Join us now and become a Southern Piedmont Chapter Wildflower Warrior.
The Southern Piedmont Chapter is now on Instagram. Follow our posts at ncnps.spchapter.
Follow us on Facebook. This is what people have been talking about this summer on the NCNPS Southern Piedmont Chapter page.
Photos of common roadside wildflowers have included common cup-plant, False Foxglove, Scaly Blazingstar, New York Ironweed, Stemless Ironweed and Pencil Flower.
Head over to our Facebook page for more information about each native plant.
Click to LIKE our Facebook page and join the conversation.
NCNPS has four handouts to help you select native plants for your garden. They are Favorite Native Plants for the Garden, A Native Plant Color Palette for the Garden, Native Groundcovers for the Garden and Ferns. You can download a copy of these handouts at this link: https://ncwildflower.org/native_plants/handouts/
UNCC Certificate in Native Plant Studies
UNCC Botanical Gardens has new classes in its Native Plant Studies certificate program. They include basic and advanced botany, sustainable gardening, landscape design, soils and wildflower ID. Click on this link for more information and to register for classes.
