A guided scenic paddle trip on Melton Hill Lake from Clark Center Park is scheduled for Sunday, April 30.
It will begin at the Clark Center Park boat ramp, a press release said. After paddling across the lake, there will be a stop at Knox County’s Melton Lake Park, where Knox County is sponsoring a weekend camporee. Along the way, participants can pick up and haul back manageable trash, a press release said. [Read more…]
Wildflower fans will enjoy a guided, curated hike on Haw Ridge this Saturday, April 29, at 10 am. There will likely be sightings of inconspicuous orchid, Wister’s coralroot, and other spring wildflowers, a press release said.
“Some of these flowers are growing on a small cedar barren,” said botanist and hike leader Larry Pounds. “We’ll walk a loop of less than two miles. The trail is rough in places.†[Read more…]
A geology and hydrology professor will discuss the dangers of microplastics in rivers during a program in Oak Ridge on Thursday, September 29.
Martin Knoll is professor of geology and hydrology and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Systems at the University of the South. He will talk to the University of Tennessee Arboretum Society.
The program is at the UT Arboretum Auditorium at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge starting at 7 p.m. September 29. The talk is titled “Microplastics in the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Rhine Rivers: Why We Should Care.”
Knoll’s presentation will focus on his research investigating the concentration and types of microplastics found in the three rivers, a press release said. Special emphasis will be placed on his recent findings about the major sources of these microplastics and what might be done to reduce their numbers.
[Read more…]
The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning have a free Zoom presentation about conservation fisheries on Tuesday, January 25.
The presentation is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., and it will feature Conservation Fisheries, Inc., a nonprofit organization preserving the Southeast’s aquatic biodiversity, a press release said. The presenter, Pat Rakes, is co-director of Conservation Fisheries.
“He will explain the role and mission of CFI as well as its history, pictures of the hatchery, field work, and fish as well as cooperators in this important effort,” the press release said.
[Read more…]
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning and partners Clinch Valley Trails Alliance and Oak Ridge Greenways are sponsoring the second annual trash cleanup and hike on the East Fork Poplar Creek Greenway.
“This wonderful new trail, developed by CVTA and Greenways Oak Ridge, was recently completed along the banks of East Fork Poplar Creek in west Oak Ridge,” TCWP said. “The trail meanders through a nice riparian woodland along the creek. This trail is subject to occasional flooding, and help is needed to remove litter left behind by the water. There are also a lot of old tires and other debris that have washed from places upstream.”
[Read more…]
Larry Pounds and Jean Bangham at a previous Cedar Barren Weed Wrangle. (Submitted photo)
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Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness planning is sponsoring a Weed Wrangle at the Oak Ridge Cedar Barren on Saturday, March 7. The event is part of an invasive plant removal project coordinated by The Garden Club of Nashville and Invasive Plant Control. One of only a few cedar barrens in East Tennessee, the area is subject to invasion by Chinese lespedeza, Japanese privet, autumn olive, mimosa, Nepal grass, multiflora rose, and woody plants that threaten the system’s prairie plants, a press release said.
Volunteers should meet at the Jefferson Middle School parking lot next to the baseball field at 9 a.m. Saturday, with sturdy shoes or boots, loppers, hand saws, weather-appropriate clothing, snacks, and water, the press release said. Other tools and work gloves will be available at the event. [Read more…]
See the prairie wild flowers at the Oak Ridge Cedar Barren on Saturday, August 24, during a hands-on maintenance activity with plant experts to identify wild flowers and grasses. Volunteers are needed to uproot invasive plants that would otherwise shade and kill the native cedar barren prairie plants, a press release said.
Located next to Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, the barren is a joint project of the City of Oak Ridge, the State Natural Areas Division, and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning. One of just a few cedar barrens in East Tennessee, the area is subject to invasion by Chinese lespedeza, Japanese privet, autumn olive, mimosa, Nepal grass, multiflora rose, and woody plants that threaten the system’s prairie grasses, the press release said.
You can learn about water quality and microplastics in the Tennessee River during a meeting in Oak Ridge tonight (Thursday, June 6).
The program is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Thursday at the University of Tennessee Arboretum Auditorium. It’s a free program offered by the UT Arboretum Society and co-sponsored by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning. No registration is required.
Microplastics have been in the news recently, a press release said. Martin Knoll, a professor of geology and hydrology at Sewanee: The University of the South, will explain why microplastics are an issue, and he will present his findings on the water quality of the Tennessee River during the program this evening.
As project manager for the Tenneswim in 2016, Knoll directed the most detailed analysis of Tennessee River water quality ever conducted, the press release said. During this project, Knoll and his colleagues found the highest levels of microplastics recorded in any river of the world to date.
[Read more…]
Submitted image
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning will partner with the Tennessee Valley Authority in a Discover Life in America “BioBlitz†at Worthington Cemetery in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
A BioBlitz is an event in which the public is invited to help with plant and animal identification, an event notice said.
The event’s organizer, Melinda Watson of TVA Natural Resources, said Worthington was selected because of its unique and varied habitats, including a cedar barren, native warm season grass meadow, hardwoods, marsh/swamp, hemlocks, among other habitats, the event notice said.
Each participant needs to have access to a smartphone, tablet, or a camera with GPS capability, the TCWP said. [Read more…]
David Haskell
Author David Haskell will speak about his new book, “The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors,†in Oak Ridge tonight (Tuesday, April 24).
Haskell, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for an earlier book, will be at the University of Tennessee Arboretum Auditorium from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday. The Arboretum is at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.
The event is co-sponsored by Strata-G LLC, the UT Arboretum Society, and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, an Oak Ridge-based environmental advocacy organization that offers informative programs and news about environmental issues affecting Tennesseans, a press release said.
Haskell, a British-born American biologist, is an author and professor of biology at Sewanee: The University of the South. Copies of his new book and “The Forest Unseen†will be available for sale at the event from Union Avenue Books, the press release said. He will be signing books purchased at the event before and after his talk. [Read more…]
Peter Thornton
Peter Thornton, deputy director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Climate Change Science Institute and group leader for the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Group in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, will describe the current best understanding of climate change on Thursday, February 22 at 7 p.m., a press release said. The public is invited to attend this free program.
Thornton’s presentation will describe evidence regarding historical and modern climate changes, and projections of future climate based on Earth system models, the press release said. His current research involves the development, evaluation, and application of Earth system models for future climate change prediction. His areas of expertise include the interaction of water, energy, carbon, and nutrients within land ecosystems, the interactions of vegetation communities with the atmosphere, and weather observations over land, the release said. (See a brief ORNL summary here.)
The presentation, co-sponsored by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, Climate Coalition Lobby-Knoxville, and the Citizens Climate Coalition at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, will be in the Social Room at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning Logo
North Ridge Trail Stewards will have a celebration/workday effort scheduled for Saturday, June 3. That day is National Trails Day, which was established by the American Hiking Society.
The North Ridge Trail was built many years ago by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, and is currently stewarded by Ray and Jo Ann Garrett, a press release said.
The event, which is open to the public, will feature an invasive plant removal session on North Ridge Trail accesses. Participants are asked to meet at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge at 9 a.m. and to wear sturdy shoes and bring bug spray, sunscreen, water, and a hoe, mattock, or lopper if available.
A pizza lunch will be provided around noon. For more information about this event call Sandra K. Goss, TCWP Executive Director, at (865) 583-3967 or write [email protected].
