White oak, ramps, dogwood. All these are plants important to the Cherokee tradition, and the Forest Service has teamed with the Cherokee to expand scientific and cultural understanding of these plants and more on the part of Cherokee students.

Cherokee education project

No animal seems to get people as excited as cougars.

Tennessee Cougars

Poaching isn’t just about the illegal harvest of elephant tusks and rhino horns – it can be a serious issue here in the southern Appalachians, impacting game animals, hurting the chances of recovering endangered species, and affecting our ability to continue harvesting traditional forest products like ginseng.

Wildlife Resources Commission Introduces New Turn-In-Poachers Program

Many people have heard about white-nose syndrome, the fungal disease responsible for killing more than a million bats in the eastern United States that has left biologists, researchers, and land managers scrambling to halt its spread and reverse the damage done – an effort still very much under way, and far, far from completion.

Snake fungal disease

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the National Wild Turkey Federation are offering free turkey hunting seminars across North Carolina in March and April in anticipation of the spring turkey season

Turkey seminars

Researchers recently found a nuisance algae in Jackson County’s Tuckasegee River, prompting calls for anglers to be especially diligent when cleaning fishing equipment.

Didymo

Power companies, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and state and federal agencies have come together to conserve the sicklefin redhorse, a fish found in only six Appalachian counties worldwide and being considered for the federal endangered species list.

Sicklefin redhorse

Tax time approaches, and in North Carolina this provides an easy opportunity to support wildlife conservation.

Income tax check for wildlife

Over 50 years ago, Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that uses revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling in public waters to purchase land and easements for conservation and public recreation.  The program has supported more than 42,000 national, state and local parks and outdoor recreation projects in all 50 states.

Land and Water Conservation Fund

According to U.S. Forest Service researchers and their partners, between 2000 and 2012 the world lost 660,000 square miles of forest, an area more than twice the size of Texas.

Forest Loss

The Southern Appalachian Creature Feature provides a glimpse into the fascinating world of plants and animals in the Southern Appalachians, one of the most biologically diverse temperate regions in the world. Beyond that it also examines the pressing conservation issues of the region that affect those plants and animals - from invasive species, to growth management, to engaging people in the ourdooors. The program is presented through a partnership between the Asheville Field Office of the U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service and WNCW, 88.7, at Isothermal Community College in Spindale, North Carolina.

&#34;creature feature&#34; is fantastic!!  Well worth your time, always interesting, and never too much! It&#39;d be nice to see a longer version of it, but I&#39;ll take it as it is!! Keep up the good work!!

Another feather for WNCW

This is a great podcast for those of us who love the southern appalachians-when will you create another episode?

When are you coming back?

Southern Appalachian Creature Feature

The Blue Ridge Parkway, the National Park Service unit that stretches from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, along the Blue Ridge Mountains, to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, is hosting a bio-blitz in mid-September.

Blue Ridge Parkway Bio-Blitz

Roan Mountian, on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, is home to a concentration of imperiled plants and animals and a conglomeration of every high elevation natural community found in the Southern Appalachians. However, some of those communities are threatened by the growth of woody vegetation, something a herd of goats might help change.

Goats aid in the conservation of one of the Southern Appalachians most important areas

It’s a new year, full of promise and opportunity. It’s the annual clean slate, when we look ahead, full of thoughts about how to enrich our minds and bodies, and generally become better people

Hiking Challenges

A lot of people in the Southern Appalachians take their fly fishing seriously. Come March, anglers will get an opportunity to test their skills head to head against anglers from across the region as the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Davidson River Outfitters host the fourth annual Pisgah Fly Masters fly-fishing tournament.

Fly-fishing tournament

Georgia aster is an uncommon plant that declined for decades, to the verge of receiving federal protection. However, this spring, numerous organizations, private and public, are stepping up to conserve the plant in an effort that should keep it off the endangered species list.

Georgia aster

The view from Jane Bald is impressive. On a good day. The day I was there, the fog was socked in, accompanied by a constant strong wind. Although the beautiful views were missing, we were able to watch the wind rush the fog through the neighboring gap as if we were watching a stream squeeze between a pair of rocks. Jane Bald is one of the peaks of Roan Mountain on the North Carolina-Tennessee state line - one of the most biologically important areas in the Southern Appalachians.

Roan Mountain - a biological gem

Most of the kids entered the water with eager anticipation, net in hand, happily getting their shoes and shorts wet while adult not only looked on, but encouraged them to explore the river. It was the second annual Toe River Valley Festival, an event that brought nearly every 5th grader in North Carolina’s Yancey and Mitchell County’s out into a river in their community.

Getting kids into the water

Red wolves are the wolves of the south. They could once be found from Texas, across the south, and up the Atlantic coast. However, due to eradication efforts and habitat loss, they nearly became extinct. In a last-ditch effort to save the species, an attempt was made to capture all remaining wild red wolves. Of the 17 captured, 14 became the founders of a zoo-based breeding program. Although the release of propagated wolves was tried and failed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is has been a success in the swampy low country of eastern North Carolina, where about 100 red wolves roam. Nearly 200 additional red wolves are in captivity and part of the managed breeding program.  You can see these animals for yourself at the Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville.

Red Wolf Death

Daddy Longlegs

Daddy longlegs are one of our most common animals, and one that children key in on at an early age. Learn more about this fascinating arachnid.

Daddy longlegs

Wind turbines are known for their impacts to birds, less so for impacts to bats. However, some of the bats killed by wind turbines never even touch the blades.

Research shows it isn't just impacts that kill bats at wind turbines

A team of botanists from across the Southern Appalachians join in an effort to document spreading avens, a rare plant found on some of the roughest terrain in the region.

Botanists hit area cliffs for rare plant

Crows show themselves to be extremely clever animals

Crows

The Cradle of Forestry in America, in North Carolina’s Transylvania County, was the site of the nation’s first forestry school and you can still visit the one-room school house the students used.It’s appropriate then, that beside this schoolhouse is planted a young chestnut tree. The American chestnut was once the most abundant tree in Eastern hardwood forests, and was functionally eliminated by an Asian fungus, the chestnut blight. The tree beside the schoolhouse isn’t a pure American chestnut, but a hybrid – 15/16ths American chestnut, and 1/16th Chinese chestnut, which affords it resistance to the blight. There’s hope this hybrid is the key to returning the chestnut to Eastern forests.

The Cradle of Forestry in America, in North Carolina’s Transylvania County, was the site of the nation’s first forestry school and you can still visit the one-room school house the students used.<br><br>It’s appropriate then, that beside this schoolhouse is planted a young chestnut tree. The American chestnut was once the most abundant tree in Eastern hardwood forests, and was functionally eliminated by an Asian fungus, the chestnut blight. The tree beside the schoolhouse isn’t a pure American chestnut, but a hybrid – 15/16ths American chestnut, and 1/16th Chinese chestnut, which affords it resistance to the blight. There’s hope this hybrid is the key to returning the chestnut to Eastern forests.

Return of the chestnut

State, federal, tribal, and private biologists have all come together in an effort to improve the plight of the rare sicklefin redhorse fish, hopefully keeping it from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Sicklefin redhorse conservation

Kids In the Creek program takes 8th graders on a search for aquatic insects, fish, and an understanding of Southern Appalachian streams, and compels one 8th grade teacher to start kissing fish.

Kids in the Creek gets 8th graders' feet wet

With a rash of media reports of bear sightings across North Carolina, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission reminds residents not to panic and to remain calm if you see a black bear. Bears are not inherently dangerous and seeing a bear can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for residents to appreciate from a safe distance.

Living with Bears

It was quite balmy in Asheville on that particular late-May morning.  While the weather may be warm and clear in town, it’s no indication of conditions above 6000 feet, on the shoulders of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

Spruce-Fir Moss Spider

In the United States, the vast majority of wildlife management is done by state wildlife agencies – the same folks who issue your hunting and fishing licenses. But there are some areas where the federal government steps in and takes a larger role.Ducks fly up and down North America each year, and they are avidly hunted. What if hunters in Virginia shot all the ducks before they could get to North Carolina? Migratory birds, including ducks, is an area where the federal government steps in and plays a key role.

In the United States, the vast majority of wildlife management is done by state wildlife agencies – the same folks who issue your hunting and fishing licenses. But there are some areas where the federal government steps in and takes a larger role.<br><br>Ducks fly up and down North America each year, and they are avidly hunted. What if hunters in Virginia shot all the ducks before they could get to North Carolina? Migratory birds, including ducks, is an area where the federal government steps in and plays a key role.

Duck Season

Cold weather has descended upon the Southern Appalachians and on some mornings, perhaps most mornings, soft, warm flannel sheets make the notion of hibernation seem incredibly appealing.

Frog hibernation

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