{"id":751,"date":"2010-12-02T15:34:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T23:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=751"},"modified":"2010-12-15T15:39:47","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T23:39:47","slug":"exploring-with-like-minded-folk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2010\/12\/exploring-with-like-minded-folk\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring with like-minded folk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_14347\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=14347\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14347\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14347\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Jesses-beetle-friend.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Jesse&#039;s-beetle-friend\" width=\"200\" height=\"357\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14347\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14347\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY KEN MOORE.  Eyed elater click beetle joins the group.<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<strong>By Ken Moore<br \/>\n<em>Flora Columnist<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThanksgiving Day included a walk in the woods. Lingering fall color and the beautiful beginnings of the winter forest landscape were worthy of giving thanks.<br \/>\nWe left the neighborhood behind at the end of the street as we entered Carolina North woods to walk the Nature Observation Trail, a trail for walkers only, where we like-minded folk enjoyed the nature of the place without interruption from dogs, bikes and joggers. We were alone on that deer path-like trail beneath giant trees beginning to show off winter forms and textures. Along the way, we became absorbed in the diversity of fallen leaves on the forest floor and the complexity of hidden activity beneath.<br \/>\nOur emergence back onto the street was a bit unsettling after the journey over the leafy forest carpet.<br \/>\nCurbs were piled with leaves removed from manicured landscapes upon which they had fallen. We surveyed that scene and reflected on how far we humans have diverged from living in harmony with nature. We wondered how town resources could be redirected if all those leaves were allowed to remain, to be recycled as nature intended, on the ground where they fall.<br \/>\nWe further reflected on how thankful we are to have numerous public trails nearby to offer solace from the trappings of manicured neighborhoods. <\/p>\n<p>However, sometimes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exhilarating to go farther afield to explore new places.<br \/>\nOne such place I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve wanted to explore is Howell Woods in nearby Johnston County. Several weeks ago, I joined like-minded folk in the able hands of N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences naturalists Jerry Reynolds and Jesse Perry on a day-long exploration of the 2,800-acre \u00e2\u20ac\u0153outdoor classroom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d associated with Johnston Community College\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Rudolph Howell and Son Environmental Learning Center.<br \/>\nYou are welcome to visit Howell Woods (howellwoods.org) on your own. There are attractions to engage the entire family. Twenty-five miles of trails, 24 separate loop trails, introduce you to a diversity of habitats including bottomland hardwood forests, seasonal wetlands with boardwalks, sandhill pine and scrub oak and longleaf pine forest restorations.<br \/>\nIf you visit on a weekend, look for Stephen Ashby, a staff member who cares for the wildflower and other gardens next to the learning center. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full of helpful information about the history and nature of the place.<br \/>\nJerry and Jesse quickly identified discoveries made by the members of our group, who were scrambling in all directions like preschoolers. Highlights spotted were marble salamanders, late-fall grasses and wildflowers and the brilliant color of turkey oaks, which hold their leaves perpendicular to the ground to conserve moisture. I was most excited to see the eyed elater click beetle found beneath fallen leaves inside a rotting log. When asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Does it bite?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jesse obliged in demonstrating that it does, and it tagged along on Jesse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finger for quite a ways. (Jesse was good-natured about it!)<br \/>\nJerry Reynolds schedules monthly Museum day trips (naturalsciences.org) to natural areas not far from Raleigh. The next one is Dec. 8 to Raven Rock State Park below Sanford. There may still be spaces left.<br \/>\nWhatever you do, get out into nature, leave your worries behind and let those leaves remain beneath the trees where they fall.<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nEmail Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com.<\/em><br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_14342\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=14342\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14342\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14342\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Jesse-making-a-point.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Jesse-making-a-point\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14342\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14342\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"> Photo by Ken Moore.  Jesse Perry makes a point with lifelong hikers at Howell Woods.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore Flora Columnist Thanksgiving Day included a walk in the woods. Lingering fall color and the beautiful beginnings of the winter forest landscape were worthy of giving thanks. We left the neighborhood behind at the end of the street as we entered Carolina North woods to walk the Nature Observation Trail, a trail [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20],"tags":[637,640,636,639],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-moores-flora","category-winter","tag-carolina-north","tag-howell-woods","tag-thanksgiving","tag-turkey-oaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}