Rhododendron season in the Highlands is near!

Wow, it’s really hard to believe that in two weeks the highcountry will be adorned with the beautiful Catawba rhododendron bloom. It feels like it was just last week that the forest was just starting to come alive from the long winter season. This is a great time to be in the mountains, especially the Roan Highlands, along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. I have my Roan Highlands Experience workshop the 13th through 15th of June and we have spots open! If you’ve never been to the Roan during the bloom, it’s incredible! This place is in my backyard and I’d love to show all how wonderful this place is. It’s hard to believe that not too many years ago the plans were to develop the bald. Just think, condos, ski slopes, million dollar home sites and paved roads running over this beautiful landscape. Thanks to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy for protecting this wonder for generations to come! By the way, they are the group that has brokered the deal between the Conservation Fund and the owners of Rocky Fork. I’ll be indebted to them forever! Stop by and tell them thanks at www.appalachian.org.  

 

Please visit www.mtphotoworkshops.com for more info on our upcoming workshop schedule.

 

Catawba Rhododendron and breaking storm along Jane Bald, Roan Highlands, Tennessee and North Carolina

 

Canon EOS 5D,  TS-E 24mm, no filters

RAW file processed with CaptureOne Pro and Photoshop CS3 Extended

Vote For Rocky Fork!

I’m posting this from an email that I received from my friends at SAHC. Please vote for Rocky Fork!

  Dear friends and Rocky Fork supporters:

 We have worked for many years to preserve Rocky Fork, the incredible 10,000-acre natural wonder in Unicoi and Greene Counties.  We are close, and have a purchase option on the land, but the deal is not closed and funds are still needed.  Please go to the site listed below and cast your vote for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s Rocky Fork preservation campaign to receive a $3,000 grant from Patagonia. 

Know that when you click on the Rocky Fork selection, not only will you be voting to help preserve the largest remaining unprotected tract in the Appalachian Mountains, but also, as we have just learned, the #1 LAND ACQUISITION PRIORITY IN THE NATION for the United States Forest service!

 After you have voted, would you please forward this message to friends, family and associates whom you believe share our great concern for this national treasure that exists right here in our own NE TN back yard. 

 Gratefully,

 

David Ramsey, Coordinator

Save the Rocky Fork Watershed! Campaign

   

Vote for a chance for SAHC to win a $3,000 grant for Rocky Fork

 

In an effort to raise awareness of the great projects that land trusts are doing across the state in support of Land Trust Day, the Great Outdoor Provision Company has launched a Land Trust Day competition. They are highlighting seven projects from seven different land trusts that are in need of protection. Patagonia has agreed to the underwriting of a $3,000 grant to go towards the winning land trust project. The winning project will be announced on Land Trust Day, June 7th.——    

 “To say this is a pleasant surprise would be an understatement.” That’s the word from Executive Director Carl Silverstein upon hearing the news that SAHC’s Rocky Fork project is now ranked as the #1 national priority for acquisition by the US Forest Service.  “We were pretty excited last year when Rocky Fork ranked as the top USFS priority in the region,” Silverstein continues, “but to work on the top project in the nation, as a conservationist, it just doesn’t get any better than that.”Nor does it get any more challenging. The 10,000 acre Rocky Fork tract has been eyed by conservationists and developers alike for years because of its size, its connection to 22,000 acres of protected land and its sheer scenic beauty.  “This tract is going to become the favorite place of the next generation of Appalachian Trail users and outdoor enthusiasts,” says Jay Leutze, an SAHC board member who has traveled to Washington DC four times in the last year to lobby for federal funds for the acquisition.  “For fly-fishing, hiking, mountain-bike riding, bird-watching and more, this vast land is going to add a critical link to decades of successful land protection. Purchasing it to give it to the public is just the right thing to do for locals, and for the people of the United States.”——–
   

Situated 34 miles from Asheville, NC, and 34 miles from Johnson City, TN, astride the new I-26 highway, the $40 million dollar tract stands on what might have been the next frontier of large-scale high-end development. Instead, SAHC’s partner, The Conservation Fund, has secured the site with an option to buy the entire tract.  “Getting site security on the entire parcel, having the land under contract, is key,” Silverstein adds.  “But closing the deal will still take a monumental effort involving private, state and federal dollars.”  It is not too much of a stretch to say that the top conservation project in the country will require the top fund-raising effort, too.  “SAHC grows every year,” says Leutze.  “Our members want to know that we are capable of protecting the landscapes we all cherish.  As a result we’ve gotten very strategic about pursuing our priorities, increased our capacity through partnerships and member-drives, and worked at building relationships from Asheville to Nashville, and all the way to Capitol Hill.”  Silverstein adds this: “We won’t celebrate until the deal is closed, but we’re confident that the work we’ve done on Rocky Fork is going to pay off.”

 VOTE HERE!

 http://greatoutdoorprovision.com/culture/wesupport/patagonia-land-grant/

 

The Rhododendrons will blossom soon!

While searching for images to be printed in the June issue of WNC Magazine I came across a photograph that I had taken in 2005. I had all but forgotten about this image! Not sure why, for I really love this one. After getting the images together for two, two-page full-bleed Vista images and two more photos for a special feature about the North Carolina Mountains, I decided that I had better get my images caught up in my cataloging software. Man, I’m so far behind! Anyway, I thought that I’d post this image, being that it’s so perfect for the upcoming season in the highcountry. 

 

Spring in the highcountry, Craggy Gardens, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina

 

Canon EOS 5D, TS-E 45mm (rise and very slight off-axis tilt), Polarizer, f/16 @ .6 sec, ISO 200

Burning The Future: Coal in America

Please watch the movie trailer!

Burning The Future: Coal in America – Trailer from coalmovie on Vimeo.

 

Buffalo Mountain Fire plus ATV trail on Buffalo!

Buffalo Mountain fire! It does look as though the fire was started along the trail. They are saying that it was set by a human, no word whether intentional or accident. The main trail is an ATV trail and I have my suspicions on how this was started if it did, indeed, start on or near the ATV trail. More than likely, a cigarette or exhaust from an ATV or motorcycle. I’ve always been torn between my feelings for ATV areas in our mountains. I grew up riding and racing motorcycles, on and off-road. But, I HAVE NEVER SEEN the type of destruction that the ATV’s are causing in our mountains! The problem is the very apparent disconnect between the operators and the environment they are riding in. They DO NOT lift a finger when it comes to maintaining the trail systems. This is the #1 thing that they could do to repair their image with the general public. Also, by showing a bit of responsibility they could, very well, be rewarded more places to ride. I just don’t understand the mentality of these riders. They need to wake up! Maybe a required class needs to be taken before they could ride in these areas. Someone needs to teach them how to ride and respect the privilege of riding these trails. They need to understand that riding on these trails is a privilege not a right!

 

Please note: I’m not blaming anyone or any group for the fire. I’ll leave that up to the officials that are investigating the fire. I’m making a comment about the destruction of the forest around the ATV trail. When I moved here, just over 12-years ago, only mountain bikes and motorcycles rode the multi-use trail on Buffalo and the trail was a single-track trail with very few problems. Now it is a highway! Huge mud-filled holes with multiple, illegal, trails running all over the place. Riders should police themselves! If they see someone riding illegally then they should handle it accordingly. If not, they should loose the rights to ride the trail, period!

 

 

 

Foamflower, wild blue phlox & star chickweed, Shelton Laurel Backcountry Area, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina

 

The Shelton Laurel Backcountry Area is really a wonderful place! Abbey and I took our little girl, Serén, on her first hike in the mountains there yesterday. The flowers are still beautiful! There’s an abundance of purple phaceila, wild blue phlox, wild geranium, trillium, and the list goes on! walking up the old road is like walking through a wildflower garden! Here’s another closeup from a few days back.

EOS 5D, TS-E 90mm w/ EF1.4x extender, extension tubes, f/7.0 @ 1/12 sec, ISO 250

Edward Schell: An understated visionary in Nature Photography

 

On Monday, April 21, 2008, I attended a special presentation by the State of Franklin Chapter of the Sierra Club in Johnson City. The Center for Appalachian Studies of East Tennessee State University is in the final stages of a DVD production of photographs from photographer Edward Schell and music from Johnson City native composer, Kenton Coe.

 

This is a well-deserved production for my friend Ed Schell, as I feel that he is truly an understated visionary in nature photography. It was refreshing to see his early works; he is now 85-years young and still, as health allows, gets out to photograph in the forest. Ed’s photography is the quintessence of the late Eliot Porter. I feel that in his era of photography, things were pure- cleaner feeling. No implications of dishonesty, as a few have caused in our present day photographic digital age. But I wouldn’t want to go back to film, that’s for sure! The music was refreshing and, for the most part, felt in harmony with the photographs. Other than a few “off cord” refrains, it was beautiful. Ed has only one book- “Tennessee”- to offer his photographs to the public. You can get it at Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com). It’s a wonderful hardcover with text by the late Wilma Dykeman. Ed is the 1990 recipient of the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography.

 

I will announce the release of Ed’s DVD as soon as it is available.

 

I posted this photo in the spirit of Ed’s show. His presentation of new spring growth in film was wonderful. As I walked in the spring forest I felt his presence and I too decided to capture spring at its earliest stages. 

 

EOS 5D, TS-E 90mm w/ EF1.4xL extender and extension tubes. 

 

 

 

 

Spring apple trees, Madison County, NC

As I travel to photograph the final photos in my new book “Blue Ridge”, I look for special images. This is the fun part! Although I’ve already chosen most of the photos for the project,  I’m still looking for those special “have to be in there” photos. This is one of them! As I was driving along, I noticed the beautiful blossoms of the apple trees on an old Appalachian farm. This scene really moved me.  These farms are disappearing at an alarming rate. The farmers are getting old and passing from this earth, and their families don’t seem to see the beauty in the land they’d owned for the past 100+ years. They sell the properties to developers and next thing you know, million-dollar vacation homes are built along the mountainside. This is a problem in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Northeast Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. I’m not sure that we can do anything about it and I’m worried about our beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains!

 

EOS 5D, EF70-200f/4L @ 84mm, f/11 @ 1/6sec

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, Nantahala National Forest, NC

Trees

“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of Robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.”
Joyce Kilmer.
December 6, 1886-July 30, 1918.

If you’re not familiar with Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest or Joyce Kilmer / Slickrock Wilderness, check out this link, where you’ll find  more in-depth info on its history and links to other websites about the area:

  

 http://www.wilderness.org/WhereWeWork/NorthCarolina/JoyceKilmerWilderness.cfm 

 As a photographer, this has got to be the hardest place in the southern Appalachians to photograph! It’s very difficult to show the size of the virgin poplars without a human element. As you may know, I don’t often add any human elements to my landscapes. So, spring helps, somewhat, by giving us the addition of beautiful wildflowers that grow in profusion in and around the old-growth forest. Even then its hard to show the size of these monsters! Many of the giant trees in the forest reach more than 100 feet in height and measure 20 feet around at the base. Now, for you westerners, this is no big thing. But in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s, we lost virtually all of our virgin forests to the industrial revolution in the north. It’s really amazing to look at my old family photos and see the mountains of this area stripped of trees. Clear-cut as far as the eye could see! Joyce Kilmer is one of the last places that, presently, we can visit and stand in a true virgin Appalachian forest. I always spend my first few minutes in this forest, speechless and holding back the tears!

The next few posts will be from my trip to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. I hope that you enjoy them!

 Morning light washes the virgin forest in its wonderful warmth.

 EOS 5D, TS-E 24mm w/ rise & very little tilt, polarizer