May

May 5:

Maywoods Family Nature

Day

May 24-June 1:

Environmental Service

Learning Trip, Hawaii

June

Jun 4-6:

Lilley Cornett Woods Field

Camp & 2nd Annual William

Martin Appalachian

Research Symposium

Patience and Perseverance Prevail

John Adams said, “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which

difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” This quote is extremely relevant to the

Division of Natural Areas highlights and accomplishments for 2017.

In June 2017, EKU obtained the deed for the 94 acre Craig-Ledford property adja-

cent to Lilley Cornett Woods after 7 years of interesting challenges and legal glitches.

This property provides needed support at Lilley Cornett Woods in several ways in-

cluding an essential buffer for a section of the forest along Whitaker Branch that in-

cludes some of the oldest and largest trees. It will provide a place for a second growth

comparison research plots for the existing longitudinal forest composition studies in

the old growth forest. Lastly, it offers additional housing which is needed as we have

more and more visitors, classes and programs at LCW.

The property includes a house with stone work and a stone obelisk by the John Pa-

lumbo, an Italian stone mason, an old blacksmith shop as well as the original dwelling

and numerous other outbuildings. Participants in a historic preservation field school

scheduled for March will help inventory and document the significance of the build-

ings and numerous antiques.

Taylor Fork Ecological Area Use of Taylor Fork Ecological Area continued to increase. In 2017, more than 1500 visitors participated in an assortment of recreational, research, and class-related activities. Field trips for Ecology labs conducted several projects including camera trapping, bird behavior, leaf phenology of invasive plants, and spider niches. Frequent field trips by students from Wildlife Population Analysis, Plant Systematics, and Aquatic Entomology also occurred. Students in Assistant Professor Shan-non McCarthy’s Introduction to Graphic Design course created a set of icons that will be used for TFEA and other Natural Areas activities. (Three of these are shown below.) Biology graduate stu-dents continued their strong history of contributing to TFEA by organizing and leading a series of nature walks with themes including Fall Trees and Flowers, Stream Ecology, Winter Birds Identifica-tion, Camera Trapping, Woodcock Viewing, and Spring Wildflowers. The EKU Wildlife Society also continues to play a vital role in helping manage trails, control invasive species, and lead and assist in research and outreach. Another exciting event was a Howl at the Moon Hike, organized as a fundraiser for EKU’s Environmental Service Learning program. Isaac Bentley and Jason Martin, student assistant managers of TFEA over the past 3 years, recently graduated. We are grateful for their dedicated service and enthusiasm. Hunter Loyall and Wyatt Ruckel have recently stepped up to take on the student assistant manager duties.

Updates from Our Natural Areas

Maywoods Environmental and Education Laboratory

2017 was another active year with a variety of groups, organizations and individuals utilizing Maywoods for education, research and outreach. In February, the annual Kentucky Organization of Field Stations (KOFS) was held at Maywoods with 35 participants in attendance. For the second time in April, Maywoods hosted the Kentucky East Regional Environthon. 90 high school students from 11 different schools participated in the event. Maywoods also continues to be a site for EKU students to gain experience through internship projects. Recreation and Parks Administration intern, Carlie Thomas, designed and helped build an observation deck for Maywoods’ wetland area. Management of the area’s acreage is an ongoing responsibility of Maywoods’ staff. With the expert assistance of the KY Division of Forestry and volunteers from the Cartersville Fire Depart-ment, a prescribed burn of the tall grass prairie plot was completed. This is done on a three year rotation to maintain the grasslands which are represented of the vegetation common in Kentucky at the time of settlement in the 18th century. In addition, the staff conducted a survey of two stands of Eastern Hemlock as part of their monitoring for the Hemlock Wooley Algid, an invasive species.

Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station

The first annual William Martin Appalachian Research Symposium took place at our annual field camp at Lilley Cornett Woods in June. Although the field camp has taken place for 12 years, this was the first year we were able to formalize the symposium portion. Dr. William Martin, retired EKU Biology professor and Director, Division of Natural Areas was honored during the symposium for his foresight, leadership and passion for the Woods. Another first during field camp was the perfor-mance of Sisters of the Mother Forest, A Story of Lucy & Annette Braun. The production was written and performed by EKU Geosciences professor, Dr. Alice Jones. In 2017, LCW staff expanded their management of invasive species to include treatment for the Emerald Ash Borer. They started in July and treated a total of 25 White Ash Trees and selected seed trees in sensitive areas.

Natural Areas Research Highlights, 2017

Our Student Grant in Aid Program provides funding for students, up to $500 plus free lodging, to conduct research at EKU's natural areas as part of the study. The deadline to apply is April 2, 2018. See http://naturalareas.eku.edu/student-grant-aid-program for more information. To date, we have funded sixteen research projects!

Ongoing and recently completed research projects * = grant-in-aid project; u = undergraduate student; g = graduate student

Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory

Effects of human presence on mesopredators of Central Appalachia: Sarah Ashbrooku,

REU student (Erskine College) Dr. Kelly Watson (EKU Geosciences), and Dr. Luke Dodd (EKU Biology) (In all 3 Natural Areas)

Comparison of two rapid wetland assessments: Kentucky Wetland Rapid Assessment Method and Ohio Mitigated Wetland Assessment Method: Jason Martin

u (EKU Biology)

and Dr. David Brown

*Surveys for eastern spotted skunks and other mesocarnivores during the dormant sea-son in Kentucky: Courtney Hayes

u and Dr. Luke Dodd, and Dr. Kelly Watson (In all 3 Nat-

ural Areas)

Efficacy of different cover types to monitor amphibian and reptile populations: Alex Gib-son

u, Alex Baecher

g (EKU Biology), and Dr. Stephen Richter

Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station

Influences on the presence of invasive plant species within old growth of Lilley Cornett Woods, Kentucky: Jacob Peters

u, REU student (U Virginia at Wise) and Dr. Jen Koslow

(EKU Biology)

*Stream salamander occupancy, abundance, and diet along a conductivity gradient in southeastern Kentucky: Jake Hutton

g and Dr. Steven Price (UK Forestry), and Dr. Ste-

phen Richter (EKU Biology and Natural Areas)

Hemlock Forests and the effects of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: Rachel Milleru, REU student

(U Pikeville), and Dr. David Brown (EKU Biology and Natural Areas)

How remotely sensed data can be used to study the effects of environmental gradients

on amphibians: Kelley Hoeferu, REU student (EKU Geosciences) and Dr. Kelly Watson

Distance modeling of avian species in Lilley Cornett Woods, Kentucky: Jocelyn Stalkeru,

REU student (Furman University) and Dr. David Brown

Leaf litter decomposition in the headwater streams of Lilley Cornett Woods: Myesha James

u, REU student (Central State University), Emily Jones

u (EKU Biology), Alex Baecher

g,

and Dr. Stephen Richter

Taylor Fork Ecological Area

Ecosystem functional consequences of top predator mortality in ephemeral ponds, due

to the invasive shrub, Lonicera maackii: Josey Bertag and Dr. Cy Mott (EKU Biology)

Ecosystem functional consequences of body size variation in an apex predator: David Smith

g (EKU Biology) and Dr. Cy Mott

Groundwater hydrology of Taylor Fork stream: Dr. Jonathan Malzone and undergraduate students (EKU Geosciences)

Running Buffalo Clover restoration strategies: Dr. Jennifer Koslow, Bailey Kingg, Claire

Kelleyu, Faithe Goff

u, and Ted Brancheu

u (EKU Biology)

Testing the ability to detect and map Japanese Honeysuckle using remote sensing: Dr. Kelly Watson and Remote Sensing class and students (EKU Geosciences and Biology)

Effects of sub-lethal rates of imidacloprid on emerald ash borer development and fitness

of a biological control agent: Sam Riversg and Dr. Lynn Riske-Kinney (UK Forestry)

Environmental Education in Our Natural Areas

Environmental education outreach continues to be an important component of the Natural Areas’ mission. In 2017, a total of 1,627 K-12 students participated in engaging, hands-on program activities, lead by Natural Areas staff and student interns in our natural areas. A closer look at the numbers revealed 1,036 K-12 students from 11 schools in 6 surrounding counties came to Maywoods and 591 K-12 students from 8 schools in 3 southeastern counties traveled to Lilley Cornett Woods. The opportunity to provide programming at LCW was realized through a collaboration with the Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative. This collaboration was very exciting because it was a first time field trip for some of the classes and it allowed us to demonstrate how the outdoors can be used to teach core content. Another environmental education effort has focused on climate change literacy. This work has taken place in collaboration with Kentucky Association for Environmental Education and the Kentucky University Partnership for Environmental Education through an EPA grant, Addressing Climate Change Statewide Through Concerted Community-based Initiatives. The goal is to provide tools for Kentucky educators to improve their environmental content knowledge, skills in teaching about climate change, and field-based pedagogical skills. The Natural Areas has focused on the educator component, training 41 preserve teachers and 16 in-service teachers.

Summer Field Courses

In summer 2018, we are offering two field courses based at Maywoods and that will visit Taylor Fork or Lilley Cornett Woods. The courses are Wetland Design and Restoration Techniques and Ecology for Teachers. All participants enrolled in our summer courses reside in the lodge at Maywoods free of charge. Contact Stephen Richter (stephen.richter@eku.edu) for more information.

Peer Reviewed Publications

* = student research funded by grant in aid program

Below are publications resulting from research conducted using our Natural Areas.

Bushow, M.A., and D. Brown. 2016. Winter territoriality of White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) in Ken-tucky. Journal of the Ken-tucky Academy of Science 77:4-10.

Bradley, M.J., R.L. Sharp, C. Bradley, and T. Riley. 2017. A pre-test pot-test pilot as-sessment of environmental education on youth’s knowledge and intended be-havior changes. KAHPERD Journal 54:24-31

Hutton, J.M., S.J. Price, and S. C. Richter. 2017. The diet of the Cumberland Plateau Sal-amander (Plethodon ken-tucki) in an old-growth forest of southeastern Kentucky. American Midland Naturalist 178: 144-150.

Sharp, R.L., M.L. Bradley, and J. Maples. 2017. A methodo-logical evaluation of an envi-ronmental education survey: Is there a technological ad-vantage? Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education and Leadership 9:275-279.

Chapman, J.I., R.W. McEwan. 2018. The role of environ-mental filtering in structuring Appalachian tree communi-ties: Topographic influences on functional diversity are mediated through soil charac-teristics. Forests 9, 19; doi:10.3390/f9010019.

Hutton, J.M., S.J. Price, and S. C. Richter. In press. Diet of the Black Mountain Salaman-der (Desmognathus welteri) in southeastern Kentucky. Herpetological Review.

Research Experience for Undergraduates

Another example of Patience and Perseverance was the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates grant program. After several years of applications and rewrites, Dr. David Brown and Dr. Stephen Richter hosted the first cohort of 10 student-interns for the first of three years of an NSF-funded REU project. Each student-intern is paired with an EKU faculty mentor for an intensive 10 week training program. The broad theme of the project is Disturbance Ecology in Central Appalachia, with a variety of individual student projects including studies of invasive plant species, fish communities, abundance of mesopredators, and bird densities. Student-interns came from across Kentucky and the eastern US, and represented home schools including Big Sandy Community and Technical College, University of Pikeville, Berea College, University of Virginia’s College at Wise, and Central State University among others. Eight of the 10 student interns worked out of Lilley Cornett Woods, and one student used all 3 EKU Natural Areas as study sites. The project also provides training for numerous EKU undergraduate and graduate students who work alongside the REU student-interns and serve as near-peer mentors.