Where We Live
building better communities
April 2008 THIRD THURSDAY:
Earth Day Celebration
What better way to appreciate "Where We Live" then to get out and
experience it, especially when guided by the incredibly
knowledgeable and enthusiastic Maureen Dewire?
In celebration of Earth Day (April 22), our
April Third Thursday was a nature walk in
Boiling Spring Lakes, followed by a
presentation on local flora and fauna and tips
for "living green" by Maureen, who is the
Senior Naturalist and Director of Education
for the Bald Head Island Conservancy.  We
set out from the BSL Community Center at
6:30pm on a lovely spring evening, and
headed down the nature trail into the first of
two communities we would explore, the xeric
sandhills.  There we listened for frogs and
(L) Did you know there's a Nature Trail in Boiling Spring Lakes?  (C) Hiking through the xeric
sandhill community. (R) Maureen points out the apical meristem on a young long-leaf pine.
Where We Live....Naturally
(L) The carnivorous Sun Dew

(R) Entering the pocosin
community.
(T) Maureen showed
us a green turtle shell
and (B) a loggerhead
turtle skull.
Maureen welcomes the
hikers.....
Back at the community center, Maureen gave us a
fascinating talk, complete with slide show, on
our local environment.  Did you know:

  • The Biodiversity of the Cape Fear Region
    is the greatest on the entire east coast
    (excluding Florida);

  • Brunswick County is home greatest number
    of rare plant species (112) in the state, and
    has over 400 species of vascular plants;

  • The only place IN THE WORLD that the
    Venus Flytrap is found growing wild is
    within a 90 mile radius of Wilmington, NC;
(L)Max Iapalucci
checks out a green
snake, while (R)
Jack Erickson gets
his hands on a
yellow bellied slider.
With that it was about time to head for home, as the sun was going
down.  We might have made more progress down the marked trail
had we not been so entertained by these little fellas.......
way to pond pines.  One of the coolest things
Maureen showed us in the pocosin was the
sun dew, a tiny red carnivorous plant that
doesn't get much notice, thanks to local
celebrity the Venus Flytrap.  
Maureen shared some tips for greener living with us (click on
thumbnail below) and then introduced us to some cute little critters,
a green snake and a yellow bellied slider!
learned about the importance of fire in maintaining this environment.  
Maureen also told us that the oh-so-common-to-us long leaf pines are
not as common as they once were; while these trees used to cover
millions of acres from Virginia to Texas, they have now been
reduced to an area less than 5% of their original range.

Just a bit further down the trail, and just mere inches higher in
elevation, we entered the pocosin community, a world away from the
sandhills.  Dense foliage lined the trail, and the long leaf pines gave
(L) A prairie warbler.

(C) Prairie warbler perched in a turkey oak.

(R) Yellow rumped warbler.
Click above for Maureen's simple tips for
greener living!
Thank you to everyone who attended this event, and EXTRA
SPECIAL THANKS to Maureen Dewire for sharing her expertise
and enthusiasm with us.

To quote Maureen: "Now get out and enjoy.....Where We Live!"