Riparian Vegetation Workshop a Success

Participants from all over the east coast gathered for two days this week at the Valle Crucis Conference Center to learn about native and invasive riparian vegetation!  Allison Weakly from NC Natural Heritage Program and Karen Hall, NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering / Cooperative Extension Program led our learning.

For a well-rounded workshop, participants learned in the classroom and outdoors next to Dutch Creek.  Day one, we went up to Bear Paw for a pristine look at the riparian zone and found so much diversity!  Day two, we got to identify a heavily impacted section of the stream with lots and lots of invasive species and not much diversity.  We found so many species from the Southern Catalpa tree blooms (pictured above) to Mock Orange!