refvemma's blog: Highlands Field Trip

I want to blog again so that I don't forget my life. Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook are all fun, but there's something comforting about a good ol' blog. Here I am again!

hello from Satulah Mountain! (you can't see it, but I'm standing on some GNEISS)

This weekend I got to go visit the Smoky Mountains west of Asheville. I have actually not spent much (or any?) time that far west in our great state, and it was wonderful. I am a part of a program called the NC Climate Fellows, where science teachers learn how to teach high school kids about climate change. It is funded by NASA, and I mainly did it for the field trips! Science is only fun if you get to be inside of it. Geology really doesn't make as much sense inside a room as it does standing on some granite.

(because I'm a teacher and I like to give previews...)

In this post, I will talk a lot about SCIENCE and then a little about ME and then give you some PICS

(so if you don't want to learn, skip to the end!)

SCIENCE:

The main thing we focused on was the impact of the Hemlock woolly adelgid that is wreaking havoc on the Eastern Hemlock trees that make up a lot of western NC's forests. It's basically a tiny bug (the size of this period "." !) that attaches to trees and sucks out the sap. The trees die of physiological drought from the bottom up. This adds more sunlight to the forest floor, increases stream temperature, takes away the habitat for 3 specific birds (the names of which, forgive me, I cannot remember), and alters the future water availability for all the streams in the watershed. Crazy stuff!! It's what happens when a little bug goes bad... so many problems. We got to witness it firsthand, and let me tell you... it's crazy!

We also got to check how climate change is changing the phenology of many plants and animals. Basically the change in climate can throw off the bloom times of plants, which throws off feeding times and hatching times and basically just makes it hard to be a baby bird.

More highlights:

the forests past 6500 feet are basically like Canadian forests and smell like Christmas!!!
the Appalachian mountains used to be higher than the Himalayas but it was all made of sedimentary rock (which eroded... DUH) and now all that's left is the granite which took its time and cooled inside old volcano chambers (called a pluton!) ... so basically Rocky Mountain snobs can back off b/c igneous and metamorphic rocks ROCK!
hiking is fun

ME:

Aside from all the science (if you're even still with me), I just loved being in the mountains. There is something about waking up in 50 degree weather, immediately putting a braid in your hair and a fleece on your back and walking to get breakfast in your hiking boots across gravel. I could wake up that way every day for the rest of my life. In our mountains in NC, the forest crowds around you in a non-claustrophobic way and it's like it's trying to give you a hug.. When it's cool and rainy, it's just gorgeous. Then you get a fire involved and the contest is OVER. I'm in. If the Rockies are like young love, then the Appalachians are like that old couple that has been married for 60 years and is still madly in love. I'll take that any day! Take me back!!!!!!!

PICS!!!