Nature

The ground between Roberdo and Wadeville sometimes shakes when the Warrior football team of West Montgomery High takes to the field, but last October the tremors were due to a special project on land adjacent to the campus. The “West Montgomery tract” includes an 80-acre stand of mature longleaf that the US Forest Service has […]

This last week in September finally saw a break in the heat from our hotter than average summer this year. Bringing us out of near-drought conditions, rain finally came and with it the 60s and 70s temps we’d all been waiting for so longingly. Unfortunately for some areas this sudden rush of rainfall also resulted […]

In fall, native plants in the Uwharries offer up a bounty of fruits for wildlife and humans alike. Muscadines seemed to ripen a little early this year. My mom and I picked dozens of deep purple berries in mid-August. Their musky scent helped us locate several vines. Their flavor is just as intense. There’s nothing […]

With our warm late summer temperatures, moist conditions from humidity and evening thunderstorms, this is certainly the time of year to spot mushrooms in the woods. Growing up in the area, I’d always took note of mushrooms, but rarely given them more than a passing glance. Then a few years ago, I overheard a biologist […]

I’ve traversed some rugged country in the Uwharries. My dad and I have bushwhacked through laurel thickets and scrambled up and down steep and slippery slopes to blaze trails and mark property lines. In general, though, our land is more accessible than isolated coves in the mountains or impenetrable swamps at the coast. And yet […]

“They come from Tennessee in a covered wagon.” That was all I could get out of my grandfather…” So begins this essay by Ruth Ann Grissom, first published in 1998 in the newsletter of The LandTrust for Central NC. Guest contributor Ruth Ann Grissom is a freelance writer who splits her time between Atlanta and […]