By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
With Thanksgiving approaching thoughts turn to the first English colonial settlement in America. If you remember your history lessons, the first attempts to colonize the New World were the Roanoke Colony in 1587 and the Jamestown Colony in 1607. The Roanoke Colony disappeared without a trace and has been the subject of much speculation ever since.

Persimmons are a popular food source for many wildlife species such as fox, opossum, deer, raccoons, and many types of birds. Humans find them tasty as well if gathered at the right time. If you want to try some, be sure and take along the kids or grandkids, as they benefit from a shot of nature every now and then.

The autumn coloration of trees is always looked forward to with anticipation. The presence of numerous tree species (around 125 for us) having brilliant fall foliage is not common planet wide, as the only other places with a similar abundance of foliage colorations is northern China, Korea, and Japan. A common question this time of year is will the colors be good or not? The answer is meteorological.

Ironweed (Veronia altissima) is the purple flowers you see growing on a tall, slender stalk in pasture and hay fields while driving down the road.

Ironweed can grow to a height of 7 to 10 feet in deep moist soils, but usually averages around 5 feet. The stem of the plant is very hard and stiff, hence the name. Spear shaped leaves around 6 inches long grow all along the length of the stem.

Maybe you aren't familiar with the plant, but perhaps you’ve noticed Witch Hazel as an ingredient found in after-shave lotion, skin ointments, eyewash, or hemorrhoid medication. Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is a small tree common in our forests. It usually only reaches 15 to 20 feet in height, and tends to have a thick, crooked crown with a lot of branching. The leaves are round or oval shaped with wavy edges. The bottom of the leaf at the stem is always offset, where the leaf edges don’t meet the stem at the same level. The bark of the tree is light brown and scaly.

When it comes to wildflowers that show up in August and September, two things stand out: yellow is by far the dominant color you’ll see, and many of the flowers have a complex flower structure termed a composite, made up of many flowers. You have to look close to actually see what’s going on here, so let me dive in.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
If you read my stuff much, you know that I am unabashedly proud to be mountain bred. I love our southern Appalachian mountains. The terrain, the climate, the plants and animals, the culture and history, all blend together to form a unique place to live.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

You don’t realize it, but when you look at our local mountains you aren’t really seeing the mountains themselves because they are covered in trees with a whole lot of leaves. On average a mature tree has a hundred thousand leaves. It takes around seventy biggish trees to shade an acre of mountain forest, which doing the math comes to seven million leaves per acre. And since you are looking at perhaps a thousand acres of forest at a casual glance, that comes to…well you get the gist.

Requirements for good wildlife habitat can be broken down into three basic needs: water, food, and cover. While the need for water and food is pretty obvious, cover is more dynamic, and the need varies from day to day and season to season.

Sumacs are very common in our area, most often found in overgrown fields and areas that have been disturbed. While considered a weed by many, it does have the virtues of providing cover and food for wildlife, and nice fall coloration for human enjoyment.