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November 9, 2019 6:30-10:00 p.m.

Buy tickets, see auction items and make donations at pwc2019gala.givesmart.com

Please join the PWC staff and board to celebrate a successful, summer-camp season and kick-off to our academic year programs.  Saturday, November 9, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at Marbles Kids Museum 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh, 27601.

Visit with the animal ambassadors, enjoy delectable, catered hors d’oeuvres, kick up your heels, play games, enter raffles, bid on auction items, and learn more about the conservation work and research of PWC. Invite your friends pwc2019gala.givesmart.com

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The folks here at Piedmont Wildlife Center are proud to introduce the a new addition to their non-seasonal staff: Joseph “Lespedeza” Konvicka!

You may have met Joseph (or Joe) during the summer camp seasons since 2009, where he first learn that you can have a job that involve exploring the outdoors every day!  Since then he has learned a lot about medicinal plants, edible fungi, and how to entertain yourself with the Lespedeza that grows all over Leigh Farm Park.

He is a proud graduate of Western Carolina University and an AmeriCorps alumnus.  He uses his academic knowledge and practiced bushcraft skills to teach at PWC.  When he isn’t at work, he is likely doing one of the following: looking for mushrooms, looking for interesting items at Scrap Exchange, experimenting with homemade kombucha, or socializing with outdoor enthusiasts.  E-mail is the best way to contact Joseph; otherwise, try yelling his name really, really loud.

For your entertainment, here are two pictures of Joseph from then and now:

Joseph with “Jo-pedeza” in ’12          

Joseph with a Sparassis species in ’17

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Mr. Coppy        

“I’m 90% sure that it is a copperhead. Ok? Maybe 95% sure.” But, I should know better since I volunteer at Piedmont Wildlife Center which includes several variations of snakes. Either way, one thing I was 100% sure of was that I was going to leave the snake basking near my front step alone. So, I went about my business and when I checked again, he was gone. The next day, at about the same time, there he was with part of his body hidden under the house, basking in the warm dirt. So I left him alone again.

There is no reason to move or kill him. In fact, I am really happy that he is there. My yard is infested with voles that make huge tunnels that fill up with water during heavy rain fall, turning it into a mini swamp. They also destroyed most of the grass, leaving large dirt spots. Traps are a pain and I have no desire to poison my entire lawn which runs off into the Ellerbe Creek. But now with my new snake neighbor, he can do the work of clearing out the infestation Au Naturel.

He seems predictable. He lives under the house or under the shed. We have only spotted him a few times during sunny afternoons basking. But he is not out in the open. After searching, we usually find him in small nooks and corners, partially hidden by the house or dirt. Since we know he is there, we give the yard a look over before letting the dog loose.  All is well.

So, I think we can have a nice symbiotic relationship. The Copperhead can live under the house, eating his fill of voles and any other critters that happen by and I can one day have a nice, non-swampy lawn. As a bonus, I will keep a respectful distance and promise not to poke him with a stick.

-Lilith, Raptor Team Volunteer

Copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix Photo by: Adam Prince

This is a great video showing how to identify a copperhead.

Resource for identifying North Carolina reptiles & amphibians

 

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Flowers will attract pollinators (bees and parasitic wasps) to your garden which will increase your yield.  These wasps devour aphids, caterpillars, beetles, scale and flies.  Bees transfer pollen to flowers when they move from plant to plant, pollinating the flower.

We must realize how heavily we depend on pollinators for our groceries.  Bee populations continue to decline and without bees we would not have crops such as apples, blueberries, almonds, cocoa, coffee, cherries or broccoli (along with hundreds of others).

Be conscious to plant flowers that are native to your state.  Native plants are adapted to a region’s growing conditions.  They will do especially well here and also feed and shelter our native insects.  Another great thing about native plants is that when you buy them from your local nursery, you are “shopping local” and supporting North Carolina growers and farmers.  Check out Big Bloomers Flower Farm (Sanford), Cure Nursery (Pittsboro), Mellow Marsh Farm (Siler City), Niche Gardens (Chapel Hill) and North Carolina Botanical Garden (Chapel Hill).

Try to include plants that bloom during different seasons, that way you will attract and feed pollinators from Spring until Fall.  You could plant Purple Coneflower, Blazing Star and Joe Pye Weed for a dazzling display of flowers throughout the season.  The following are just a few plants that are native to North Carolina and help our pollinator friends in the garden.

Here is an example of two Spring-to-Fall lineups of native beneficial plants:

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)	Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)	Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium dubium)

Lanceleaf blanketflower (Gaillardia aestivalis)	St. John’s Wort (Hypericum frondosum)	NY Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)

Many of these native plants are perennials, meaning they will return for you every year.  Some plants will be so happy in your garden that they will increase and spread, sometimes to places you did not want them to!  Members of the Monarda family (below) are beautiful but can creep along and slowly take over a garden.  You can simply pull up the “volunteer” plants and share with friends or compost them.

Spotted Horsemint (Monarda punctate)	Bee Balm (Monarda spp.)

Beneficial, pollinator-attracting plants do not have to be in the garden to benefit your plants; you can and should include native trees and shrubs on your property.  You may be familiar with Redbud, Southern Magnolia and Red Maple.  Well, they are all native and attract beneficial insects.

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)	Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)

This is a large and interesting subject and I hope that we’ve sparked your interest in learning more about how you can help wildlife and enhance your garden. Here is a link to a North Carolina Cooperative Extension office, where a full list of native beneficial plants, and so much more, can be found: https://growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/

Author: Elena Guim, Spring 2018 Wildlife Conservation Intern

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Options to add extended hours from 8am-5:30pm are available.

NEW THIS SUMMER!!!

• Drama in the Forest camp for ages 5-14.
• Advanced Survival- Overnight Addition ages 13-17. Why limit yourself to the Monday-Friday schedule? Extend your week with a Friday night-Saturday camping trip at one of our local state parks. This program needs at least 6 participants to run.
• Teen Mountain Quest: Deer Clan for ages 13-16. This backpacking trip is designed for teens who have little or no backpacking experience. While this trip is more challenging than Otter Clan, it functions as a good backpacking introduction to the skills and techniques required of the advance Bear Clan trip.

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 PART-TIME Environmental Educators 

Piedmont Wildlife Center seeks part-time environmental educators to assist the Education Department in designing and implementing educational programs for our Homeschool, Intersession Camps, Afterschool, and Adult Education Courses. This is a part-time position. Hours may vary between 12-35 hours per week (some weekends required) depending on applicant’s availability, and program needs.

REQUIREMENTS :

• Applicants should have experience working with children in an informal or formal teaching setting
• Applicants should be comfortable
• Applicants should be comfortable being outside in all types of weather.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to take initiative and handle multiple tasks to help programs run smoothly
• Energetic, flexible and willing to work individually and within a team
• Experience designing curriculum is preferred but not required
• Candidates must be 18 years old and a high school graduate.

To apply: send a resume and cover letter to karenm@piedmontwildlifecenter.org

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PWC has been my life and my passion for the past 12 1/2 years, not only because we have connected thousands of children and adults to nature, but also because we have been blessed with the best staff, the best volunteers and amazing participants!

In the early years we had hundreds of dedicated volunteers and committed staff with one goal in life: to rescue as many wild animals as possible and return them as healthy animals back into the wild.  Over 15,000 wildlife passed through our wildlife clinic, with over half of those successfully released into the wild before the recession caused the closure of the wildlife clinic.

For the past 9 years, PWC has expanded its nature education programs to connect more children and adults to nature.  Under the leadership of our first Director of Education, Sarah Haggerty, we developed one of the best children’s day camps in North Carolina, started the Piedmont Earthskills Gathering (a family friendly week of camping and primitive skill building), and created a teen leadership program that has graduated dozens of teens who will become environmental leaders of the future.  Many of those teen leaders began as young children in our camps and it has been gratifying to watch these children grow into mature young adults!  Our newest Director of Education, Karen McCall has been with PWC for the past 5 years and brings a wealth of skills and experience to take PWC’s education programs to a new level. Be ready for more teen and family camping opportunities as well as some other new ideas!

Our conservation programs have expanded over the past 6 years due to the leadership of our first Director of Conservation, Sara Steffen.  I started our raptor and wildlife ambassador program shortly after moving to our current headquarters in Leigh Farm Park in 2007.  Sara has expanded the program, developed policies and procedures to maintain consistency with our dedicated core of raptor & animal care volunteers, and turned our wildlife ambassador program into one of the best conservation education programs in North Carolina!  Our eastern box turtle project is on the leading edge of research about the movements, habits and habitats of eastern box turtles in hopes of securing protection for this very important species that appears to be disappearing from our natural landscape.  Check out the PWC website to learn how you can help!  Sara has always been my right had person when I needed help and she helped me with the Annual Gala & Auction from the first time she set foot in Leigh Farm Park. I expect great things to come from our internships, box turtle project and other conservation projects!

Thanks to all of our staff and volunteers for making my job so easy!  We have trained so many staff and teens who have gone on to other jobs throughout the country and are proud of what they have achieved and will achieve in their lives.  We have also seen thousands of children grow and mature as they progressed through our camps, afterschool & homeschool programs and we have taught dozens of interns how to gather data on box turtles, to care for our wildlife ambassadors and to teach conservation education programs. Thanks also to the many volunteers who have taken on the added responsibility of being a board member – your efforts and leadership go unnoticed but are so very important to the stability of the organization. Thanks also to all of our parents who have entrusted their children with us and who gladly picked up muddy but happy children at the end of the day.

I couldn’t have asked for a better place to spend the last years of my professional career!  I have learned so much from my staff and the kids! I hope I have taught a few things that people will remember.  The best thing of all is that I get to come back as a volunteer to join the raptor team and coordinate the construction of our new vulture cage!!  I will be spending every week at PWC doing all of the things I love to do!

Much love,

Gail

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For more information, visit www.ncsciencefestival.org.

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