Upstate lecture: Bunched Arrowhead, Our Rarest Plant

April Upstate Meeting: Saving the Bunched Arrowhead, Our Rarest Plant

Tuesday, April 19 @ 6:30 pm8:30   Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 832 7104 9525
Passcode: 384192

 

The Bunched Arrowhead (Sagittaria fasciculata) is one of the nation’s rarest plants.  It is an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, and it exists only in two counties on earth – mostly in Greenville County and some in Henderson County, NC.  In Greenville County, it lives only in Piedmont Seepage Forests, a rare wetland type, in a band from Berea through Travelers Rest and Taylors to the outskirts of Greer.  It is found in the headwaters of the Reedy, Enoree, and Tyger Rivers.

Because of its limited range and because it is dependent upon these special groundwater-fed wetlands, the Bunched Arrowhead’s continued existence is precarious.  Its habitat has historically been eliminated by farming, livestock, and textile pollution.  Now, it faces the additional threat of development sprawl into northern Greenville County.

Over the last decade, the Native Plant Society has worked with local communities, the SC Department of Natural Resources, Upstate Forever, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Naturaland Trust to preserve Bunched Arrowhead habitat and to fight off development that would destroy these plants and their wetlands.  In northern Greenville County, the Bunched Arrowhead has become a symbol of the fight of local communities against development that would alter forever the rural landscape.

The Program

In this program, Frank Holleman will describe the plant, its habitat, and the fight to save it.  Frank is President of Naturaland Trust, which has acquired a number of Bunched Arrowhead wetlands for conservation, and a Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has represented the Society and others in battles to protect this plant and its habitat.  Frank is also a member of the Society’s Upstate Board and a native plant volunteer.

  Holleman is President of Naturaland Trust, founded 45 years ago to protect South Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains.  Frank is also a Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, a regional legal and advocacy nonprofit; coordinates SELC’s coal ash work across the Southeast; and works on clean water issues.  Prior to joining SELC, for about 25 years Frank practiced law at Wyche, Burgess, Freeman, and Parham in Greenville, S.C.  Frank served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Education, as Chief of Staff to U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley, and as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice.

Frank was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and Judge Harrison Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  Frank is a graduate of Furman University (magna cum laude), Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), and the London School of Economics and Political Science (M.Sc.).  In 2010, he received the Environmental Awareness Award from the State of South Carolina and in 2018 the Carl F. Kohrt Distinguished Alumni Award from the Furman University Alumni Association.  Frank and Anne live in Greenville and have three adult children and three grandchildren.


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Meeting ID: 832 7104 9525
Passcode: 384192
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Upstate Blackwell HP work morning RESCHEDULED

Posted on |

NEW DATE

Due to the very wet weather prediction for this coming Saturday, the Blackwell HP work morning has been postponed to the following Saturday, January 18.  All other information remains the same, as you can see below.
We hope you will come out on this new date to pull, pummel, and pulverize some Privet!  The Bunched Arrowhead will appreciate you for “taking out” the non-native competition.

THE DETAILS REMAIN THE SAME

NPS along with and Naturaland Trust is holding a work morning to remove invasive plants (Privet mostly) from a newly acquired addition to Blackwell Heritage Preserve near Travelers Rest.  The new property contains two federally protected plant species. It was saved from development through cumulative collaborative efforts by Upstate Forever, the Southern Environmental Law Center, SC Native Plant Society, Greenville County, Naturaland Trust, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Heritage Trust Program of the SC Department of Natural Resources.  (Details at https://www.upstateforever.org/news/ultrarare-plant-habitat-protected-in-travelers-rest)  Thanks also to local residents who raised the alarm about the proposed development and the harm it threatened to the Preserve and the surrounding community.  They joined with conservation groups to fight the proposed development.

The work morning is now Saturday, January 18, 9am to no later than Noon.  Wear long sleeves and long pants.  There is poison ivy on the site.  Wear gloves, bring shovels or mattocks as we will be pulling up and digging up privet.  Some of the ground is damp, so wear shoes or boots that you can get muddy.

DIRECTIONS

Directions:  From Greenville and points south:  Head up Poinsett Highway towards Travelers Rest and take Highway 25 north.   Just as you leave the Travelers Rest business district, turn right on Blue Ridge Drive. Continue up Blue Ridge Drive.  The parking area will be on the left in the pasture on the Heritage Trust property, marked with blue paint on the trees on the left side of the road.

From north of Travelers Rest:  take Highway 25 south and turn left on Blue Ridge Drive, before entering the Travelers Rest business district.  Then follow directions above.

To sign-up for the work party and receive any last-minute information, please contact Virginia Meador at vmeador@camperdown.org