I was so excited to have Ali McGhee with me for Forest Friday. Not only is Ali the Director of the Asheville Grit and worked with us to make Dogwood Alliance’s 20 year anniversary the incredible storytelling festival of our dreams, but Ali is also a true Asheville native and was born and raised here. She has always had a deep connection to the land in these parts.
Recently, Dogwood Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and MountainTrue hosted an event at The Collider in Asheville on the future of our forests. We were so lucky to have Jim Furnish join us for that event. Jim Furnish is the author of Beyond Logging: Toward a Natural Forest a memoir of Jim’s time working for the National Forest Service and time spent as Deputy Chief.
We have had some marvelous #ForestFriday guests so far, but Art is our very first Feathered Forest Friday Friend! We took a trip to the WNC Nature Center to visit this fine fellow.
The air felt cold and sharp, and the sky was turning a milky white that blended into the fog, making the mountains vibrant with their red and brown leaves. This was my first time on this trail and my first time meeting Erin, a profound nature appreciator who embodies the practice of that appreciation at every level of her life. Erin also worked at Dogwood Alliance in its early days and created our first newsletter originally called, Understories.
Recently, Dogwood Alliance launched #ForestFriday, where we go out into the woods with a guest and celebrate forests together. Most recently, we had the privilege of venturing out with Bat Biologist, Drew Powell. Drew surveys bats in the summertime in West Virginia for Apogee Environmental.
