Chuck Sutherland

The night of Thursday February 6th, 2025, a small EF-1 tornado passed through parts of Jackson, Putnam, and Overton Counties. The above image is of a field on Lynn Hill Road. The flattened trees are all pines, and are facing east. I took GPS points where I observed significant damage, at no less than 50' intervals. The linear trend quickly revealed itself and I extrapolated where to go to get more data. This was what I collected.

Goldenrod crab spider ( Misumena vatia ) All photos by my beautiful wife, Kelli Lewis-Sutherland. My wife and her best friend, Laurel Abernathy have an annual tradition of visiting the Black Mountain segment of the Cumberland Trail yearly in late August or early September so that they can photograph crab spiders. Many years ago they discovered that the swaths of Maryland golden-aster ( Chrysopsis mariana ) growing alongside the trail there are also home to the adorable goldenrod crab spider ( Misumena vatia ). Approximately one in ten of the flowers has a little white or yellow spider hiding and waiting for its next meal. Ghost pipe ( Monotropa uniflora ) We were guaranteed to get our best photos yet, because we now have a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L macro lens and a ring flash. For a little less than a year, we've been experimenting and learning from this combination and have taken lots of pretty decent macros of tiny critters and flowers. We met up with Laurel and her daught...

Every spring my photographic activity emerges from its winter slumber and I begin re-learning everything I once knew about wildflowers again. I love this time of year when I can start wearing shorts again, and see the familiar wildflowers return to our roadsides and hollers. While I thoroughly enjoy capturing the beauty of wildflowers, I also like to think about how they ended up in their current location. As a practitioner of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I find this question particularly intriguing. I provide this not as an empirical study, but rather a casual conversation to introduce readers to GIS concepts as related to wildflowers. The locations where I find my favorite wildflowers share a few common traits: steep slopes facing different directions (known as "aspect" in GIS) and intermittent water sources resulting from nested water tables. By seeking out these characteristics, I am more likely to find ideal habitats for wildflowers. Usin...

As any conservation minded individual will tell you, having a cave location be public knowledge is usually a recipe for disaster. It's a very well documented phenomena that people break cave formations, vandalize caves with spray paint and other mediums, and leave gross amounts of trash behind. Even well meaning hikers and outdoors people may not realize the nuance of landowner relations and by accessing private property may upset relationships that cavers have worked hard to develop so that we may have access to caves. The proliferation of geodata in many accessible forms is eroding the secrecy that the caving community has long used to protect underground resources. Here's a guide with suggestions on how one can protect these sensitive places from occuring on Internet. Jump to... Google Maps OSM - Open Street Map Google Maps The first thing to realize about Google maps is that deleting a feature is nearly impossible. It's possible to "take ownership...

Geography Window Cliffs State Natural Area is located on the Eastern Highland Rim of Tennessee . It is a few miles south of Cookeville, and within Putnam County. It is within the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, and within Middle Tennessee. Cane Creek flows through the designated natural area before its confluence with the Falling Water River at Center Hill Lake. Botany In the valley alongside Cane Creek one can find abundant flowering patches of phacelia, phlox, and trilliums. Along the rocky ledges and cliffs watch for bright red flowers of columbine. In a few places you'll also see usnea clinging to dead trees and be reminded of Spanish moss. Geology Cliffs of Fort Payne Limestone atop steep slopes of Chattanooga Shale are the obvious geology throughout the park. The base of the valleys is Catheys-Leipers Limestone, but doesn't play a large roll in the story that one sees at the Window Cliffs. In the above recreation of a map made by Hugh Mill...