Chuck Sutherland

Edgar Evins State Park is tucked among the hills and hollars above Center Hill Dam and surrounding Center Hill Lake. It is a fine state park for those who enjoy fishing and lake access. There are several enjoyable hiking trails there as well. At Edgar Evins what I appreciate the most are the wildflowers. Spring, Summer, and Fall one finds a different assortment of flowers to enjoy and photograph. The most obvious trail, running behind the nature center, is perhaps the best for wildflowers. With so much lake frontage, especially in the Winter, one can also find plenty of Mississippian fossils along the shores of Center Hill Lake. As far as I know the park doesn't let you take fossils home, which is just as well since I have so very many rocks at home already. Many of the best fossils are found in-situ (in the bedrock) so it wouldn't be practical to try to take them home. Map Fullscreen map. Plants Fungi Center Hill Lake

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...

Burgess Falls State Park is a beautiful place to visit, and I'm excited to tell you about it! The park is located in middle Tennessee, about 12 miles southwest of Cookeville. It's home to four waterfalls that cascade down over 250 feet in elevation through Missisippian, Devonian, and Ordovician rocks. The falls are surrounded by lush forests, abundant wildlife, and beautiful exposed geology in the form of riverscour and cliffs, making it a great place to go hiking, fishing, and camping. This is the kind of park that you can be comfortable bringing kids, or your grandma to. Fullscreen map. The final waterfall, Burgess Falls (proper) is only accessible from below. One has to take a boat from Center Hill Lake to get to the base of Burgess Falls. If you don't have a boat or kayak, do not worry. Several outfitters run trips there throughout the year, and especially so in the summer. In the late 19th century, a gristmill and sawmill were built on the Falling Water Ri...

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...

This time of year I get excited for the emergence of native wildflowers. I enjoy using iNaturalist to aid in documenting what I find, and I especially enjoy the technical aspects of macro photography (which I am admittedly not really great at). Here are a few photos that I've taken in the last few weeks that I thought others may enjoy.

For the purpose of this blog post I will be treating Standing Stone State Park and Standing Stone State Forest as a single entity. However, they are distinct, and are managed by different entities with different objectives. Both the State Park and State Forest are located entirely within Overton County, Tennessee about 10 miles northwest of the city of Livingston. Fullscreen map. Standing Stone State Park Standing Stone State Park is approximately 1000 acres surrounding Standing Stone Lake. It is itself surrounded by 8000 acres of State Forest of the same name. The park is a celebration of the efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). The large earthwork dam is made of hewn sandstone. Being a State Park, this area is managed for recreation. Camping there is popular at their rustic cabins. Most people come for hiking trails, fishing, and for paddle boats or kayaking on the small lake. Standing Stone State Forest There seems to be a degree of confusion as to the mea...