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The Sixty-Second Annual Roan Mountain Fall Naturalists Rally will be held the weekend of September 6-8. The rally will feature a host of talented and knowledgeable guest speakers, interpretive hike leaders, and demonstrators, who offer a myriad of nature experiences for all ages.

This year’s guest speakers include Holly Taylor, Interpretive Ranger, Tennessee State Parks, on Friday evening  at 7:30; Gabby Lynch of the Nature Conservancy on Saturday evening at 7:30;  Marty Silver, Warriors Path State Park, during lunch at noon; and Cade Campbell, Naturalist, on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Daytime field trips leave from the field next to the park cabin entrance on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Additional demonstrations will take place at the park Conference Center from 11 a.m . to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday which include Fossil Casting and Flint Knapping.

All of these wonderful outdoor opportunities meet at locations in Roan Mountain State Park and are held in the State Park, in addition to traveling to the highlands of the Roan.

The Friday evening program will feature Tips for Fall Birding by Holly Taylor, who graduated in 2009 from Tennessee Technological University with a B.S. degree in Conservation Biology. Taylor spent six years working as a seasonal interpretive ranger at Edgar Evins State Park and two years as a wildlife presenter for the National History Education Company of the Southeast (now Animology). Beginning in 2018 she filled the role of Assistant State Naturalist working with Randy Hedges leading hikes, tours, classes and a variety of interpretive programs featuring the state’s rich natural heritage.

Taylor currently works as an Interpretive Ranger, specializing in natural resources. She also serves as the chapter coordinator for the Tennessee Naturalist Program based out of Cummins Falls State Park. While she has a strong interest in anything related to the natural world, she is particularly fond of birds, flora and invertebrates. She loves nothing more than exploring Tennessee and learning about the wonders of nature and igniting that sense of wonder with others. She and her husband Mark, a Park Ranger, live on a farm in Middle Tennessee with a plethora of animals and their son, Ian.

Taylor at the Roan Mountain program will suggest tips for fall birding and will explore best practices for traditional birding as well as utilizing modern technology as a helpful tool for success.

The Saturday After Lunch Program will feature “Insects & Traditional Medicine” by ETSU undergraduate researcher Cade Campbell, who will discuss his studies with the Whitaker Lab. He has been working to document the interactions of native insects and Appalachian medicinal plants compared to species used in the folk tradition.

The Saturday evening program will feature Gabrielle “Gabby” Lynch on “Conserving the Stage:  The Nature Conservancy’s Strategies for a Resilient Appalachian Landscape ”

Lynch began her conservation career with The Nature Conservancy’s Tennessee Chapter in 1993. She directs the Chapter’s statewide land acquisition program and has closed over 250,000 acres of conservation real estate transactions, with particular focus in the Appalachian landscape. Lynch also manages the Shady Valley Stream and Wetland Mitigation Bank, where the Chapter protects and restores endangered aquatic resources and species. She also serves on the Doe Mountain Recreation Authority Board, which began as an 8,600-acre land acquisition project that is now locally managed as a multi-use recreation trails system in an “At-Risk” rural east Tennessee county. Lynch was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and holds a B.S. degree in Forestry & Wildlife from Virginia Tech. She lives in Boone, N.C., with her daughter, Dovie.

Friday’s program will include a buffet dinner at 6:30 p.m., which must be pre-paid by Sept. 3.

A night walk is scheduled at 9 p.m. by Cade Campbell.

Saturday field trips will include moth viewing, birds, beginning birds, wildflowers, useful plants, mushrooms, spiders, snakes, stream ecology, fossil casting for all ages, and flint knapping

A bag lunch will be served at 12 noon by pre-paid reservation or you can bring your own lunch.

Afternoon field trips will include wildflowers, geology of Roan Mountain, wildlife tracking, mosses and liverworts, salamanders, Appalachian Cove forest exploration, and butterflies.

A buffet dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. at the Roan Mountain State Park Conference Center with pre-paid reservations by Sept. 3. A program and night walk will follow.

Sunday field trips will include birds, rare plants of the Roan Highlands, Salamanders, butterflies and other insects, birds of prey, and mushrooms.

Rally directors are Gary Barriger and Larry McDaniel. To register for the rally, go to Friends of Roan Mountain website: www.friendsofroanmtn.org