Aerial photo of . Photo by Aerial Surveys. ARS Middle Atlantic Chapter copyright©.

Gregory Bald:

From Species Study Group to Annual Treks, Azalea Photos, Aerial Photo, and a Mower

Sandra McDonald Hampton, Virginia

Jim Brant Gloucester, Virginia

Text on next page. More photos on page 66. Aerial photo of Gregory Bald, close-up of above photo. ARS Middle Atlantic Chapter copyright©.

JOURNAL AMERICAN RHODODENDRON SOCIETY 63 and photograph local native azaleas before 17th, 1995, and hiked Gregory Bald on starting our longer annual treks to the June 21, 1995. Present on this first trip mountains. were David and Debby Sauer, Bill Bedwell, Some of the mountains and scenic George McLellan, Don Hyatt and Ken and places we visited during our many annual Sandra McDonald. We made the mistake treks include , Andrews of not learning about bicycle access only Bald, Yellow Mountain, Pilot Mountain, and arrived early on a Wednesday morning , , Wine Springs and had to start our hike late. t one of our Middle Atlantic Chapter Bald and Copper Bald in ; Gregory Bald is a 4,949-foot bald A (MAC) meetings in 1989 the late on the Virginia/Kentucky mountain with a wonderful natural stand Terry Sheuchenko mentioned she and line; , , or swarm of native azaleas hybrids on it. several others of us were interested in , Providence Canyon, and The hike is 5.5 miles to the top on the trail studying the species of rhododendrons, and in ; the Blue most in use now for a round-trip total of 11 that we should form a MAC species study Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North miles. Our first trip was even longer because group. Our chapter liked the idea, and we Carolina; the Mountain to Sea Trail in we had to walk a couple miles on the road had the first meeting of our MAC Species North Carolina; Cherohala Parkway in instead of driving because of problems with Study Group on January 20, 1990, after North Carolina and ; part of the bridge. a MAC board meeting in Charlottesville, Mount LeConte in Tennessee; Gregory Our group changed over the years Virginia. Bald, Parson’s Bald, and the Highlands of with various members and visitors joining George McLellan became chairman Roan (Roan Mountain, Jane Bald, Round us in some years and dropping out in of the MAC Species Study Group. He Bald and ) on the Tennessee/ others. Some of the participants over the obtained some material for botanical North Carolina border; Dolly Sods in West years include a German film crew headed study of rhododendrons that also included Virginia; and and Grayson by Dr. Hartwig Schepker of “Botanika,” 8 units of slides (600 slides) from the Highlands in Virginia. a biodiversity project in the Botanic Rhododendron Species Foundation for Sandra and Ken McDonald had first Garden and Rhododendron Park Bremen, study over an approximately two-year taken a trip to Gregory Bald on June 23, Germany, along with a couple of porters to period. We also put together material of 1979, with Joan Winter, a member of carry the heavy camera equipment (June 20, our own for the study of plant taxonomy, the now disbanded Tidewater Chapter 2002); Anita and Doug Burke of Canada biosystematics, distributional history, ARS and after that the Middle Atlantic who are associate members of MAC (several propagation, and other topics related to Chapter. In talking to our Species Study trips); Tijs Huisman from the Netherlands the botany of rhododendrons. We usually Group, Sandra mentioned that she would (June 2006); Buddy Lee from Louisiana, had eight to twelve people attending our like to visit Gregory Bald again before she Karel Bernady from Pennsylvania, Tom meetings which also included luncheons. died since it was such a beautiful place. Nuccio from California, Brent Heath and At the first meetings we went through Our group then planned to make a trip Mike Andruczyk from Virginia, and Neil the classroom material, and then at later to Townsend, Tennessee, and the Great Jorgensen from Maine. meetings we went through the batches of Smoky Mountain National Park and to On one of our trips one of the group slide trays and found that the trays did not hike up to Gregory Bald. Townsend is climbed a tree to get a better view of contain much on East Coast native azaleas, the usual base camp for non-locals when Gregory Bald and when Jim Brant saw him and those particular slides were not up to making this long hike. After spending the up there he said we needed to get an aerial our expectations. We decided to explore for night in Townsend, it doesn’t take long to photo of the bald. We searched to see if ourselves the species throughout the East drive to in the park which is the there was an existing aerial photograph of Coast and photograph and make slides starting point. Cades Cove, an 11-mile one- the bald. Don Hyatt located on Microsoft’s of the natives for a slide presentation that way loop road in the park is closed to motor Terra Server a black and white image from could be given to our chapter and other traffic until 10:00 a.m. two mornings per USGS taken in March of 1992, and it was ARS meetings. week, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, the only aerial photograph the Park Service One of our early study group meetings to allow bicyclists and hikers to enjoy the had to do maintenance work up on the was at David and Debby Sauer’s home in road from May to September. It opens for bald. Chester, Virginia, and afterwards George motor vehicles at 10 a.m. on those days and Our study group started putting McLellan and Ken and Sandra McDonald at sunup on other mornings. together a possible project with the goal visited stands of Rhododendron atlanticum We made our first Species Study of studying the azaleas on the mountain, in southeastern Virginia on the way home. Group trip to the mountains of North preserving them on film, and eventually We visited a few other local sites to see Carolina and Tennessee the week of June describing what we could. The infor-mation

64 SPRING 2007 was to be used for educational purposes, dendron Manuscripts archives at Special brush and trees. The Park Service personnel presentations to ARS chapters and other Collections at the University of Virginia and volunteers couldn’t use the previous groups, using the Special Collections of Library. The first copy we had made of mower they had to do the job because it was ARS archives at the University of Virginia this was presented to Dale A. Ditmanson, purchased in 1990 and was in such poor Library as a repository for information Superintendent of the Great Smoky condition that it was unsafe to use. Our obtained, studying some selected azaleas, Mountain , for group went to the MAC board and to see getting GPS descriptions and descriptive use in the park. The framed picture that if they would approve of us writing a grant data, naming and registering some plants, we donated will be hung in Sugarland’s proposal for the ARS Endowment Fund to perhaps creating a web site, getting an Visitor’s Center in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. try get a suitable brush cutter for the upkeep aerial photo (possibly several over a period Kris Johnson, Ken Culbertson, and Steve of Gregory Bald. We drew up a proposal of years), and making a video to show Shaper of the National Park Service have in December 2005 and presented it to the individuals who could not make the trip. also been helpful in our work on this ARS Endowment Fund Committee which The aerial photo seemed like the project. approved it and forwarded it to the ARS next step since we had been observing According to National Park Service Board of Directors who gave their approval and studying some plants on an annual information the bald was first measured at the meeting in Rockville, Maryland, in basis already. Jim Brant got in touch with in 1944 at 15.7 acres surrounded by open May 2006. Continental Aerial Surveys in Alcoa, forest dominated by northern red oak trees The mower was quickly shipped to Tennessee. After several contacts with them with scattered old azaleas in the understory. Gregory Bald where it was used in the to see if they could take an aerial photo of By 1975 the grassy area of the bald was down summer of 2006 to help clear the weeds Gregory Bald, and get prices for it, we went to approximately 7.9 acres. By 1983 it was and brush from the bald to the joy of the to the MAC board to get funding for the down to approximately 7 acres. At that time workers who maintain the bald. project which included a large 30x40-inch Park Service started the clearing of trees and Our Study Group has put together color print, one set of contact prints, one other woody vegetation off the bald. The several presentations on various aspects AutoCad mapping file on CDROM, and first year employees and volunteers put in of the native azaleas. Several of us have scanned images of negatives on CDROM, over 1,000 hours of work clearing trees and given talks and slide presentations or video and six sets of 35 mm negatives of 6 frames. about 8 acres were restored to the bald as presentations about these trips. Some of The MAC board agreed to the funding and a result of these efforts, pushing back to the slides from these trips have ended up we were off and running. the old boundaries. Encroaching trees and on Web sites at the University of Virginia Once the funding was approved it took shrubs were blueberry, hawthorn trees, at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/ us three years of climbing the mountain to blackberry, and various other hardwood projects/rhodo/skinner/photographs.html get Continental Aerial Surveys to take the trees species including northern red oak, which contains the digital transcription of photograph at the proper time. The first red maple, sourwood, and service berry. Dr. Henry Skinner’s diaries of his famous year the bloom was terrible, and Jim had Each year tree seedlings must be cut out trip searching for native azaleas throughout to run down the mountain to make a call of the existing shrubby areas and new the Southeast. Some photographs are also (since cell phones don’t work up there) to seedlings in the grassy areas moved down on a Web site Don Hyatt maintains at cancel the flyover with Continental. The annually. After settlement the bald was kept http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/azaleas/. second year it was too foggy for the plane open by livestock grazing, but before that We are now looking at different projects to fly over the mountain. The third year the history is unclear. our group might undertake to help preserve on June 25, 2005, between 11:05 a.m. and In the spring of 2005 on our annual this bald. 11:14 a.m. at 800 feet above the mountain trip to the mountains we found by talking top the picture was finally taken. to the Park Service personnel that they were Sandra McDonald and Jim Brant are We then looked at the photographs, cutting the approximately 15 acres of the members of the Middle Atlantic Chapter. selected the one we wanted and had prints bald with weed eaters. That is a lot of weed Sandra, a recent ARS Gold Medal recipient, made for sale at the approximate cost of eating! In a discussion with them, Jim Brant is chair of the Archives Committee and the reproduction to anyone interested. The found that a field and brush mower would Editorial Committee. approximately 22x30-inch prints are still be a tremendous help to them. available with a CD for $30. (Contact Jim In recent years the Park Service had Brant at [email protected]) The CD been maintaining only two balds in the contains a jpg file of the bald and a slide mountains, one of which was Gregory show. Bald. All the mountains in the Smokies are The original photograph was 30x40 below tree line so it takes special effort to inches and was placed in the Rhodo- maintain a bald and keep back encroaching

JOURNAL AMERICAN RHODODENDRON SOCIETY 65 Neil Jorgensen, Tom Nuccio, Sandra McDonald, George McLellan, Ken McDonald, Pink azaleas and blueberries on Gregory Bald. Photo by Sandra McDonald. Jim Brant. Photo courtesy of Sandra McDonald.

White azalea, flushed pink, with yellow blotch on Gregory Bald. Photo by Sandra Sandra McDonald and Tom Nuccio on Gregory Bald. Photo by Ken McDonald, Jr. McDonald.

Andreas Bäurle and Enno Born setting up filming equipment on Gregory Bald. Photo Cream azalea from Gregory Bald swarm. Photo by Ken McDonald, Jr. by Ken McDonald, Jr.

Red azalea from Gregory Bald swarm. Photo by Sandra McDonald. Steven Shaper mowing on Gregory Bald with new mower MAC obtained through ARS Endowment Fund grant. Photo by Mike Zumwalt.

66 SPRING 2007