Notes from the Field: A Visit to Crawford County
by ORLT Land Steward Sammy Pickering
r a year-long hiatus, I’m excited to have resumed my stewardship role with ORLT,
monitoring both familiar and newly protected conservation easements. I recently returned to a favorite conservation easement in Crawford County, Georgia. As I drove south to the 180-acre property just below the fall line and amidst the Sandhills ecoregion, I wondered what I might see. In the past I have seen many beautiful species of forbs including an abundance of Amsonia and cottony golden aster. Once I saw a stunning adult gopher tortoise enthusiastically eating low- growing blackberry blossoms. The property has mesic hardwood forest along perennial and intermittent streams that are a part of the Flint River watershed. In the higher sandier areas of the property, periodic prescribed burns are conducted to manage stands of loblolly pine. Post oak, persimmon, blackjack oak, southern red oak, and turkey oak persist here too.
As I arrived I headed in the direction of the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrow I’ve seen many times before. It is a large sandy burrow, usually with many over-lapping animal tracks of different shapes and sizes leading to it. Gopher tortoises are listed as threatened in the state of Georgia and are a keystone species providing habitat to over 300 species including the eastern indigo snake and gopher frog. Their burrows can go down as much as 10 feet and span well over 30 feet long.
Along the way to the known burrow I spotted another smaller burrow I’ve never noted in past visits. About 30 yards further I found a gorgeous gopher tortoise right in my path! It was a much smaller tortoise than the one I saw before— slightly smaller than the length of my hand. If that wasn’t enough to delight, not far from the the tortoise I was elated to see an abundance of three flowering forbs— pinkscale gayfeather (Liatris elegans), American jointweed (Polygonella americana), and combleaf yellow false foxglove (Aureolaria pectinata). I was thrilled to note this species of Liatris with a white inflorescence—something I had never seen before. Crab spiders were hunting in the flowers of the American jointweed as pollinators flew around. I then inspected the bright tubular flowers of the endemic combleaf yellow false foxglove and felt its incredibly sticky glandular hairs from its leaves coat my fingers.
Monitoring these properties not only excites me for what (or who!) I might encounter, but also reminds me of the vital role these conservation easements serve. They are refuges for many ecological communities, often harboring more biodiversity and complexity than we expect
