WALNUT CREEK PRESERVE INC
815 Southn Main Street, Jacksonville, FL 32207 www.walnutcreekpreserve.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: (cont. from pg 1) provide programs to the public focusing on nature education, the health and intellectual benefits of spending time in nature, the culture of this region and other topics relating to the human, plant and animal environment of the Southern Appalachians.

The mission of Walnut Creek Preserve is to serve as a regional location in Polk County, and adjacent to Rutherford County, NC, using the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center and adjacent private forest lands to (continued on page 2)

Walnut Creek Preserve, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and received its non-profit I.RC. 509(a)(3) entity status in late October 2017 as a Supporting Organization to Conserving Carolina, a North Carolina not for profit land trust with offices located in Hendersonville, North Carolina and Columbus, North Carolina. In 2017 and the first half of 2018 Walnut Creek Preserve, Inc. operated out of a facility owned by Grassy Knob Lands, L.L.C., a North Carolina limited liability company. This facility is known as the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center, a building housing a classroom and other rooms in Mill Spring, North Carolina, south of the town of Lake Lure and north of the towns of Tryon and Columbus. Walnut Creek Preserve, Inc. offers nature centered educational programs to the public without charge, specifically providing paid speakers on topics ranging from native animal species like bears, coyotes, wolves, butterflies, and plant species including

trees, wildflowers, native gardens, climate issues and other similar topics. Prior to the incorporation of Walnut Creek Preserve, Inc., the programs were cosponsored by the local land trust Pacolet Area Conservancy and the then owner of the Nature Center, Grassy Knob Lands, L.L.C. From the program's inception Pacolet Area Conservancy held a fund of donations given by the public to support these nature programs at the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center. In July 2017, Pacolet Area Conservancy merged with another regional land trust, Conserving Carolina. Like Pacolet Area Conservancy, Conserving Carolina relies on the relationship with Walnut Creek Preserve, Inc. to provide a location for its educational programs and Conserving Carolina took over the dedicated fund for paying speakers. Once this fund is depleted Walnut Creek Preserve will take on responsibility not only for housing the programs but also for paying speakers.

These programs have had an enthusiastic following with over 500 attendees in 2018. . In addition to the monthly speaker series, Walnut Creek Preserve offers hikes in the adjacent forest owned by Grassy Knob Lands; these hikes are open to the public and publicized through the Conserving Carolina website. They are generally limited to 10 to 15 attendees per hike so that the group can have an opportunity to learn about native plants from the leader. The third program is a partnership with Muddy Sneakers, Inc., a North Carolina not for profit headquartered in Brevard, North Carolina. Muddy Sneakers has an educational program targeting 5th graders in the region. Beginning in 2017, students are bussed to the Nature Center and spend the day out in nature which serves as the children's classroom for teaching certain math and science principles. In 2018 this program brought 199 students to the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center and surrounding forest and this program continued through the 2019 school year. 2018 Monthly Programs at the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center January 20: John Vining, retired head of Polk County Extension Service: Invasives and how to manage them February 17: Carol Motley, Carolina Memorial Sanctuary: Green Burials and Other Ways to Have an Environmentally Friendly Send Off. March 10: Ann May, Education Coordinator, North Carolina Wildlife Commission: Scat (walk included, weather permitting) April 14: Presenters from the May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Banner Elk: Stories and animals May 26: Gill Newberry, Professor Emeritus of Botany, USC Upstate: Spring flowers and how to identify them (walk included, weather permitting) June 9: Rob Gudger, Wolfman, from Maggie Valley, NC Wolves and their Importance in Our Environment (Rob will come with a wolf tame enough to pet) July 14: Dean Campbell, historian: The Dark Corner and Its Many Secrets August 11: Steve O'Neill, Snakes - Some to Touch, Some Not September 29: Gill Newberry redux gives us a second chance to show we have learned how to identify trees and she will be patient with those of us who missed the May program. October: Nature's Bounty of Essential Oils November 3: Paul Bartels, Professor, Warren Wilson College, Those Cool Tardigrades and the Hidden World of Microinvertebrates

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