Planned
Activities for March Now Online
South Cumberland's
planned activities are now online at
www.friendsofscsra.org/activities.htm Wildflower season is
only a few weeks away, assuming it quits snowing?
What a winter! It's Spring or else.
The Friends
Board Needs Young Blood!
A personal note from Ron the
webmaster: When John Christof and Charlie Tate from TDEC
and a small group of park lovers and I founded the Friends of
South Cumberland in 1993, I was 46 years old and our first board
members were all in our 30's and 40's. Fortunately we are
all still kicking but we aren't nearly as young as we used to
be.
When I looked around the room
at our board meeting last Saturday, the median age of our board
is now about 60, or perhaps a little older (but certainly NOT
because of the ladies on the board).
The board needs a secretary
(a job I did for 5 years after I was president) and our
wonderful treasurer and coordinator team, Phil and Patricia
Johnson, will be retiring at the annual meeting in June.
We are looking for someone to serve as treasurer as well as a
new coordinator (which is a paid part time position).
Serving on the Friends Board
has been one of the most rewarding activities in my life as well
as a great education I never expected about fundraising, land
acquisition, campaign management, nonprofit corporation
management and a whole host of other issues I never would have
experienced without serving.
It takes dedicated people to
make the Friends organization work. We are fortunate to
have had members with this spirit serve on the board the past 17
years.
I challenge you to consider
your interest in serving our wonderful Park. It is time
for the next generation to step up. You will be glad you
did.
Pictures in the
Park Contest 2010
The second annual
pictures in the park contest is alive and well and ready for
action. In fact, we have already had two
photo entries!
The contest, which runs through
May 31, 2010, is open to all ages. Suggested topics are: people
enjoying the park, landscapes, wildlife, and plants. Photos may
be realistic or creative/abstract. Those that show recognizable
park features are encouraged.
Read
the contest rules and how to enter your photographs online here.
You can also view last year's entries and winning photographs.
Make Your Plans for Cumberland
Wild at the Trails and Trilliums Event
St. Andrews Sewanee is holding the Trails and
Trilliums event again this year.
Save the date: April 17-18
The Keynote event is Cumberland Wild—
“Plateau 2020: Envisioning the Future” A panel discussion on the
Alliance for the Cumberlands’ initiative for sustainable growth on
the plateau, organized by The Friends of South Cumberland State
Recreation Area.
Friends board member and president-elect, Mary
Priestley, will be honored as the Harry Yeatman Environmental
Award Recipient and South Cumberland State Recreation Area Park
Manager, John Christof, will be honored as the Trails &
Trilliums Service Award recipient.
More information will follow about how you can
register for the event online.
Bad News for Tennessee's Bats
The State of Tennessee announced Tuesday that
White Nose Syndrome has been discovered in Sullivan County in far
northeastern Tennessee. Concerns about WNS spreading was the
reason for the closure of caves on State property last year,
including Buggytop and Peter caves at South Cumberland.
Read the press release here in PDF and read
White Nose Syndrome FAQs here. We need to do all we can to
protect our bat populations in Tennessee. Learn more about it.
Facebook Update
The Friends Facebook page is progressing nicely
and we have at the moment 258 fans.
Visit the Facebook page and sign up as a fan or make your post.
Do You Joomla?
Your humble webmaster is making plans to redesign
for the 4th time the Friends website. Joomla is a content
management system that allows more than one person to add content to
the website and which also has all kinds of cool functionality that
can be added without being a propeller head programmer (which I am
not). If you know Joomla and are interested in participating,
please email me. The changeover will not happen until June
AFTER the photo contest but we can get the new structure set up on
my server and get to work in the near future.
Best wishes and thank you for all you do for
South Cumberland,
Ron
Castle
Webmaster & Board Member
Friends
of South Cumberland State Recreation Area, Inc.
South Cumberland State Park
11745 US 41
Monteagle, Tennessee 37356-7609 USA
Visitor
Center & Park Headquarters 931 924-2980
Park
Headquarters FAX 931 924-2956
Stone Door Ranger Station 931 692-3887
Savage Gulf Ranger Station 931 779-3532
Ron's
Phone 931.962.8665
roncastle@roncastle.com
Skype
ID roncastle
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