A Wild & Stellar Link In the Great Eastern Trail

Wildlands Blog: Pine Mountain is a vital migratory path for birds, butterflies, bears and even plants! It is like a “wild superhighway,” said Preston Lacy, Conservation Director for Kentucky Natural Land Trust (KNLT). The mountain has a spring flux of returning songbirds, fall hawk migration and at times rivers of butterflies. Pine Mountain also has […]
A Weekend on Pine Mountain: A Birder’s Perspective

Wildlands Blog: by Ronan O’Carra, Editor of The Kentucky Warbler, Kentucky Ornithological Society publication This fall The Kentucky Ornithological Society (KOS) hosted a meeting at Pine Mountain State Resort Park and I was glad to be able to attend. It was the second time I have attended a KOS meeting at Pine Mountain and it […]
20 Years of Wildlands Conservation

Wildlands Blog: KNLT is celebrating Donna Alexander and her 20 years of service to wildlands conservation. From Blanton Forest to Warbler Ridge Donna has played a key role in advancing conservation along Pine Mountain and throughout the Commonwealth. She has helped protect over 50,000 acres from the mountains of eastern Kentucky to the sloughs of […]
Eastern Spotted Skunk Research

Wildlands News by Sara Ash, KNLT Advisor The eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), a diminutive, nimble carnivore rarely seen by humans (Video 1), once occurred over a wide geographical area in eastern and central North America. However, its range and population size contracted over the past several decades. The cause for this decline is unclear, […]
Legacy of Leadership

Wildlands News by Kelly Bartley, KNLT Board Chair The scope, impact and success of KNLT’s conservation movement has grown in large part due to our board leadership. KNLT has been fortunate to have a stellar array of board members from across Kentucky and around the country who have committed themselves to protecting, connecting and restoring […]
Thinking Like a Planet

More than 50 years ago Aldo Leopold defined a land ethic with a call to “think like a mountain,” a holistic view of our place in the ecosystem. More recently J. Baird Callicott expanded Leopold’s concept by defining an Earth ethic with a call to “think like a planet,” a broader view of our place […]
KNLT Welcomes New Board and Staff Leadership

Kentucky Natural Lands Trust is happy to welcome new leadership into our Board of Directors and staff team. Kelly Bartley, an environmental law attorney with Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP, was recently elected Board Chair. Nicole Breyette joined the staff team in February as Development Director. The Board also elected a founding member, Bert Lyons, as […]
50th Earth Day | KNLT 25th

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the beginning of the modern environmental movement. So much has unfolded worldwide with this movement over the last 50 years although there is much more work to be done. Here in Kentucky, this movement includes the formation of KNLT, and this year we are celebrating our […]
AmeriCorps NCCC Partnership Continues

Altitude Fatigue, Changing Leaves & Near Constant Motion Sickness by Jared Foster AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Delta 2 Team Altitude fatigue, changing leaves and near constant motion sickness – this is how AmeriCorps NCCC Delta 2 Team started their time with the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. Little did they know what the next four […]
Fall Artists’ Retreat 2019

Since 2015 KNLT has been partnering with artists to advance the protection of wildlands. We held our eighth artists retreat on Pine Mountain last fall with a wonderfully creative group bringing the total number of retreat attendees to over 150 since we launched the program. The retreat offers an immersive weekend and engages artists in […]
Blazing Trails & Planting Trees on Pine Mountain

by Mequeil Huggar AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Coast 4 Team AmeriCorps NCCC Coast 4 team spent their last round in Harlan, Kentucky helping out Pine Mountain Settlement School and Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. The team Coast 4 is made of 8 members all from different parts of the United States ranging from California all […]
Golden Eagles in the Bernheim-Fort Knox Wildlands Corridor

KNLT’s work to protect the Bernheim-Fort Knox Wildlands Corridor is providing key habitat for golden eagles. Researchers have been monitoring two eagles, Harper & Athena, to learn more about how they’re using and navigating the landscape. The pair of golden eagles are using Bernheim as their overwintering base and have also been utilizing the surrounding […]
Mountaintop Air, Snow Filled Trees, & Log Cabin Living

by Rachel Gruebel AmeriCorps NCCC River 5 Team Mountaintop air, snow filled trees, and log cabin living. This is how the River 5 team started their time on Pine Mountain on November 26th. River 5 arrived to Kentucky straight from a disaster relief deployment; they supported the Hurricane Florence disaster response efforts in Bennettsville, South […]
Fall Artists’ Retreat 2018

KNLT held our annual artists’ retreat last fall on Pine Mountain. The retreat brought together an eclectic group of artists with different disciplines from various geographies to engage them in our Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor project. KNLT held the retreat at the Pine Mountain Settlement School and took attendees on a hike at Bad Branch […]
A Force of Nature: E. Lucy Braun

A Force for Nature: Lucy Braun is a newly released one-hour documentary about the life and legacies of E. Lucy Braun (1888-1971), one of the foremost ecologists in American history. KNLT is pleased to have played a small part in the film and is honored to be one of the many contributors. The documentary covers […]
Remembering KNLT Co-Founder Tom Dupree, Sr.

Kentucky Natural Lands Trust is celebrating the life of Tom Dupree, Sr., one of Kentucky’s greatest conservation supporters, who passed away last week. Tom Dupree, Sr. was a founding board member of KNLT and supported our efforts to preserve Kentucky’s wildlands for more than two decades. He was an early supporter of KNLT’s partnership with […]
Wildlands Conservation Commitment Continues with Planned Leadership Transition

By Marc Evans, KNLT Board Chair Kentucky Natural Lands Trust is rooted in sound conservation science, as well as passion and creativity. An intrepid and committed group of conservation-minded friends founded KNLT in 1995 with a determination to help save Kentucky’s largest remaining tract of old growth forest – actions that launched one of the […]
AmeriCorps NCCC Team River 50 Serves on Pine Mountain

by Jaclyn Ermoyan AmeriCorps NCCC Class 24 Corps Member, River 50 Media Representative Black bear sighting, mountaintop hiking, and log cabin living. This is how composite team River 50 started their time together on November 21st. The team served with Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT) in Harlan, KY, for four weeks to assist in trail […]