A Natural Commonwealth
by Greg Abernathy, KNLT Assistant Director Kentucky is a place of great natural beauty defined by both its cultural and natural heritage. This commonwealth of lush forests and flowing rivers sustains and inspires, yet has been exploited for nearly two centuries. Kentucky’s resiliency, as well as the world’s, is dependent upon functioning natural systems that […]
A Normal Day on the Mountain
By Marc Evans, KNLT Board Chair On a recent visit to Pine Mountain I decided, as I often do, to drive a little bit on the Little Shepherd Trail before heading home. As you may know, there is no “little bit” on the Little Shepherd Trail, so I often argue with myself about whether or […]
A Deep Ecologist Remembered
We wanted to offer a few words of remembrance for Doug Tompkins, a renowned conservationist who died in Chile last week in a kayaking accident. Doug had a remarkable life filled with adventure and many notable accomplishments including founding North Face and Esprit, protecting vast stretches of Chile and Argentina and establishing the Foundation for […]
KNLT Fall Artists’ Retreat 2015
KNLT, in collaboration with writer Erik Reece, and visual artist and writer Zoe’ Strecker, recently hosted our second artists’ retreat. We invited over 20 artists to Pine Mountain for the weekend to engage them in our Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor project and to show them the splendor of the mountain in hopes they would be […]
Thinking Like a Mountain
We recently honored Hugh Archer for his 10 years of outstanding service as executive director of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. Hugh was a founding member of KNLT in 1995 and became director in 2005. KNLT Board Chair Marc Evans presented Hugh a picture of a green-eyed wolf. This image was originally created for our […]
The Flying Snakes of Knobby Rock
by Marc Evans, KNLT Board Chair, and Tom Dupree, Sr., businessman, philanthropist & founding member of KNLT’s Board It was the spring of 1992. I was just starting to explore a large tract of what appeared to be old growth forest on Pine Mountain, in Harlan County, Kentucky. As the ecologist for the Kentucky State […]
KNLT Spring Artists’ Retreat 2015
KNLT, in collaboration with writer Erik Reece, and visual artist and writer Zoe’ Strecker, recently hosted an artists’ retreat on Pine Mountain. The outing was aimed at engaging a diverse group of artists around our Pine Mountain Wildlands Project in hopes that the beauty of the mountain and our efforts to protect it would inspire […]
WWF Living Plant Report
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released its biennial Living Plant Report in 2014 documenting a startling decline in vertebrate (e.g. mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes) populations worldwide. WWF’s Living Planet Index (LPI), a measure of trends in thousands of vertebrate species populations, showed a decline of 52 per cent between 1970 and 2010. This means […]
KNLT & the Royal Visit
KNLT staff members were honored to have been included in the events held for the Royal visit to Louisville last week. Our staff had a unique opportunity to briefly discuss our work on Pine Mountain with Prince Charles. He asked several question and was particularly interested in knowing whether the Monarch butterflies use the mountain […]