There’s still a lot of work to do
Marshall Forest and Black’s Bluff remain important to conservationist Malcolm Hodges.
When your job is your passion, it’s not easy to walk away, but Malcolm Hodges, director of stewardship for the Nature Conservancy of Georgia, is making plans to do just that.
However, before he retires, Hodges wants to tie up some loose ends at sites the conservancy owns or manages in Floyd County.
Hodges visited Marshall Forest on Saturday, leading 16 Berry College first-year students in a hands-on lesson about stewardship.
The 300-acre forest off Horseleg Creek Road is one of the few places in Northwest Georgia you can still see sections of old pine-hardwood timber.
The students picked up trash on the side of Horseleg Creek Road, spread gravel on the unique Braille
Trail and cleared invasive species that threaten to take over the native environment.
Invasive species are a particular thorn in Hodges’ side.
“They’re usually very aggressive plants. They don’t have any enemies locally and because they don’t have enemies that means there’s no insects that tend to eat them …,” Hodges said.
Chinese privet, Chinese wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle and English ivy are big problems in the forest.
The English ivy suppresses native vegetation and can quickly transform a diverse environment into a monoculture. The Chinese privet does essentially the same thing.
Hodges led the Berry students in an effort to eradicate as many of the invaders as they could Saturday.
One of the most recent projects Hodges and Conservancy leaders have undertaken in Rome involves the addition of a small spur trail off Dorsey Trail at Marshall Forest. It follows the contour of what Hodges believes was an old Civilian Conservation Corps trail right along the edge of the mountainside.
“It touches into a remnant longleaf (pine) that is up on the high ridge there. We didn’t even know about this grove (montane longleaf pine) when we bought that tract,” Hodges said
The montane longleaf pine-hardwood forest has been identified as an ecosystem at risk. Marshall Forest also includes a population of large flowered skullcaps, a plant species that is also threatened.
Hodges said that a big loose end he was able to tie up earlier in the year involved a controlled burn between Cave Spring and the Alabama state line. The land is actually owned by the forest products giant Weyerhaeuser, but managed by the conservancy. Rare and endangered Mohr’s Barbara’s button and Whorled sunflowers are found in the Coosa Valley prairies.
Another project on Hodges’ “to do” list involves an improvements to the parking lot at the trail into the 263-acre Black’s Bluff Preserve alongside the Coosa River.
“Things are looking lush there, the trail has been trimmed back it’s always tricky to find that little hidden trail,” Hodges said. “I really want to develop that little parking area so people can pull off and not be afraid of getting stuck there.”
Hodges said he hasn’t set an official date for his retirement yet, but when he does leave the Nature Conservancy payroll he made it very clear he plans to be back in the woods handling some sort of special projects from time to time.