The DNR Wildlife Viewing Grants Program emphasizes species and habitats that are conservation priorities in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan. The plan is a comprehensive strategy to conserve native species and the habitats they need before these animals, plants and places become more rare and costly to conserve or restore. Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve is such a place.
US Hwy 84 was being four-laned in the 1990's between Cairo & Whigham, GA., when Angus Gholson, a Chattahoochee, FL botanist, received a call from someone he knew in the GA DOT saying that there were some pretty wildflowers along the highway near Wolf Creek Road in Grady County. For some years Gholson led small groups of wildflower enthusiasts to view the late winter flowers, identified as Trout Lilies, Erythronium umbilicatum.
One year during the bloom, Wilson Baker, a longtime biological surveyor in the southeastern states, decided to move further into the property to see if there were more flowers. What he found was breathtaking…millions of trout lilies, thousands of Spotted Trillium!
Wilson took Dan Miller, a native plant nurseryman with Trillium Gardens, in Tallahassee, FL. to Wolf Creek in the Spring of 2006. They decided then to begin their work towards preservation. They contacted the owners, Flint River Timber Company, who bought the property a few years earlier to select harvest specialty hardwoods and spruce pine. As it was at the height of the real estate boom, they planned to sell the property for a housing development.
Dan realized they had better get to work quickly to save this unique and irreplaceable treasure. This seemed such a daunting task. At first, he thought about purchasing only the 40-acre slope where most of the flowers were found. This would have left the upper acres for development, with resulting pollution and encroaching harm to the slope. But how to get up enough money to save the whole property?
In January of 2007, the timber company harvested select trees, building logging roads in the process. In February of that year, Dan, Wilson, and Dr. Gil Nelson hosted a field trip of the Magnolia Chapter (Tallahassee) of the Florida Native Plant Society. They found it was not hard to recruit volunteers and potential donors for the envisioned project.
Flint River Timber had no idea of the national treasure before them, until their visit to the property during the brief bloom season. Now supportive of the conservation effort, they agreed to wait a year before putting the property on the market.
Dan, Wilson, Gil, and others set about contacting all the environmental groups they thought might be interested in purchasing and conserving the forest. One after another large state and national groups said they did not have the funds for such a project or that the property was too small for their involvement. Many groups and individuals wanted to contribute, but none could handle the whole project. At last, their contacts led to the Georgia Land Conservation Program, which helped Georgia counties purchase properties for conservation. The grant would provide half of the needed money, if locals could match 50% of $665,000 plus costs. The title would then be held by Grady County for conservation in perpetuity. The Grady County Board of Commissioners agreed to the proposal.
Dan Miller worked with the Atlanta office of the GLCP and the Grady County attorney to write and submit the grant. It was approved December 2007. Many people had pledged to help, and the fund-raising began in earnest. Many people, families, and groups, both local and regional, enjoyed the 2008 bloom and made contributions as volunteers solicited funds. Especially helpful were the Magnolia Chapter (Tallahassee) of the Florida Native Plant Society, the Georgia Native Plant Society, and the Georgia Botanical Society.
Because the real estate market was declining, the owners agreed several times to extend the deadline and donate some of their potential profits. Finally, they agreed to take no profit at all. By the end of the 2009 bloom season, all but $45,000 had been collected. The opportunity for the grant would expire that summer. Dan began looking for loans, with the discouraging prospect of having to continue solicitation of funds to pay off the loans.
But serendipity, or Providence, intervened. Betty Jinright of Thomasville had been one of the few who had viewed the trout lilies along Hwy 84 in the years before Wilson had found the masses. She and her husband Robert were part of an informal group of nature explorers led by Angus Gholson. He named the group his Sparkleberry Club, because he made walking sticks for all the members out of sparkleberry wood. (Sparkleberry is found on the property and sparkleberry walking sticks are hand crafted by one of our volunteers.) Betty took many people to visit Wolf Creek during the 2008 and 2009 blooms. One day during the 2009 bloom, she was preparing for the Birdsong Plant Sale. She called a phone number she had written on a seed packet, thinking it was a plant sale contact and was surprised to find herself speaking to a friend who had no idea what she was talking about. As they visited, she mentioned Wolf Creek and invited her friend to go there. The woman was already familiar with and loved trout lilies from North Georgia. They had a wonderful visit to Wolf Creek, and the friend was appropriately wowed. Betty gave her a solicitation letter; the friend made no comment. That was that Betty thought.
Some weeks later, Dan received a phone call from Betty's friend. She had forgotten about the project but had just come across the solicitation paper and wanted to know what was still needed to complete the grant. Dan gave her the figure. She did not make any commitment. A few days later, Dan received a call from Grady County, saying they had received a check for the remainder of the match! She has remained anonymous, per her wishes. The deal was completed before the state deadline, and thus Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve was saved forever!
Everyone who had worked so hard to save the Preserve could finally relax and enjoy the 2010 bloom, sharing the unforgettable experience with friends and visitors, with no fear of failure, or no urgent need to collect money hanging over their heads.
All great projects require one brave and persistent soul to keep them going, no matter who all help. For Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve, this person has been Dan Miller. Everyone who has or ever will witness the sight of the millions and millions of trout lilies flowing over the curves of the slope owes him thanks. The Preserve is owned by Grady County and managed by a Volunteer Board which includes those early supporters like Dan and Wilson.
(2021)
US Hwy 84 was being four-laned in the 1990's between Cairo & Whigham, GA., when Angus Gholson, a Chattahoochee, FL botanist, received a call from someone he knew in the GA DOT saying that there were some pretty wildflowers along the highway near Wolf Creek Road in Grady County. For some years Gholson led small groups of wildflower enthusiasts to view the late winter flowers, identified as Trout Lilies, Erythronium umbilicatum.
One year during the bloom, Wilson Baker, a longtime biological surveyor in the southeastern states, decided to move further into the property to see if there were more flowers. What he found was breathtaking…millions of trout lilies, thousands of Spotted Trillium!
Wilson took Dan Miller, a native plant nurseryman with Trillium Gardens, in Tallahassee, FL. to Wolf Creek in the Spring of 2006. They decided then to begin their work towards preservation. They contacted the owners, Flint River Timber Company, who bought the property a few years earlier to select harvest specialty hardwoods and spruce pine. As it was at the height of the real estate boom, they planned to sell the property for a housing development.
Dan realized they had better get to work quickly to save this unique and irreplaceable treasure. This seemed such a daunting task. At first, he thought about purchasing only the 40-acre slope where most of the flowers were found. This would have left the upper acres for development, with resulting pollution and encroaching harm to the slope. But how to get up enough money to save the whole property?
In January of 2007, the timber company harvested select trees, building logging roads in the process. In February of that year, Dan, Wilson, and Dr. Gil Nelson hosted a field trip of the Magnolia Chapter (Tallahassee) of the Florida Native Plant Society. They found it was not hard to recruit volunteers and potential donors for the envisioned project.
Flint River Timber had no idea of the national treasure before them, until their visit to the property during the brief bloom season. Now supportive of the conservation effort, they agreed to wait a year before putting the property on the market.
Dan, Wilson, Gil, and others set about contacting all the environmental groups they thought might be interested in purchasing and conserving the forest. One after another large state and national groups said they did not have the funds for such a project or that the property was too small for their involvement. Many groups and individuals wanted to contribute, but none could handle the whole project. At last, their contacts led to the Georgia Land Conservation Program, which helped Georgia counties purchase properties for conservation. The grant would provide half of the needed money, if locals could match 50% of $665,000 plus costs. The title would then be held by Grady County for conservation in perpetuity. The Grady County Board of Commissioners agreed to the proposal.
Dan Miller worked with the Atlanta office of the GLCP and the Grady County attorney to write and submit the grant. It was approved December 2007. Many people had pledged to help, and the fund-raising began in earnest. Many people, families, and groups, both local and regional, enjoyed the 2008 bloom and made contributions as volunteers solicited funds. Especially helpful were the Magnolia Chapter (Tallahassee) of the Florida Native Plant Society, the Georgia Native Plant Society, and the Georgia Botanical Society.
Because the real estate market was declining, the owners agreed several times to extend the deadline and donate some of their potential profits. Finally, they agreed to take no profit at all. By the end of the 2009 bloom season, all but $45,000 had been collected. The opportunity for the grant would expire that summer. Dan began looking for loans, with the discouraging prospect of having to continue solicitation of funds to pay off the loans.
But serendipity, or Providence, intervened. Betty Jinright of Thomasville had been one of the few who had viewed the trout lilies along Hwy 84 in the years before Wilson had found the masses. She and her husband Robert were part of an informal group of nature explorers led by Angus Gholson. He named the group his Sparkleberry Club, because he made walking sticks for all the members out of sparkleberry wood. (Sparkleberry is found on the property and sparkleberry walking sticks are hand crafted by one of our volunteers.) Betty took many people to visit Wolf Creek during the 2008 and 2009 blooms. One day during the 2009 bloom, she was preparing for the Birdsong Plant Sale. She called a phone number she had written on a seed packet, thinking it was a plant sale contact and was surprised to find herself speaking to a friend who had no idea what she was talking about. As they visited, she mentioned Wolf Creek and invited her friend to go there. The woman was already familiar with and loved trout lilies from North Georgia. They had a wonderful visit to Wolf Creek, and the friend was appropriately wowed. Betty gave her a solicitation letter; the friend made no comment. That was that Betty thought.
Some weeks later, Dan received a phone call from Betty's friend. She had forgotten about the project but had just come across the solicitation paper and wanted to know what was still needed to complete the grant. Dan gave her the figure. She did not make any commitment. A few days later, Dan received a call from Grady County, saying they had received a check for the remainder of the match! She has remained anonymous, per her wishes. The deal was completed before the state deadline, and thus Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve was saved forever!
Everyone who had worked so hard to save the Preserve could finally relax and enjoy the 2010 bloom, sharing the unforgettable experience with friends and visitors, with no fear of failure, or no urgent need to collect money hanging over their heads.
All great projects require one brave and persistent soul to keep them going, no matter who all help. For Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve, this person has been Dan Miller. Everyone who has or ever will witness the sight of the millions and millions of trout lilies flowing over the curves of the slope owes him thanks. The Preserve is owned by Grady County and managed by a Volunteer Board which includes those early supporters like Dan and Wilson.
(2021)