Exploring North Carolina for 2008, Season 4
(Season 4 will include eight new episodes, plus four “revised classics”)
Date of first airing is listed next to title.
"Fort Bragging Rights" (Jan 3, 2008)
All of us know how important Fort Bragg is to the defense of the United States and to the economy of North Carolina. Very few people are aware, however, that across this vast military reservation there are numerous historic sites of American Indians, and of early Scottish settlers who spoke Gaelic. Fort Bragg, the home to some our nation’s most elite military units, is also home to a number of important plant and animal communities that are well protected and preserved by the military.
Exploring North Carolina has been invited to take its audience on a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the most ecologically and historically significant locations at Fort Bragg with the archeologists and scientists who know it best.
The Naturalists (Jan 10, 2008)
Because of North Carolina’s tremendous natural diversity, it has long attracted naturalists. The earliest ones set the table for scientists and natural history writers of today. A partial list would include John White, Thomas Harriot, John Lawson, Mark Catesby, William Bartram, Andre Michaux, and Asa Gray. What they saw and recorded, in word and image, from the late 1500s through the 1800s, should inspire us to protect our remaining natural treasures. This episode will begin at “The North Carolina Collection” at UNC Chapel Hill where artwork and manuscripts of many early explorers and scientists are preserved.
In this episode Exploring North Carolina has an extraordinary guest list made up of some of North Carolina’s best known naturalists/scientists. We will also have a personal appearance from and remarkable interview with a well-preserved, 250-year old explorer! “The Naturalists” will inspire you.
The Roanoke Super Highway (Revised Classic) (Jan 17, 2008)
Take a 120-mile river trip from the salt water of the Albemarle Sound through a largely intact primeval forest to the “fall line” where the Coastal Plain ends and the Piedmont begins. The Roanoke River was a major corridor for Native Americans and European settlers. This adventure, by powerboat and canoe, will take you along the “navigable” length of North Carolina’s Roanoke, one of the state’s greatest conservation success stories.
On this trip you will get to know the creatures of the forest, air, and water in and along this remarkable river. You will learn why Native Americans called it the “River of Death” (because of frequent flooding), and why flooding is the engine that brings new life to the river. Join us as we explore “North Carolina’s Amazon,” the Roanoke.
Giving Nature a Hand (Jan 24, 2008)
It is no secret that man has not always been a good steward of the land. Too many times we have looked at the earth’s resources as inexhaustible. Forestry, farming, and industrial practices sometimes left the land scarred. These scars have never been deeper than in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
To help restore the land, plant trees and build parks, President Franklin Roosevelt established the CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps. The men of the CCC were sometimes called the “Tree Army” and “Roosevelt’s Woodsmen.” On this episode of Exploring North Carolina we interview men whose lives were changed forever by the CCC, men who gave nature a hand. Don’t miss this inspiring episode.
The First, Lost Colony (Jan 31, 2008)
If you have always thought that Roanoke Island was the first known European colony, or settlement, in North Carolina, you’d be wrong. South Carolina Archeologist Chester DePratter worked with David Moore of Warren Wilson College to locate Fort San Juan in the foothills of the Appalachians near Morganton, NC. This Spanish outpost (1566 and 1567), was established two decades before “The Lost Colony” at Roanoke Island. Fort San Juan may also be the site of the first European settlement in the interior of North America.
Archeologists David Moore, Robin Beck and Chris Rodning have, with an extraordinary team, unearthed numerous artifacts demonstrating the presence of Spanish Soldiers on a tributary of the Catawba River. Exploring North Carolina was privileged to visit the archeologists on site and interview them at the location of Fort San Juan. Their discoveries have the potential of rewriting the history of European settlement in North America.
Fossil Fields (Revised Classic) (Feb. 7, 2008)
When one thinks of the great fossil fields of the world, the remote plains of Mongolia and Montana probably come to mind. In North Carolina one can only find sharks teeth or perhaps a few fossil shells, right?
Wrong! Parts of North Carolina and the Southeast are actually very rich in fossils. Coastal fossil beds produce large shark’s teeth and whale bones, but they can also yield the skeletons of mammoths, walrus and giant sloth. Clay soils in the piedmont can yield the skeletons of reptiles almost 220 million years old. Much of the research relating to North Carolina’s fossil past is being carried out at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. In this episode Exploring North Carolina will travel back in time with the talented paleontologists of the Museum staff to visit lost worlds beneath Piedmont clay and the sandy soils of the Coastal Plane.
Fords and Mills (Feb. 14, 2008)
Early transportation in North Carolina depended on fords and ferries (river crossings), most of which were first used by Indians. Beginning in the 1700s mills, powered by moving water, were essential to the economy of any growing city and county. The location of an accessible ford and the presence streams that could be harnessed for water power virtually dictated the location of population centers.
The outcome of battles in the Revolutionary War and American Civil War were often affected by the location of fords and ferries (necessary for large troop crossings), and mills (necessary to produce flour and meal for armies). In this episode Exploring North Carolina will examine the social impact, geology, and geography of ancient river crossings and mill sites across the state.
Basin Basics (Feb. 21, 2008)
As you drive across North Carolina you will see signs with messages such as, “Entering the Cape Fear River Basin” or “Leaving the French Broad River Basin.” As shown on the map below. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, natural topographical boundaries that determine how and where water flows. Some rivers direct their waters to the Atlantic while others in the western part of the state flow toward the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. In this episode ENC will examine these natural basins to learn why they are self contained ecosystems that often hold fish, mussels, crayfish and other creatures endemic to only one basin.
In this episode Exploring North Carolina will visit with state and municipal water experts and biologists to learn “basin basics.”
The Edge of Life (Revised Classic) (Feb 28, 2008)
Much of the life on the North Carolina Coast has its beginning in vast spartina marshes. The birds, turtles, mollusks, finfish, and crustaceans that depend on marshes will be your hosts in this shallow, quiet world of beauty and productivity.
The salt marsh is a place where North meets South, in that many plants and animals are at their southern-most or northern-most range here in North Carolina. In the same area you may find fish commonly found in New York waters and a shell that is more common to the Bahamas. With the help of scientists and people who know the marsh best, ENC viewers will explore the edge of life.
Logos vs. Leaves? (March 6, 2008)
What makes a child explore, grow and blossom? When and where do they learn to take chances? Have they learned to fear the wrong things? Have we taught them to feel safer in gated communities, and in lighted shopping malls?
Today, children can play games with virtual friends, in virtual forests, on a computer. After school conversations take place on a cell phone, and friends are seen in Face Book, and not in a tree house. Children know more corporate logos than leaves, more product jingles than bird sounds, and catch more computer viruses than fish.
We believe, like the writers of several recent books, that America’s children need more time in wild, open spaces. With educators, scientists, and children we will try to demonstrate why children are better off exchanging corporate logos for leaves.
Cradle of Forestry (March 20, 2008)
Silva culture, the science of forestry, was first taught in the United States near Asheville. The Biltmore Forest School, which opened its doors in 1897, was the first school of forestry in the United States. In the first quarter of the 20th Century some of the giants of American forestry began their careers and taught here in North Carolina. This is why our state is known as the “cradle of forestry.”
Forestry is now one of the biggest industries in NC (worth over $4 billion annually), surpassing textiles. Experts from the USDA Forest Service, School of Forestry at NCSU and the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources (DENR) will help us tell this is important story. ENC will look at the ways we manage our forests for our economy and critical ecosystems.
Colors of the Earth… Gold and Gemstones (Revised Classic) (March 13, 2008)
Wildflowers and fall leaves are only part of North Carolina’s color pallet. “Rock hounds” and gem hunters have long known that vivid shades of yellow, green, red, purple, blue and other colors can also be found in the rocks and soil of this state.
When Conrad Reed skipped church one Sunday morning to go fishing, he stubbed his toe on a very heavy rock in Little Meadow Creek (near present day Concord). The year was 1799. He carried the heavy, yellow rock home where it served as a doorstop for over two years. The heavy rock turned out to be a 17-pound gold nugget. Soon, gold mines---some extremely productive---popped up all over Piedmont North Carolina. Some mines predated the California “Gold Rush” of 1849 by more than 30 years.
Over the years a wide variety of precious and semi-precious gemstones have been found at sites across the state. The gold and gemstones are an exciting part of North Carolina’s rich geologic past, but they are only part of a much bigger story. The North Carolina we know today was formed in part by volcanoes, collisions of continents, and the sea floor of ancient oceans. Some rock formations in this state are known to date back almost 1.5 billion years. On this show ENC will, with the help of a Museum geologist, examine the geologic processes that helped create the mountains, Piedmont and coastal plain of North Carolina.
"Exploring North Carolina" Schedule – http://www.unctv.org/exploringNC/current_season.html
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 am to 5 pm, and Sun., noon to 5 pm. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the Web at naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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