An Educator’s Guide to the B.W. Wells Savannah

Support the study and conservation of one of the Southeast’s most rare and unique natural gardens and its wet pine savannah.

In 1919 Bertram Whittier Wells was selected by the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Engineering, now NC State University, to head its Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. The following year, while traveling by train on a research trip to Wilmington, Wells looked through the window of a railroad car and saw an open wet meadow in Pender County covered in an array of flowers. Its beauty and ecological significance captured him and blossomed into a passionate study that lasted his entire life. The place was called the Big Savannah.

It appeared that the botanical splendor of the Big Savannah was lost when it was drained and tilled in the 60s. But years later, a botanist discovered a nearby 117-acre remnant of the natural area that was ultimately saved through the efforts of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust (the Coastal Land Trust) and others. The “ghost” of the Big Savannah was named after Dr. Wells.

There are many lessons to be learned not only from the study of Wells’ life and work, but also from many individuals and organizations whose passion and focus is conserving natural diversity. This on-line educator’s guide is designed to encourage students and teachers to visit the B. W. Wells Savannah, and to learn first hand about Dr. Wells and others involved in the study, conservation, and management of the Savannah. The on-line guide provides information about Dr. Wells and his accomplishments, and links teachers to additional resources that will help them integrate the story of B. W. Wells and the Savannahs into their curriculum. An important goal of this guide is to support the study and conservation of one of the Southeast’s most rare and unique natural gardens and its wet pine savannahs.

 

  1. Bertram Whittier Wells
  2. The Big Savannah
  3. The B.W. Wells “Ghost” Savannah
  4. The Conservation and Management of the B. W. Wells Savannah
  5. Plants You May See at the B. W. Wells Savannah
  6. Animals You Won’t See at the B. W. Wells Savannah
  7. Insectivorous Plants
  8. Smokey Bear: Fire and the Savannah
  9. Curriculum Connections: Science and Social Studies
  10. No Child Left Inside: Visiting the Savannah
  11. A Tribute to Dave Richie
  12. The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust

1. Bertram Whittier Wells

Bertram Whittier Wells was a scientist, botanist, and early ecologist, and perhaps most importantly, Dr. Wells was a teacher. There are many who are capable of gathering and organizing information, but few who feel compelled and have the patience and skills necessary to communicate their knowledge to others. Dr. Wells was able to mentor and educate his students at NC State, and he also educated and inspired much broader audiences. He created a layperson’s guide to the state’s flora, The Natural Gardens of North Carolina, which was published in 1932 and which today, in a new edition, continues to educate and inspire ever-growing audiences about the ecology of the state.

The title of the book, Natural Gardens, was groundbreaking, as it connected home gardening to the natural world, and moved away from mere description of flora toward a study of the relationships among plants and their habitat. To steer readers toward an ecological view, the chapters are structured by habitat, not species. Wells was one of the pioneer ecologists of the era, and his work continues to inform the study of the state’s native plants. Like a one-person conservation organization, he documented the state’s natural diversity, raised awareness in countless presentations across the state, and collaborated with individuals and organizations to encourage conservation and management of diverse landscapes.

Wells was born in Troy, Ohio in 1884, and earned an undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and a doctorate from the University of Chicago. After teaching at universities in Arkansas, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas and Texas, he was offered the Chair of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at what is today NC State University in 1919, where he served until his retirement in 1954. In the words of his biographer, J.R. Troyer:

Wells was a dynamic and effective teacher in the classroom and in the laboratory, but he was always in superlative form in the field, forcing his students to confront nature head-on. His field trips in ecology acquired legendary status.

Natural curiosity is at the core of any good teacher, and Wells’ curiosity about the state’s natural gardens grew into a lifetime of work, as he labored to solve the mysteries that confronted him across the state from seaside dunes to mountain balds.

His early research focus on insect galls in plants faded when in 1920 while he was riding on a train from Raleigh to Wilmington. Looking out the window, he saw what he would call the Big Savannah near Burgaw in Pender County. Following is a description of this pivotal moment from his article in a 1967 North Carolina Wildflower Preservation Society Newsletter.

In the spring of 1920, on a visit to Wilmington, out of the railroad car window, I saw a vast flat area literally covered with wild flowers. I immediately made up my mind to see it again….I became convinced there was no such area of equal size and perfection with over a hundred species of herbaceous wild flowers blooming in profusion from late February to middle December….As my memory goes back over the 46 years in North Carolina the two summers of day after day on the Big Savannah continually surrounded by floral beauty while we engaged in our technical soil studies stand out beyond everything else.

Although he spent much of his life studying and =\attempting to conserve the Big Savannah, he also studied the many natural plant communities across the state. As he worked, he photographed plants with a heavy and unwieldy Graflex single-lens reflex camera, and created glass lantern slides which he hand colored and used in his lectures as he toured the state.

Dr. Wells lost his first wife, Edna Metz, in 1938. In 1941, he married Maude Barnes. Upon retirement, he bought Rock Cliff Farm northeast of Raleigh, where he began to study its wildlife, and became an accomplished painter. He died in 1978, and today the farm is part of the Falls Lake State Recreation Area. The B. W. Wells Association was formed in 1979 and works to preserve, restore, and interpret the cultural and natural resources at Rock Cliff Farm and to educate the public about Wells and his conservation in association with the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation.

2. The Big Savannah

Pender County is flat and broad, so during heavy rains the land may be rapidly converted to lake, as the water fills low-lying areas and begins to rise above your shoes. It is the fifth largest county in the state with roughly three-quarters of its land in either natural or planted forest. It contains extensive rivers, among them the beautiful Black River, so named for its tannic tea-colored water. Along the banks of the Black grow 1,600-year-old cypress trees; older than any trees in North America east of the Rocky Mountains.Here, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission manages much of the Holly Shelter and Angola Bay Game Lands, where red-cockaded woodpeckers live in hollows they drill into the soft centers of old-growth longleaf pine trees. Black bears roam the Bay’s forests and wetlands, feeding on low bush blueberries and other plants.

According to a 2000 inventory of the county by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the county’s broth of waters and soils supports exceptional natural diversity, with several species that occur nowhere else on earth. 83 plant species and 65 animal species in the county are recognized as rare at the state or national Level, according to the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program.

Wells and his colleague Dr. Ivan Shunk and others studied the plants, climate, soils, movement of, and the historic use of fire in the Savannah. In The Natural Gardens of North Carolina Wells devoted a chapter to the area entitled “The Most Beautiful Gardens: The Grass-sedge Bogs or Savannah Lands.”

The Big Savannah, located just north of the town of Burgaw, was treeless and wet, and was burned historically by lightning strikes or fire set by Native Americans. In more recent history, during the winter, locals burned the savannah to keep it clear for grazing. Through the seasons, showy wildflowers grew in the large green meadow of the Savannah. In an article published in 1928 in The Raleigh Times entitled “Garden of God: On the Big Savannah in North Carolina,” Wells compares backyard to natural gardens:

In the spring and early summer when the flower gardens in the yards and parks are showing their attractive blooms and one is sensitive to the appeal made by floral beauty, an account of one of the outstanding gardens of God in North American should be of interest to all North Carolinians since this particular wild flower garden is located in our state…the native areas where nature unaided by any horticultural art is able to bring forth each year marvels of floral loveliness which rival the finest products of the gardener’s skill.

In addition to the violets, lilies, and numerous orchids that grew in the Savannah, there were insectivorous plants including pitcher plants, sundews and the Venus’ fly trap. Wells hypothesized that wildflowers grew here in abundance in part because of the special soil, the wet conditions (seasonal flooding he referred to as hydroperiods,) and the annual burning regime that reduced the woody plants that would have overtaken the area.

In the 1920s, establishing a network of roads in North Carolina to connect rural agricultural areas to urban markets was a high priority. North Carolina was referred to as “the good roads state.” In the 1928 Raleigh Times article, Wells refers to the state’s new roads:

Now that the new hard surfaced highway from Goldsboro to Wilmington cuts across this unique plant community, it will be possible for an increasingly large number of people to become acquainted with this extraordinary areas and wander over it to enjoy its unusual contribution to the aesthetic and (if one is botanically inclined) intellectual faculties.As the state’s road network developed, boggy land like the Savannah that was once considered useless for agriculture, grew in value. At the same time, the state’s population increased, along with and the demand for agricultural products. Even swampy land like the Big Savannah could be ditched and drained given economic incentive and an enterprising farmer.

Wells’s efforts to conserve the Big Savannah were underpinned by his writings and lectures, and awareness of the Savannah’s significance grew. He promoted the area as a preserve and a tourist attraction. The owner of the property offered to sell the Savannah to the Cape Fear Garden Club at a bargain price, but no one was interested in purchasing the tract because they believed that the land could not be farmed and would never be developed.

In his landmark book, North with the Spring, Pulitzer Prize-winning naturalist and author Edwin Way Teale wrote about the Big Savannah and encouraged its preservation. Richard Hooper Pough, then president of both The Natural Area Council and The Nature Conservancy, included the Savannah in the Conservancy’s inventory of state parks. In spite of these efforts, the Big Savannah was not spared.

In the 1960s, the 1,500 acre Big Savannah, Well’s “Garden of God,” the focus of his professional life, and the best-known savannah habitat in the Southeast was drained and tilled, and its unique flora destroyed. But all was not lost.

3. The B. W. Wells “Ghost” Savannah

Wells’ Big Savannah occurred in a soil type called Liddell, soils that are rare on the Lower Coastal Plain, but common in the Burgaw and Wallace areas. The Liddell soils are high in silt and very fine sand and drain poorly. They extend some fifty square miles in Pender County and may have once been an ancient lakebed. Wells described The Big Savannah as treeless; which was unusual for savannahs in the state. When biologists examined aerial photos of the area taken in 1938 and beyond, they determined that the historic openness of the area could have developed in response to frequent fire.

Heritage Program scientists were studying these photographs in 1997 while conducting an inventory of the natural habitats in Pender County. The lead botanist on the project, Richard LeBlond, noted a Carolina Power and Light (now Progress Energy) power line right-of-way in an area about 5 miles north of the former Big Savannah that had the same soil type. He also noted that the area was open because of the establishment of the right-of-way and routine mowing by CP&L. While working in the area, LeBlond began to visit the site to examine the area more carefully.

During his hikes, he found one rare species after another, and soon realized that the small area beneath the lower lines could be connected to Wells’s historic Big Savannah. The area had the same soil type and was not plowed or planted in pines. Rare plants that Wells had described in the Big Savannah occurred there, and as a result of the CP&L right-of-way, the woody vegetation on the land was mowed with results similar to routine burning.

The 1938 maps and LeBlond’s fieldwork confirmed his suspicion that the power line savannah was once connected to the Big Savannah. LeBlond had found a ghost of Wells’ Big Savannah.

4. The Conservation and Management of the B. W. Wells Savannah

Wells’ Big Savannah had been lost, and with LeBlond’s discovery of its ghost, there was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to save and even expand and restore the unique habitat. Once the ghost savannah had been identified, an exploratory group was formed to determine if the land could be set aside for conservation. A partnership comprised of the Coastal Land Trust, North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, the N.C. Wildflower Preservation Society and others, sought funding from public and private sources. The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, assisted by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, the North Carolina Wildflower Preservation Society and others raised approximately $60,000 to purchase the ghost savannah in April of 2002. Included in the 117-acre purchase was both the open savannah habitat under the power lines, and the adjacent pond pine/longleaf pine forest (view a map of the area, supplied by the Coastal Land Trust).

The “ghost savannah” was dedicated by the Coastal Land Trust as the B. W. Wells Savannah in June of 2002 to honor the work of Dr. Wells. Faculty and students of the Department of Botany at NC State University led a thorough inventory of the savannah’s plants and soils. The Coastal Land Trust developed plans for its future stewardship, including management by controlled burning, and the restoration of nearby forested land to savannah habitat.

In 1983, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program and Progress Energy (then called CP&L) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to conserve rare plants under powerline rights-of-way at specific sites across the state including the B.W. Wells Savannah. This management agreement recognizes the complimentary needs of Progress Energy to keep these rights-of-way clear of woody vegetation and many of the rare plants species which reside in the powerline corridors because they are adapted to some form of disturbance to keep their habitats open. Once the Coastal Land Trust purchased the B.W. Wells Savannah, they began coordinating with Progress Energy on management of the site to assure that the Savannah would be protected from disturbance. For example Progress Energy agreed to not mow the Savannah during the growing season, and the NCCLT agreed to notify Progress Energy of plans for prescribed burning.

On April 2, 2002, the Coastal Land Trust purchased the 117-acre Savannah from Mr. and Mrs. Robert McGowen, Jr. of Wallace. Funding for the conservation of the Savannah came from grants from the Progress Energy Foundation, the Land Trust Alliance and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with a contribution from the North Carolina Wild Flower Preservation Society. The Coastal Land Trust’s private capital campaign to save the Savannah was a resounding success with financial gifts from over 50 individuals. Due to the phenomenal interest and support for conserving this special site, the Coastal Land Trust was able to garner enough funds to purchase the property in just one year.

5. Plants You May See at the B. W. Wells Savannah

Flowering Periods for Common Plant Species of the B. W. Wells Savannah
Compiled by Richard LeBlond, North Carolina Natural Heritage Program

Herbs

  • Aletris farinosa – colic root – May
  • Asclepias longifolia – longleaf milkweed – May-June
  • Calopogon pallida – pale pinkgrass orchid – May-June
  • Coreopsis falcata – pool coreopsis – June
  • Drosera capillaris – pink sundew – June-July
  • Drosera intermedia – spoon-leaf sundew – July-August
  • Eriocaulon decangulare – ten-angle pipewort – June-October
  • Lachnanthes caroliniana – Carolina redroot – July-October
  • Lachnocaulon anceps – white head bog button – May-October
  • Lycopodiella alopecuroides – fox tail clubmoss – all year
  • Lysimachia loomisii – Loomis’s loosestrife – May-June
  • Polygala lutea – red-hot poker – April-October
  • Polygala ramosa – yellow gay-wings – June-September
  • Rhexia lutea – golden meadow-beauty – April-June
  • Rhexia alifanus – grand meadow-beauty – June
  • Sabatia difformis, lance-leaf gentian – June-August
  • Sarracenia flava – yellow pitcher plant – March-April
  • Sarracenia purpurea – purple pitcher plant – April-May
  • Scutellaria integrifolia – hyssop skullcap – May-July
  • Zigadenus densus – black snakeroot/death camus/crow poison – April-May

Woody plants (all year)

  • Ilex glabra – inkberry
  • Lyonia ligustrina – maleberry
  • Magnolia virginiana – sweetbay (flowering May-June)
  • Pinus serotina
  • Vaccinium species – blueberries

Grasses & sedges

  • Arundinaria tecta – giant cane – April-October
  • Ctenium aromaticum – toothache grass – June-October
  • Dichanthelium species – witch grass – May-October
  • Andropogon species – bluestem grass – May-October
  • Andropogon mohrii – Mohr’s bluestem grass – July-October

6. Animals You Won’t See at the B. W. Wells Savannah

(Unless you are very, very quiet)

It was Winnie the Pooh who advised that if you were going after honey, it was best not to let the bees know you were coming. Just as the B. W. Wells Savannah is unique in its plant life, it is also home to interesting animals. But it’s hard for a noisy group to see wildlife. Sometimes you have to be sneaky. Photographers often use long lenses and binoculars to find animals. They remain a long distance away from an area, so as not to disturb the animals that visit or live there. If you have access to binoculars, you may wish to watch the Savannah from the vehicle, or standing some distance away from the Savannah.

The “Welcome to the B. W. Wells Savannah!” brochure from the Coastal Land Trust also contains a list of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians you may encounter at the Savannah. Please note that venomous snakes such as rattlesnakes and copperheads may be in the Savannah, so make sure students are familiar with them as well.

One critter unique to the Savannah is the broad winged sedge grasshopper, more common on the midwestern plains. The Savannah is only known from three locations on the east coast all of which are in North Carolina.

7. Insectivorous Plants

In the musical comedy (and movie) The Little Shop of Horrors, a poor young man, Seymour Krelborn, slaves away for his employer in a florist shop in a seedy part of town. Seymour is in love with the lovely shop assistant, Audrey, however she is in love with the dentist, Orin Scrivello. One day, after a strange eclipse of the sun, Seymour buys an unusual plant he calls Audrey 2. The plant’s favorite food is human blood. “Feed me, Seymour,” Audrey 2 cries.

Although the musical is a staple of high school theatrical productions, there are no plants (to our knowledge) that feed on humans or prefer the taste of human blood. However there are plants that feed on insects and sometimes other small animals, and some of them occur in North Carolina and the B.W. Wells Savannah.

Plants that use animals as part of their diet are called insectivorous (they eat insects) and sometimes carnivorous (they eat animals). There are generally two groups of insectivorous plants: those with active and passive traps. Active insectivorous plants have parts that actually move to trap insects. They include bladderworts that occur in wet ditches, ponds and lakes, and Venus’ fly traps that occur only in a small band of land in the eastern Carolinas (It is only found naturally in a 75-100 mile radius from ), and someday they may be found at the B. W. Wells Savannah. Passive insectivorous plants include pitcher plants and sundews that also occur in the B.W. Wells Savannah. animals are lured to passive traps and either fall into them, or become stuck in their sticky hairs.

Once you have seen a Venus’ fly trap you will understand why scientists from Charles Darwin to Dr. Wells have found them so wonderful. Tiny hair triggers on the leaf of the plant detect the movement of a potential victim and the plant snaps shut around it. Watch fly traps capturing an ant and an unsuspecting lady bug.

Pitcher plants attract insects that lose their footing, fall into their “pitcher” and cannot escape.

Sundews have sweet nectar from glands on the upper leaf surface that attracts insects that become immobilized in the in their sticky secretions.

8. Smokey Bear: Fire and the Savannah

Known as the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota, Hill City is a small town 26 miles Southwest of Rapid City on State Highway 16. On July 10, 1939, a fire started ten miles outside of Hill City, and students and teachers from the local high school came to the rescue, including the entire basketball team. One of the players was recognized for his heroic efforts and became an honorary forest ranger. As a result, the team became the Hill City Rangers and the school became the only one in the country to be allowed to use Smokey Bear as its official mascot.

The goal of the US Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters and the Ad Council in creating Smokey was to prevent forest fires in the country, as the loss of forest products was thought to undermine the country’s war efforts.

Smokey Bear attracted so much attention and commercial interest that the US Congress passed the Smokey Bear Act in 1952 to assure that all of the royalties from the sale of Smokey Bear products would go toward on-going forest fire prevention.

More recently, Smokey’s message was changed from “only you can prevent forest fires, to “only you can prevent wildfires” to help people distinguish between wild uncontrolled fire, and controlled fire that benefits wildlife. Even so, many people today consider fire in forests always bad, and videos of mega fires and burning houses are a staple of television news.

In fact, whether started by lightning strikes or people, fire has always been part of the North Carolina landscape. Before the arrival of Europeans in the state, Native Americans used fire for a variety of purposes. Fire was used to drive animals into areas where they could be easily hunted. Land was burned to clear for crops and to manage crops, and to make the landscape more open so that people could see enemies and travel more easily through the landscape. Fire was even used to fireproof special plants. By using fire to clear areas around plants that were used as medicine, Native Americans protected their “drugstores.”When Europeans arrived they found great open areas, charred trees, and charcoal in the soils; evidence of regular fire in the landscape, and they themselves used fire to clear land and improve access. For thousands of years North Carolina has burned routinely whether by accident or design. As an example of the change in our forested land, North Carolina’s coastal plain was covered by fire-dependent longleaf pine trees (our state tree,) with wiregrass below, and an understory of small hardwoods controlled by fire. The longleaf pines towering over 100 feet, the wind blowing through their canopies, and the open rolling land below is something you can see and hear today in less than 3% of the forests remaining in the Southeast.

The early part of the 20th century, the age of Smokey Bear, was the time of the clearing of the Southeast’s longleaf pine forest and other natural areas including oak savannahs and piedmont prairies, and as the forest was considered more valuable as product than habitat, it was also a time of fire suppression. If fire was eliminated from the environment, then more forest products could be taken to market and more money made from their sale. Here’s how B. W. Wells described the longleaf communities of the North Carolina Sandhills in 1932 in the Natural Gardens of North Carolina.

And now this noble original forest, one of nature’s most unique products of the ages in North America, is gone— rooted out by hogs, mutilated to death by turpentining, cut down in lumbering, burned up through negligence. No “Save the Pines League” was ever formed to rescue any of it. Not a part of this great natural wonder, worthy of the same forest, remains intact within the state’s borders…. “civilization,” just as it has in the North and the West, has triumphed over nature in the interest of “human welfare.”Today, our thinking about the use of fire as a management tool has become more complex, and fire is used to encourage a variety of plants and animals. We’ve come to understand the dependence of certain species on fire. In fact without routine fire, some plants and animals may be eliminated from the landscape, altogether. In addition to keeping the landscape open, fires help some plants to release their seed. Fires release nutrients into the soil and encourage a greater diversity of plants and therefore animals. Frequent controlled burning also reduces the chance of uncontrolled wildfires that can destroy plants, animals, and people.

In the B. W. Wells Savannah, the unique plants have survived in part because of mowing to maintain the power line right-of-way, and they will benefit from a new management regime that includes periodic fires. Fires will help to keep the area open of mid-story shrubs and trees which in turn will encourage the growth of flowering plants that like full sun. The seed from those plants will spread to newly opened areas adjacent to the right-of-way. Venus’ fly traps were found in an adjacent site, and perhaps fire will encourage them to one day take root in the Savannah. Fire will also reduce the likelihood of wildfire occurring, and will improve the area for wildlife.

Because of Smokey, and the on-going resistance by many to the use of fire in the landscape, an important part of the future success at the B. W. Wells Savannah and elsewhere will be education. As people become educated about the benefits of routine controlled burning, they will be more likely to support it rather than fear it.

9. Curriculum Connections: Science and Social Studies

For teachers it often seems that everything conspires against school field trips, but nothing takes the place of experience. There are many prescribed places for students to visit during their study of both science and social studies, and there is no better place than the outdoors to reconnect children to their natural and cultural history. This may help them understand where they live; what some call their ecological address. Thanks to the efforts of the Coastal Land Trust and their colleagues and friends, teachers and their students have the opportunity to plan a visit to the Savannah. There, students may learn more about the history of B. W. Wells, the stories of conservation in the state, and see first hand the results of conservation: plants and animals that make the Savannah and North Carolina a special place.

Below are competency goals drawn from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for science instruction in grades 4 and 5, and social studies in grades 4 and 8, when North Carolina’s creation, history and development are studied.

In the “Dig Deeper” section, there are links to the NC Standard Course of Study competency goals and objectives for grades 4 and 5 in science, and 4 and 8 in social studies. Additionally there is a link to the Course of Study in 4th grade English/ Language Arts, where students learn to read and create diaries and journals.

Goals from the NC Course of Study that are relevant include:

  • Science Grade 4
  • Competency Goal 1: The learner will make observations and conduct investigations to build an understanding of animal behavior and adaptation.
  • Science Grade 5
  • Competency Goal 1: The learner will conduct investigations to build an understanding of the Interdependence of plants and animals.
  • Competency Goal 2: The learner will make observations and conduct investigations to build an understanding of landforms.
  • Competency Goal 3: The learner will conduct investigationsand use appropriate technology to build an understanding of weather and climate.
  • Social Studies grade 4
  • Competency Goal 1: The learner will apply the five themes of geography to North Carolina and its people.
  • Competency Goal 2: The learner will examine the importance of the role of ethnic groups and examine the multiple roles they have played in the development of North Carolina.
  • Competency Goal 3: The learner will trace the history of colonization in North Carolina and evaluate its significance for diverse people’s ideas.
  • Competency Goal 4: The learner will analyze social and political institutions in North Carolina such as government, education, religion, and family and how they structure society, influence behavior, and respond to human needs.
  • Competency Goal 5: The learner will examine the impact of various cultural groups on North Carolina.
  • Competency Goal 6: The learner will evaluate how North Carolinians apply basic economic principles within the community, state and nation.
  • Competency Goal 7: The learner will recognize how technology influences change within North Carolina.
  • Social Studies grade 8
  • Competency Goal 5: The learner will evaluate the impact of political, economic, social and technological changes on life in North Carolina from 1870 to 1930.
  • Competency Goal 6: The learner will analyze the immediate and long-term effects of the Great Depression and World War II on North Carolina.
  • Competency Goal 7: The learner will analyze changes in North Carolina during the post war period to the 1970’s.
  • Competency Goal 8: The learner will evaluate the impact of demographic, economic, technological, social and political developments in North Carolina since the 1970’s.
  • Competency Goal 9: The learner will explore examples of and opportunities for active citizenship, past and present, at the local and state levels.

10. No Child Left Inside: Visiting the Savannah

Student journals

Student journals are a routine part of activity in most classrooms. The questions included in the “Before your visit” section will help to guide discussions, and students may track their studies in their journals. Journals are used to record what students observe, and help them reflect on those observations. Part of journal keeping may be drawings, maps and photographs that student create themselves, or “cut and paste’ into their journals. There are a wealth of links as part of this on-line guide that will give students a source of visual content about the Savannah, its environs, and the plants and animals that occur there. Especially important is the link to the NC State University Special Collections Library of B. W. Wells and other photographs of people, places and plants.

The Media Center and local library will have guidebooks to the state’s or region’s plants and animals that students can use in the classroom and carry with them on the field trip to the Savannah. Also, remember that you can download the “Welcome to B. W. Wells Savannah! Brochure” from this website.

If you have access to digital cameras, students can use them during their field trip, and return with photographs for their journals. If cameras are limited, assign the job to one or more students who can share the photographs with the class.

Following are suggestions for preparation and discussion before, during and after a visit to the B. W. Wells Savannah and that will guide the focus of student journals.

Google Map of B.W. Wells Savannah area in Pender County

Before your visit

  1. Contact the Coastal Land Trust. The 117-acre B. W. Wells Savannah is located north of Burgaw, NC off State Road 1319 (Pelham Road) in Pender County. The GPS coordinates are 34°39’34”N/77°59’21”W so you can locate the Savannah on-line and even print out maps and aerial photographs for sources such as Google Maps. To plan your visit, first call the Trust at (910) 790-4524 or email to make specific arrangements. A staff epresentative from the Coastal Land Land Trust will accompany all field trips to provide background information on the site, its conservation and management and safety tips for visiting the preserve.
  2. A copy of the brochure, “Welcome to the B. W. Wells Savannah!” is available as part of this online guide. The brochure includes a list of plants and animals of interest in the Savannah, as well as tips for a safe trip.
  3. Background information is provided as part of this on-line guide to the cultural and natural history of both the Big Savannah and the B. W. Wells Savannah, and links are included that can exponentially expand the content available to teachers. Students get to know where they live and understand the relations between their natural and cultural history of the area.
  4. The old axiom is that people find what they are looking for, so help your students to develop a search pattern before visiting the Savannah relative to your course of study. There is a wealth of media available as part of this guide, so make sure students see a sampling of plants and animals that they may encounter at the Savannah, and that they understand how those plants and animals fit within the environment of the Savannah.
  5. Following are content questions and statements related to the objectives in the NC Standard Course of Study that may guide the study of the Savannah, before, during and after you visit.

Questions and statements to guide your discussions

  • Science
  • What is your natural community? Name plants and animals that live in the coastal plain.
  • What is the climate and weather in your area?
  • What is the geology of the coastal plain?
  • What ecosystems occur in the coastal plain?
  • Discuss some relationships among plants and animals.
  • How have people affected ecosystems?
  • How was the coastal plain formed?
  • Social Studies
  • How have people changed the coastal plain?
  • What business and agricultural activities take place in the area, and what impacts have they had on the environment?
  • What people have lived in the area over time?
  • Name some of your community leaders and discuss their contributions.
  • Discuss the area’s human and natural resources.
  • Discuss the relationships between our unlimited wants and our limited resources.
  • How are the area’s natural resources being used?
  • How has technology changed the area over time?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of technology?

Questions specific to B. W. Wells, The Big Savannah, The B. W. Wells Savannah

Using guides, maps, photographs, text, brochures and other content offered in this on-line guide, its links and through the media center, relate the natural and cultural history of the state to the history of the Big Savannah and its “ghost.”

  • The creation of the soils in the area.
  • How the climate and weather affect the area.
  • The plants and animals that occurred in the Big Savannah and that occur in its “ghost,” and how they are managed.
  • How technologies have positively and negatively affected the Savannahs.
  • How land use changes relative to the economy.
  • The increase in understanding and preservation of natural communities.
  • How citizens like Richard LeBlond, David Richie, B. W. Wells, and others can change the direction of our society.
  • How individuals, non-profit organizations and businesses can collaborate to support conservation and sustain economic development.

During your visit

  1. As you drive to the preserve, have students pay attention to what they are driving through. How would they describe the towns, farms, fields and forests that they see, and the changes among them, based on their preparatory research?
  2. Once students have their search pattern for their visit, and are prepared for what they will be seeing, students may be grouped and given different assignments. One group may be responsible for animal identification, another group for plants, another to record information about the soils they encounter, another focusing on weather and climate. Some students may be responsible for taking photographs, while others may handle binoculars for bird and other plant and animal identification. Guidebooks, photographs and drawings downloaded from this guide will help students identify what they encountered during their visit. There is a link below to a source for waterproof copier paper. This is a great way to print materials that can be taken to the field again and again as they are muddy-student proof.
  3. When you are at the Savannah, be alert and be safe. Here are some things to consider
  • The Savannah is often wet, so be prepared for muddy shoes and socks.
  • Foot access only
  • Please do not litter.
  • Please do not remove or disturb any plants or animals…and watch where you are walking, so that you don’t step on plants.
  • Beware of biting insects, venomous snakes and other hazards that may exist in the Savannah, such as wet soils and holes in the ground.

After your visit

You have given students background about the cultural and natural histories of the Savannahs, and you have given them a search pattern for their visit. You’ve visited the Savannah, and students have recorded their observations in their journals. Now is the time to review key concepts, as to have students share their observations from their journals, as guided by the question listed above.

  1. Immediately following the visit, either on-location, or back in the classroom, have students write about their visit to the Savannah, using the questions and statements from the NC Standard Course of study that has guided their preparation.
  2. Back in the classroom, students can insert maps, drawing, and photographs provided as part of the on-line guide, or better yet, that they create themselves.
  3. Given the groups of students you have created prior to the visit to the Savannah, for animals, plants, and specific tasks, the same groups may also be responsible for sharing what they observed with the class, as illustrated with photographs, drawing and other media they may have gathered or downloaded.
  4. Guided by the NC Course of Study, and the philosophy of B. W. Wells, students are encouraged to integrate what they observe into an ecological framework; the relations among plants, animals and their environment.

Teaching activities

A wealth of activities has been designed to support the teaching of science, social studies, and English/language arts. Some are keyed to the NC Standard Course of Study. Following are links to some of the best in North Carolina:

11. A Tribute To Dave Richie

The Coastal Land Trust wishes to dedicate the B.W. Wells Savannah Online Educator’s Guide to Pender County environmentalist Dave Richie who died in December, 2002. Dave had a long career with the National Park Service. Among his many conservation contributions as a Park Service manager were his efforts to secure land along the Appalachian Trail. Today, more than 99 percent of the trail is protected because of his efforts. He retired from the National Park Service in 1987 and moved to Hampstead, North Carolina, where he put his national conservation experience to work preserving special places in his own backyard, i.e., in Pender County. He was a member of the Pender County Planning Board; the Advisory Committee of the Lower Cape Fear River Program, the Coastal Federation and president of Pender Watch and Conservancy, a local citizen’s group. He was a charter member of the Coastal Land Trust where he vigorously supported efforts to conserve the natural beauty of this coastal county. Dave supported the Coastal Land Trust’s efforts to save the B.W. Wells Savannah in Pender County and attended the June 2002 dedication event. He wrote the following June 2002 news article for Pender Watch and Conservancy.

Celebrating the success of fundraising to protect the “Ghost of Big Savannah,” the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust formally dedicated the tract on June 5th to the memory of B.W. Wells, a North Carolina ecologist who had sought to preserve Big Savannah in the middle of the last century.

Big Savannah was a large wetland, near Burgaw, with seemingly unique characteristics of soil and moisture that produced glorious displays of wildflowers, including many rare species. Those who had the opportunity to preserve Big Savannah failed to do so in the mistaken belief that the area was too wet to be converted to agriculture.

The “Ghost of Big Savannah” was discovered recently by Richard LeBlond, a biologist who was conducting an inventory of Pender County plants and animals for the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program. A tract of land near Watha had similar soil and moisture characteristics to those formerly found in Big Savannah and many of the rich diversity of plants that were once so prominent there. LeBlond found out the tract was for sale and the Coastal Land Trust took the project from there.

Dave Richie passed away the same year that the Coastal Land Trust acquired and dedicated the B.W. Wells Savannah. He will always be remembered for his national conservation contributions particularly in securing the Appalachian Trail, but also for his efforts “to act locally” where he lived in coastal North Carolina. The Coastal Land Trust dedicates this B.W. Wells Savannah educational guide in his honor.

12. The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust works with private individual and corporate landowners on a voluntary basis to conserve lands with scenic, historic, recreational and/or ecological value. The mission of the Coastal Land Trust is to enrich the coastal communities of the state through the acquisition of open spaces and natural areas, conservation education and the promotion of good stewardship. The Coastal Land Trust is active throughout the coastal plain of North Carolina; its beaches, river corridors, farms, forests and marshes; its sandhills and savannahs, its public parks and greenways. The Coastal Land Trust aspires to bring together citizens and landowners, natives and newcomers, to set aside lands for conservation. The Coastal Land Trust is working to save the lands you love at the coast!

This project was made possible by donations made to the Coastal Land Trust in memory of Dave Richie by his family, friends and colleagues.

Photographs and Video

Photographs in this guide are the property of The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust (NCCLT), North Carolina State University (NCSU) or Niche Publishing, LLC (NICHE). The videos were produced by Environmental Media Corporation. The photographs and videos are protected by copyright. Contact the respective agency for information regarding use.

Revisit The Guide

Click chapter titles on this page to go directly to those chapters. Each chapter provides background information to help you develop your instructional plans, and a “Dig Deeper” list of links that will take you to additional resources. Use the search function to locate key content in this guide.

BB Wells

B.W. Wells In The Field

photo courtesy of BWWells.org