Big Blend Radio
Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville
This episode of Big Blend Radio's 1st Tuesday "Adventures in Asheville" Show focuses on the conservation work and visitor experience at the Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville.
WNC Nature Center connects people with the animals and plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region by inspiring appreciation, nurturing understanding, and advancing conservation of the region’s rich biodiversity.
Featured Guests:
- Steve & Karen Wilson - Owners and innkeepers of The Lion & The Rose Bed & Breakfast, a stunning pink lady in the Montford Historic District. More: https://www.lion-rose.com/
- Cindy Smith - Director of Development of the Friends of the WNC Nature Center. More: https://wildwnc.org/
Big Blend Radio's "Adventures in Asheville" Show airs every 1st Tuesday. Follow the show on PodBean: https://adventures-asheville.podbean.com/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Duration:
- 42m
- Broadcast on:
- 02 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Adventures in Asheville Show featuring Steve and Karen Wilson, owners and innkeepers of the Lion and the Rose, Bed and Breakfast. Welcome everybody, you know every second Tuesday we like to go for an adventure in Asheville, North Carolina, where their friends Steve and Karen Wilson, they're known as Mr. and Mrs. Wild, because it's either about nature and wildlife or road tripping and hanging out with musicians, which is another side of wildlife, right? So you keep up with them at their website, lion-rose.com, and that represents their beautiful, charming, historic, bed and breakfast. The Lion and the Rose, Bed and Breakfast, it's right in the heart of the historic Montford District. It's a beautiful pink lady, she's a Victorian lady, and she's quite the dame, beautiful ruse, excellent breakfast, and when you check in, we always love to talk about you get a pint of home brewed beer. They even have programs that if you stay for a few extra days, you get a little cake in your room. There's just a lot of cool stuff going on, and if you're there on a Sunday, you could be there for beer moses at breakfast. I'm just saying, this is a very cool place, how are you Steve? I know, I'm like, let's go, we need to go to the end. Steve, what's on tap? What's on tap for a second? I can always get the wheat beer on tap, and we still have some of the paleo on tap, which is going over real well. Oh, I want to get a summer shandy. Yeah, we got a summer shandy too. Oh, cool, so is the dirty-good diver completely gone now? Like, that was good. Yeah, it's been gone for a little bit, yeah. Oh, well, well, I don't know, we may have to do a stop by and see you guys on our way to Tucson, because I can save some of that paleo. I want to try it. That'd be awesome, but yeah, yeah, Karen, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. How have you been? Yeah, doing good. How's the garden? Because, and this is talking about wild, right? We're going to be talking about that today, we got a special guest, but there are also a certified backyard habitat where they have native plants and shelter and clean water and no pesticides, so animals like to hang out there, birds, squirrels, yeah, you guys get squirrels, which is really fun to watch when you're eating breakfast. You can see the squirrels go, "I want you breakfast," and occasionally you have a bear jump through over the fence while you're having breakfast, right, Karen? That's kind of a thing that could happen. Yeah, we actually just had a bear destroy part of our fence yesterday. Oh, Steve, are you happy about that? Yeah, and if you have about that, you've been giving us problems the last week, a couple weeks or so digging in the trash can this time, I know if somebody startled him or what, but he bounced off of the chain link fence, so they normally hop over and he made a collapse, so we have more work to do. Well, they're bears, though. I mean, this is a coexistence, right? Exactly. Yep. And they do have collars because the city's aware of them, right, and so they are not pets. Bum. Yeah, they are not pets, right? They are not pets. Yeah. And they do not belong in a circus. All right, we're going to talk more about bears. We have Cindy Smith joining us. She is from the Western North Carolina Nature Center and they connect people with the animals and plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region by inspiring appreciation, nurturing understanding and advancing conservation of the region's rich biodiversity. Did I read your website? Well, Cindy, welcome. Yes, yes. You actually did. I don't have to repeat. I will not have to repeat you. Okay, that's okay. Let's go. But when you look at it, it's kind of a rare thing when you hear about an HSN, well, it's not rare, but it's just great to see that I know you're doing a lot of conservation for local wildlife, but then you're also looking at biodiversity with the habitat, with the plant life. So is that part of that mission is to understand that the habitat has to still be there and that we need to keep our native plants? Is that part of that whole makeup or is it the land too that you have? Yeah, I mean, we're on a city owned 22 plus acres that at one time was very largely undeveloped until it was developed into local animal habitats and all of the local foliage is in there in addition to the things that we don't really want. Just cudzoom in there that we have to hack out and yeah, so we're just like anywhere else in Asheville that needs to maintain the local nature of our property. We don't want invasive species and it also does affect our habitat. So we really do want to focus on the animals, not necessarily the raising of plants at all, but just ensuring that the habitats are our native, you know? So you're a backyard habitat too, then you know, cool, that sounds good to me. So let's have an overview of the actual center. It's a nature center. People can go there and see wildlife. We'll talk about what the wildlife are, but a lot of the wildlife injured animals. So I was looking on the website, which is wild wnc.org and all the links we talk about on shows, always in the episode notes so you can just click right through. I know that this was a location was once a zoo. Now it's a nature center, which is focusing on local wildlife, local native plants, native animals too. And then you have some animals that are part of a endangered species program, right? To keep them thriving, you know, to make sure we don't lose them completely, right? So there's three different things that you're doing there with plants and animals. But mostly local, how do you get those local animals? Are people calling up and say, oh, we've got a bird in the backyard. What do we do? Yeah. So yes, Anne, I can share with you that we are home to, you know, over 60 species of wild and domestic animals, and most of them come to us because they would not be able to survive and thrive in the wild on their own for various reasons. You know, some of them have been injured in the wild and have been put in sanctuary to recuperate. And then they come to us to live out their days as ambassadors of their species so that residents of Western North Carolina can view them in an environment, learn from them. But they're also able to, you know, helpfully live out their days. So I would say the bulk of our animals have been rescued and rehabilitated in sanctuary and then have come to us. And then you did mention our conservation program. So we have a number of conservation programs. Most notably would be our Red Wolf Conservation Program, where recently Gloria and Oak, who are, you know, mom and dad, Red Wolf, had a puppy pack of seven about a year ago. They just had their first birthdays. And those Red Wolves are part of, you know, a conservation program, I believe there's only 46 similar programs across the country that are helping to repopulate the Red Wolves. And for us, more specifically along the Carolina coast, where they're really depleted, very sad numbers, you know, human, human reasons for their depletion. And we're really trying to work on that as our biggest conservation effort. But we also have our Safe Species Program through A.Z.A., which is our red panda program and our two red panda are part of our conservation. And then we have our American River Otter, OBE. Oh, yep, OBE is part of that program as well. And then the Cougars. We have Cougars, New Cougars, that they're our newest animal, Noah and Haila, Swanna, Noah. And they are also part of, you know, very much absent in the wild of the Appalachian region. And so for us to have them and be able to demonstrate, you know, animals that were once populating this region is really important. They arrived, you know, not too long ago. And they are just shy of the year olds. And they might be in their 11th month. And they are really a joy to watch right now as they're getting bigger and big. Everyone wants to come out and see our Cougars. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to go back to the Red Wolf a couple years ago. We went to Alligator National Wildlife Refuge, which is out towards the coast area. Yeah, we did see alligators, but what I saw is that they have a program of reintroducing the Red Wolf into there, which we were like, we will see the Red Wolf. So I wondered if you worked with them on that level of cool, so alligator alley is where we did send one of our Red Wolves, we do, we do work with them. And that is, you know, the plan is to help, you know, rehabilitate the species in that and repopulate the species in that area. Our Red Wolves are going to stick around with us for another year. They can't be removed from their mom and dad until they're at least two. And then after that, you know, the plan for them is in the hands of our staff and then also because it's a federal program, the government has a lot to say about, you know, where they go in conjunction with our team. So, you know, it's like a planless plan for another year, I suppose? Okay. Well, this is great though. I mean, because that's the thing I wanted to touch on, which is different from your history of being a zoo and zoos do conservation programs. And you do have it where people can come and see the animals and I know you work with schools too, right? And so there's that side. So it's not just for locals either, right? So you've got to get a lot of visitors that come out and it's kind of cool for them to understand the wildlife, you know, before they go hiking, actually take a look at this. This is what you might see on the trail, you know? Yeah. So there's a lot of prongs to our guest experience. And yes, we are definitely an attraction for all sorts of tourism, regional tourism, national tourism. We have people from all over the world and we do to document that. But we are also, you know, we maintain the importance of our outreach program. So there are a good number of communities that don't have access to the Nature Center for whatever reason. The children aren't able to come out on field trips. The parents aren't bringing the children. So we have through the Friends of the WNC Nature Center, who's actually who I work for. I work for the Friends, which is the foundation 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We have an outreach program where we take the Nature Center out to Transylvania County. We take the Nature Center, you know, out deep into Haywood or, you know, counties that are not interacting with the Nature Center and we bring it to them. We do public libraries, we do, you know, elder homes, we do retirement facilities, we'll work with special needs. And it's really to make sure that our message of environmental stewardship is there's equity in that, that work, that there's no barriers to access to that education. So we take it out to people. That's another problem of our guest experience. And then we have, we have people who have memberships to the Nature Center, annual memberships that they've kept up for 20 plus years. We have people who love to come to the Nature Center as a member at 930 in the morning and walk, right? Like the mall walkers, but we have, you know, the Nature Center walk. I like the Nature Center while more than a mall. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's. Yeah. Well, that's a whole different, yeah, that's don't stop me. That's like rest area. Oh, here we go. But you know, for walking and that connects people outdoors and nature and getting some fresh air as well. So when they come through, they get to see the animals and get to know them in a way. It's like, Hi, you know, so we also offer some really cool experiences that you wouldn't get during a normal visit to the Nature Center. So we have a lot of educational programs that take place at night. We have wild walks, junior wild walks, night at the Nature Center, critter checkups, bruise and bears as our summer event series. These are all different ways that people can interact with the WNC Nature Center in a way that feels fun and educational for them. And that's really an important goal for the friends of the Nature Center, which is to you know, bolster the experience of the Nature Center. So to support additional, awesome opportunities to learn about our natural world here in western North Carolina. Stephen, Karen, do you, do your guests go? I know you guys go because I know you, you're going to go. And there's beer and there's bears in your life. We do have some, we do have some guests that go, some definitely hesitate thinking zoo. And we've tried to make that very clear that there is a difference, but they are not a zoo where you're worrying about where the animals came from or what they're, how they're being cared for. It's a very nice facility. And that's why we continue to support it. Well, thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah. Well, I think this is why these conversations are important because sometimes people just go that instead of let's research it out and from our experience on the shows and in our travels, the whole zoo makeup is changing drastically and like we had the Texas State Aquarium on the show and majority of what they do, they had this, they put in this whole new emergency center and it's because of, you know, during the winters and hurricanes and all this kind of stuff, they're rescuing like 5,000 sea turtles at a time. And they're like, we're a mess, like it's a mess, you know? So they needed the facilities and and now they're really like you're talking about the education through climate change, they're starting to see manate and not just climate change, but manatee and this goes into habitat, right? And food and all of that, manatees and farders are not thriving as they used to. And now they're starting to migrate to Corpus Christi in the Gulf Coast. And so now they're having to do education to, you know, the local community who are used to going out on their boats and they know how to handle dolphins, but they are not aware of how to handle manatees suddenly. So they're dealing with that, so do you find yourself as that role of, you know, getting the local community to understand like, you know, you may not need to kill this, you can do it this way. You know what I mean? You can understand the behavior of the animals. Yeah. So you had mentioned, you'd mentioned, you know, wondering if we take in animals from people who just sort of walk in and, you know, people will do that. They will see an injured animal on the road, you know, from a mouse to a bunny to a snake and they'll bring it to us and say, you need to save this or we need to do something for this. And we don't actually take in animals and sanctuary like that. We refer people to Appalachian wild, app wild, and that's what they do, right? So they will, they will help you determine what is the best course for that animal and they will help rehabilitate that animal. So we are not like a rehabilitator, you know, such as to say, but we do try and educate people about why you wouldn't want to kill your black breath snake if you find it in the yard, you know, why that is such a crucial part of your land, your plan. And how important it is to keep an eye out for red-tailed hawk or, you know, have a small dog off leash in your home that, you know, this is they are birds of prey, but this is also a really important and crucial part of our environment here. So that is the environmental stewardship and education that's so important to the work that we do. And getting it to kids and families is, I think, crucial because kids will soak up that information and then they dang the parents. They teach the parents. That's what I've learned. It's kids are the best. Yeah. You can go on that. It's like, no, Mommy, don't kill the red snake. The red snake is good. Red snake is good. We have a volunteer docent, a docent program that is staffed by, you know, essentially it's like a volunteer promotion. We have a lot of volunteers that stick around for a really long time and they develop such an expertise because they've just been around for so long that they then get promoted to be docents. These docents are like the lifeblood of the Nature Center. They do what our on-site education team doesn't really have the bandwidth to do. And that is, you know, they push carts around the Nature Center with fur. They will park themselves in the Red Wolf habitat or in the turtle pond and they will have things for the kids to touch so that you can look at a turtle shell and then you can hand the child the turtle shell and say, "Feel this turtle shell. What does it feel like in your hand? Feel how hard it is. Why do you think that this turtle shell is so hard? What is it protecting itself from?" Or the fur of the river otter, you feel it and you can feel how it keeps the otter warm and dry and then you can see it on the animal and how he shakes himself off. They can make that correlation. And those docents are just so critical to the infrastructure of what we do to allow kids to touch, have tactile experiences because we don't allow people to interact with our animals in that way, on habitat at all. There's no petting, the animals, there's no wrapping, snake, or yard, it's not a thing. So, you know, the docent program is really critical for that connection. But I like that how you're doing it though. You know, it's like, I don't know, the education part I think is so, so crucial in having that awe, you know, like, wow, look at this, you know, animal and it takes some of the fear away and replaces it with respect, you know, for color assistance and stewardship. I do have to ask you about Hellbender, Jess for Steve, tell us about the Hellbender. Tell everybody about the Hellbender because he's like, "Dude, he's like the old man, you know, on the top of the Appalachians. This is my Blue Ridge Parkway." He does look like a little dinosaur for sure. So our Hellbender, the giant salamander, that's, you know, his home is at an app station, Appalachian station, his name is Meatloaf, I mean, it looks like a giant Meatloaf and he is definitely critically endangered here. You know, for numerous reasons, boats, people, fishing line, you know, receding river water, all the things. So he is another really special animal to learn from very much. That's interesting. I didn't, I didn't, so the fishing line, that's something, man, you know, I know people love to fish and know, Stephen, Karen, you both do, but I hate it when I go to a place and I see line just places you can't even be, you know, and I'm like, "Come on, man." You know, if you're going to eat part of the ecosystem, be part of it, like clean up your eating habits, you know, but that, that, um, fishing line isn't, that's pretty mean to the animals. I mean, do you find that kind of thing is, is kind of a, what are, what are the biggest dangers? In general, would you say fishing line, boating, understanding boating and how to handle things? Does that hat, like, hurt, otter? Yeah, I mean, all, all of the above, right? People don't practice appropriate catch and release. Animals get caught up in fish lines and motor engines. Also, people do things, rule things to be able to catch something and just have it to be able to look at it and touch it and it's a lack of regard for our environment. But that is exactly what environmental stewardship is. It's both parents, children, people, individuals, learning why that's not okay and how to teach other people not to, you know, practice those, those negative habits in nature. I wanted to say this is so cool. You have a corn snake and we do, we have a few corn snakes. I know I'm going to be, we're going to take care of a corn snake in a few days. We're excited about it. Ooh. Yeah, I know, right? And a leopard lizard, leopard lizard, gecko. Leopard gecko? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're so beautiful, you know, but you've got what, when it comes to snakes, you've got eastern garter snake, you've got a rat snake, you know, the snake part. So let's go back to the education of this because I see people like, especially weird from the Southwest, right? People like, oh, I saw this rattlesnake and, you know, I think they're gorgeous. And I should be dead by all my snake encounters, but I'm not and because I have respect and I feel like they know and but what I see people like all snakes should be killed, like, you know, a good snake as a dead snake, a good snake and it makes my blood boil. I get so upset about it and you see them on groups talk about this and I'm like, why are you on an ID group on Facebook if you just want to kill something? You know, it's so can we talk about the role of snakes and how crucial they are to our environment? They really are. Oh, sure. And does that help going to this nature center in the education programs? Like I was saying, taking the fear and replacing it with respect. Yeah. So there is a really cool exhibit on the wall in Appalachian station, which is where all of our, you know, marbled salamanders is when meatloafs, homies and our snakes and our turtles, our frogs, and it basically shows you the difference of like how you tell the difference between a venomous and a non venomous snake and the kids can shift the little tiles over to say, if it looks like this, oh, it's non venomous. If it has this, it's venomous. If this venomous, look at its tail, this and that. So it allows them again to touch something and make a connection to an understanding about a snake. And you know, the conversation is if you see this snake on the trail, if you see the snake right here, who is a venomous snake, a rattle snake, this is a snake you don't want to run into on the trail, this is a snake you want to avoid that you want to move away from. Here's a black rat snake. This is a non venomous snake. This is a snake that you really want to see in your yard because, you know, they're taking care of the rodents, but you still don't want to mess. You don't want to mess around. You know, it's not that it's venomous, non venomous, you don't, you just want to leave it alone. Let them do its thing. It's not going to hurt you if you know, interesting a couple weeks ago, we were at Lake Jocassie and we were hiking and my son pointed out, oh, look, there's a black rat snake on the ground. And the woman we were with said, watch the black rat snake's tail. Look at a leaf because the black rat snake tries to pretend it's a rattle snake when it's frightened and it's tail, which makes the leaf around it vibrate and it's sort of cool. Right? It's its little defense mechanism. Well, that's why the black racers would do that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so, it's so, um, I love, I love that you said to that, okay, the rattlesnake. This is the timber rattlesnake that you have, right? Um, to just that someone to stay away from on the trail, because I hear people go good snake, bad snake. And I'm like, no, no, just because they're venomous doesn't mean they're out to get you. It's like, if you're a venomous snake, they're on this prowl to get you. I don't know what movies people are watching, but no, it's not really true. If you step on them, he's going to react. Um, you know, if you're close to, you know, habitat and babies or any animal, I don't care who it is. Yeah. I mean, I watch, I watch little bluebirds go after crows, you know, in the springtime over their nests and stuff, but it's, it's, I just feel like the education of that, you know, the more I see on social media, it kind of freaks me out. I remember putting up a tarantula from Apache Springs in Arizona at Fort Bowie. And this tarantula, I mean, it was, it's tarantula season. It was beautiful. People are like, kill it, kill it. And I was like, dude, look at it. It's beautiful, you know, um, I don't, so I feel like this education, it can't just be that we post pictures. We have to have this back up kind of thing. Yeah. I'm glad you're on the show with this. What are you doing with Sicilian donkeys? I just did a podcast on Sicily. So I'm like, what? Wait. Yeah. So I'm Willie and Eor are part of our Willie, you know, domestic animal habitat and actually I'm really, really glad that you brought up, you know, the farm yard and the North Carolina farm yard because they are the stars of our gateway to the Southern Appalachians project that we just launched two weeks ago. The nature center is under a tremendous amount of renovation right now. So when you come in the front gates, you'll immediately notice that our barn is not shut down, but it's quartered off. And then when you walk past it, you will certainly notice that the, um, farm yard is out of commission. And we are doing an incredible project that removed the elephant house. So they're, you know, to be an elephant that existed at the nature center and that when that elephant passed, the elephant house was still there, but the elephant yard turned into a farm yard for domestic sheep, goats, we've got over haulsy goats, we've got our two Sicilian donkeys and it's time to give them some more space. So we are overhauling that whole farm yard. We're also adding a pollinator garden for butterflies, nature play areas, shade coverings, education kiosks. So that, you know, if you're visiting anytime in the next little bit, you're going to see all of that happening. And that's a wonderful project that's supported by the TDA, the city, the friends of the nature center and all of our generous donors who, you know, are members and donors who support us. Or, or the reason why we can do these projects, our barnyard is expanding. So that goes into, we'll go ahead, Steve. I was going to say, are you still going to be doing the evening roundup with the animals or you put them to bed? That's one of the funnest parts there, I think. Yeah. That's one of our favorites. So you see that. We love the stampede. Yeah. So, um, yes, right now what's happening is our, our domestic animals are on rotation because, uh, you know, the space right now is limited based on the rock and the this and the that. So some of them, you know, stay in the barn during the day. Some of them go in the, in the yard and then we swap them out. But they are still being, um, they're still being put to bed. You know, we named the annual 5k that we do at the nature center, the running of the goats because, right? Yeah. It's the running of the goats five, you know, because every morning and every night we run the goats in and we brought them back out. Yeah. That's much fun. Yeah. That's a good time. Yeah. So it sounds like a lot of, you know, a lot of growth, uh, but not, not necessarily like growth growth, but like, you know, improvements and things like that are happening. And you're talking about fundraising. So let's, can we talk about beer and bears now? I've been dying to talk about this. Yeah. Yeah. So tell everybody about your bears. Um, first before we get to the beer. Yeah. Let's tell everybody about Ursa and Unal, who are our, you know, we're black bears and are the stars of the, uh, bruise and bear show and the bruise and bears summer event series is a four, uh, month series, the second Friday of every month starting May where we keep the nature center open, um, after hours from 5 30 to eight and you can come in, um, you can get a beer. You can get some food from a food truck and you can walk around the nature center and enjoy cooler temperatures and additional, um, enrichment with the animals. So we will give the bears like, you know, fruit popsicles or trout popsicles or giant watermelons to crack into and obviously they love it and, um, people love watching them try and figure that out. All of our animals get, um, enrichment and we do program. So, um, we will do a bobcat program. I think August is our cougar program. I want to say the ray wolves are our July program. So it's just really special, um, it's a family, it's a family fundraiser to bring anyone intergenerational from the little kiddos to the grandparents all come together and it's nice. It's just such a nice event. In this month we have live music, um, we have the realtors that are coming, um, to play this month. So it'll be a band, a food truck, yeah, when I see there, I think this month is Cecilia's. I think next month is gypsy queen, um, okay, the long hot dog comes, what it's good. What do you mean? What do you mean? The hot dog? Yeah. The hot dog guy. Bigfoot longs. We like sausage. Yeah. So that's, that is cool. So I love that the bears, can we touch on the bears and people understanding bears in the wild and understanding the bears that they see in Asheville too. Cause we, we started talking about them like they're in the neighborhood. So, um, people that may be in Asheville for the first time, you know, may come from a completely different country, a different place that they don't see, they may come out of L.A. And the only way you're going to see bears in L.A. You can, uh, don't start me. Um, but I think just watch my mouth, um, but it happens to anger and places like that. You'll see bears. Right. So then in, you know, the backwards and, ah, they've been those, I don't know if you guys seen, um, the mountain lion video cam in Santa Monica or of all the mountain lions. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, well, if I send it to you, Karen, okay, and Steve, you won't go to work. You won't. It's, you know, it's very dangerous. All of these programs with wild, but I think these, um, webcam things with wildlife are such great ways of education. What do you think Cindy for that? Because it's people get, they get to see how animals live birds, you know, um, and have a foster that, that respect and stewardship that I was talking about, but bears, um, let's talk about bears that they're not, they're, they're beautiful. I love bears. Isn't it special to them and, um, how should people behave around them? Do they understand that once they've been to the nature center, get a little understanding about if you encounter one on a hike or in a neighborhood, uh, what to do or just at least have that respect. Yeah. So we definitely promote our partnership with bear wise, the bear experts in the area. Can we, um, have them at all of our events to talk about how do we coexist? Um, you know, how do we deter them from our property? Um, why should we deter them from our property? Um, why we should seal up our trash appropriately, what, you know, why their population is so expansive. Um, we talk about all these things and it's a big part of life and not just actual like in western North Carolina, but as the city becomes more populated and the people sort of take over their natural habitat, we have to learn how to coexist and bear wise does a great job in helping to teach people, um, how to do that. And there's a lot of just simple things you should know. I mean, I went, I'm going to walk my dog, especially between the months of April and, you know, August, I carry a little, especially where I live. Um, I carry a little whistle with me, um, to deter the bear from approaching and I strap my trash. I have a bear strap on my trash can to deter it from digging around my trash and we don't put out bird feeders because that's just a recipe for, yeah, um, there's simple little things we can do. Um, we definitely should not approach bears. We should not pull baby bears out of trees for selfies. We should not, um, sort of, you know, use this, this sort of beautiful environment, but we also just have to know that they are here and around. So bird feeders, this is where it's important when we look at bird feeders and things to have the, um, I can winter put them out, right? That helps. But in spring, summer, fall, you know, if you planted the native plant garden and have like the certified wildlife habitat, like what Steven Karen have, uh, which is through the National Wildlife Federation, which is an amazing program, um, that is something. And even you can become a monarch way station. Come on. Who doesn't want to be that? Um, you know, that's, I mean, that's what I love that you're bringing the plant part in because that's what can, if we keep our native plants, that's going to be a huge step in conservation all the way around for sure. Yeah. Bugs and birds and bees and butterflies, all the bees, be, be, be, be, be, bugs and birds and bees and butterflies. I mean, that is going to sing just now. She's going to sing. That's the natural way to do it. That's awesome though. Yeah. I like this. You guys have got like a full circle thing going. That's very cool. We do. We do. Steven Karen. Okay. Favorite animal for you guys going in. I'm going to go to the pygmy goats too. Um, but it's, I was going to think that Steve is a hellbender, but we'll find out. But let's start with you, Cindy. When you go to the nature center, where do you go first? Like that you want to get to. Like, is there a specific animal? I mean, I want to see. Okay. So prior to me working with the friends of the nature center, I was a member with a two year old and so I would race to the nearest place gate, honestly, I would race to the arachnid place gate. But now that I bit, you know, I'm at the nature center every day, I walk into the barnyard or the farmyard and I say good morning to every single animal, every single goat, every single sheep, every chicken. You have chicken. I love it. You have chicken. We do have chickens. Yeah. We have a new flock of, I mean, not so much babies. They are growing very quickly, but yeah, we have a new flock of chickens, but that is my first stop is staying high and acknowledging each of our domestic farm animals with their names and a good morning. I love that. I love that. I love them as you do. And I do love it. Donkeys and goats are so much fun, you know, they really are fun. Okay, Karen, where do you want to go first when you go to the nature center? It's always towards the cats. I like the bobcats and the mountain lions, of course. Well, she's the lion in the rose, you know, yeah, it said Steve, are you going for the reptiles? I just got to go. He's going for the seltzer. Yeah, mentally. I like the, I like the, I like the cats and I like the red panda, but I always like to go like check out the pine snake, the pine snake when he dies, you don't see those too often. Yeah. A pine snake. Yeah. I don't even think I've heard of one. Yeah, they really do like, they're constrictors and they're related to like bull snakes and I'm not sure if they're related to king snakes. Are they local, like a local snake? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're up in that. They find them, I guess, in the pine straw, but they're usually not, that's usually, they're usually back more in the forest, so they're harder to find, I guess. I'm not sure if they're rare or not. I don't really know that much, but yeah, they're really neat. I want to see a pine snake. I'm going to get on, like, can I? Yeah. You've got to come on nature. It's in the next time. Okay. And you've got Cotswold chic. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, and barn owls, oh, and the otters. The otters, I think. Turtles. Yeah. You know, I, and like Fox, I'm like, well, musk turtle. Now I didn't know there was a musk turtle, did not know. And also it's, or known as a stink pot, you stinky pot turtle, red fox. Yeah, turkey vultures, yeah, this is cool. All right, man. Okay. And gray wolves too. Huh. Yeah. Yeah, gray wolves are, are just really gorgeous, gorgeous animals and coyotes. I love coyotes so much. I really do. I think, yeah, they, because people, they're, they're important parts too, you know, they're, they're part of the ecosystem. And that's my thing is I everybody. The web of life. We have to learn. So you have 60 species of wildlife. That's amazing. Wow. Wow. Okay. Well, I want to come play. I want to come play with a good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good. I can play. You definitely need to. Yeah. We'll, we'll figure it out. We'll, we'll, we'll work on that. We'll work on that. We have some time before we get to do some. We might come see you all before, you never know. We never know. But everyone, the most important thing is that everyone goes and also supports these initiatives. And if you go, it's July now, and there's August, you couldn't be part of the beer, the bruise and beer. Bears. Yes. You can July. Yeah. Absolutely. July 12th is the next one. And then August 9th is the last one. So you have two chances to get in too. You better get going. Yeah. Wait. Don't wait. That's one of the best of them. One of the best. Yeah. They're going to cut you off at the line. So you got to go. It's going to be wildwnc.org as the website. Also lion-rose.com. I love this. We've got lions. We've got bears. We've got goats. I mean, come on, sheep, snakes. This is perfect. Thank you, Cindy, so much for joining us. And thank you to everyone at the Nature Center doing all this amazing work and conservation and education. Thank you. Stephen, Karen, as always, thanks for joining us. Karen, was I right about the keg thing in the rooms? Can you tell everybody about that? Because as I was saying that I realized, I might be wrong about how this works on the kegs in the room. No, you're absolutely right. For anybody who stays four nights or longer, they can get a complimentary in-room tap in the room. And it's about eight and a half pints worth of beer that we brew. Wow. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. Let's go, everybody. What's that? Oh, man. All right. Thank you, everybody. Take care and happy adventuring in Asheville, North Carolina. And go wild. Be like Mr. and Mrs. Wild. Have a good time. Thank you for joining us here on Big Glenn Radio's Adventures in Asheville Show. Learn more about the Lion and the Rose Bed and Breakfast, which is located in the historic Montford district of Asheville, North Carolina. Go to lion-rose.com. You can keep up with our Big Glenn Radio shows at bigblendradio.com. [music] (upbeat music)