[serene music]
- The highest elevations
in our Southern Appalachian Mountains are very unique.
They support some species of plants and animals
that occur nowhere else on Earth,
only in North Carolina at the high elevations.
There's a very long winter, a very short growing season,
and there is a huge amount of rainfall
and precipitation in these areas.
- Most of the environments here have thin soils.
They're very acidic.
Here at Grandfather Mountain, we're known for our winds.
We're one of the windiest places in the state.
- [Narrator] The extreme environments
of North Carolina's high elevation peaks play host
to an ancient and rare ecosystem,
the spruce-fir forest.
- [Woman] We are sitting in a spruce-fir forest
near the top of Grandfather Mountain.
This ecosystem is so important for providing habitat
for several species of plants and animals
that really are unique to this area.
Red spruce, Fraser fir, Galax,
a variety of mosses and lichens,
Heller's blazing star, and Roan Mountain bluet.
These species are adapted to survive
in these harsh conditions.
They grow very slowly.
They don't disperse very far.
They're really limited to these mountain peaks,
which we can think of as almost like islands in the sky.
In order to survive over time, really they just hunker down.
Their strategy is to persist.
- So this is a small Fraser fir
and this is a good example of a small sapling
that could be 40 to 50 years old
that's in the under story here,
just waiting for its opportunity to get sunlight
and grow to the canopy.
- [Woman] When we're walking through old growth forest,
we all often think about the trees as being old,
but many people don't think about the herbs.
This patch of Galax took decades to establish.
It's another reason we need to protect these natural areas
and to think about how we can connect them
to a resilient landscape.
- [Narrator] Because of the 2,000-foot elevation change
from its base to the peak,
hiking from the bottom to the top
of Grandfather Mountain can be compared ecologically
with walking from Georgia all the way to Canada,
which is what allows the area
to support a huge diversity of species.
- Grandfather Mountain is
an International Biosphere Reserve.
There's over 400 biospheres globally
and they identify the most unique places on the planet.
Here at Grandfather,
we have more than 70 listed rare and endangered plants
and animals that call this place home.
Many of those are endemic, meaning they're only found
in two or three places on the planet.
[brisk orchestral music]
- [Narrator] But because they're so specially adapted,
these species are threatened
by shifts in temperature and precipitation
caused by our changing climate.
- [Woman] We don't know how the species are going to be able
to adapt over time.
Historically, the Earth has warmed and cooled periodically,
but the changes that we're seeing today
may be happening faster than they happened in the past.
- One of the things that's been interesting
the last few years have been really heavy rainfalls
in the spring, especially in May.
The net, when you look at the annual precip,
it's about the same as it's been in the past,
but the way that that occurs is quite different.
We've had two really epic 300-year flood events
that have happened in back-to-back years in May.
And, of course, that's followed by droughts.
- [Narrator] Warmer temperatures also mean
that faster-growing species
from further down the mountain could creep upwards
and outcompete the slower-growing species at the top,
like the red spruce and Fraser firs.
- Here in North Carolina,
there's been a lot of research looking at projections
and estimations of how much temperature increase
could cause retreat.
We believe about three degrees
would cause a 1,000-foot retreat of spruce fir forests,
so three degree annual temperature
could potentially take spruce-fir forest
off the top of Grandfather Mountain with time.
- [Woman] It's so important for us to recognize these places
as unique for North Carolina and to protect them now
because if we lose them, we're not gonna get 'em back.
[brisk orchestral music]
- [Narrator] Land conservation efforts are a critical tool
for reducing human impact
and keeping these unique places around for the future.
Organizations like the Natural Heritage Program
and the North Carolina Land and Water Fund work together
with local governments and land trusts
to establish a resilient network
of nature preserves across the state.
- So when we conserve a piece of land,
we preserve and protect that land forever.
Grandfather Mountain is remarkable ecologically
in its own right
and fortunately it's permanently protected,
the entire mountain,
but it actually extends well down the valley.
For example, Wilson Creek has its source
on the highest point of Grandfather Mountain
and falls 4,000 feet vertically
down into what is some of the best trout water
in the southeastern United States.
This landscape scale conservation, like Grandfather Mountain
and the areas below it in the valley, are so important
because gives plants and animals a migration corridor
during this time of intense stress with climate change.
- [Narrator] And beyond protecting our prized natural areas
like Grandfather Mountain,
land conservation can actually play a critical role
in mitigating the effects of climate change.
- [Narrator] North Carolina has been protecting land
for many, many years
and we've long recognized the value of land conservation
for protecting wildlife habitat,
for protecting these unique ecosystems.
What we've learned more recently
is that land conservation also helps reduce the effects
of climate change
by pulling carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere
and storing carbon in our trees and our soils
and below ground.
- When you think about climate change
and you think about the things
that are happening in our world,
there's some optimism there
that we at least have protected the place
so that we can allow those changes to play out.
Thanks y'all for watching this video.
And if you want more where that came from,
check out our channel: Sci NC
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