Four Outdoor Recreation Studies (ORS) students at Montreat College embarked on an unforgettable 15-day journey across North Carolina this summer, gaining valuable hands-on experience as they work towards their North Carolina Environmental Education Certification.
Dr. Dottie Shuman led students Katherine Wombwell, Steven Colantoni, Douglas Ethan Swayze, and Jesse Statler on an excursion through a diverse array of ecosystems, showcasing the state’s natural beauty and environmental challenges. Beginning in the mountains of western North Carolina, the trip stretched to the coast and up through the Outer Banks to the far northeastern end of the state, including stops at Dismal Swamp and Merchants Millpond State Parks. The students then made their way to Raleigh, where they visited the Museum of Natural Sciences and met with officials from the Environmental Education Certification office. The trip continued with explorations of unique mountain regions, including Hanging Rock, Pilot Mountain, and Stone Mountain State Parks near the Virginia state line. Each stop provided a deeper understanding of North Carolina’s ecosystems and the role of environmental stewardship.
“We saw a variety of ecosystems, and we focused on understanding the diversity. The diversity was amazing,” Dr. Shuman said. “At times, we had park rangers speak with us, and we tried to visit all the environmental centers and get our passports stamped.”
Camping in state parks every night, the students took turns planning two-day segments of the trip, which included identifying key natural features and leading discussions on the ecosystems they were studying. They even had the opportunity to observe carnivorous plants like the Venus Flytrap in their natural habitats. Although known around the world, wild Venus Flytraps exist in a highly restricted range across the coastal plains of North and South Carolina.
For Dr. Shuman, one of her favorite moments of the trip occurred at Weymouth Woods, a nature preserve in the Sandhills region of the state near Fayetteville. The preserve features the longleaf pine tree, a unique tree with a “bottle brush” appearance. These trees, with serotinous cones requiring fire to reproduce, have seen a huge decline since the 1970s but are just now coming back. They are critical to the survival of the red-cockaded woodpecker, a once nearly extinct bird that only nests in those trees. Despite being in the pouring rain, the students snapped a photo of Dr. Shuman enthusiastically hugging a longleaf pine tree.
“My parents and I used to travel from upstate New York to Florida, and on our way we would collect these pine cones that were along the highway,” she explained. “I didn’t know then that those were longleaf pine cones, so it was really an amazing experience for me to understand natural history that was a part of my childhood.”
A highly educational portion of the trip involved speaking with the park rangers, who often struggle to find balance in their job duties.
“The students really had their eyes opened to what they may want to do with their careers. Many of them are being prepared to be park rangers or environmental educators,” Dr. Shuman said. “They saw what the job looked like, which was important to their training. We saw a huge difference in the rangers in National Parks compared to the NC State Parks. Some NC park rangers were conflicted because the combination of law enforcement and maintenance sometimes makes it difficult to focus on the natural and cultural history.”
Overall, the immersive trip emphasized the importance of environmental education in preserving natural habitats, opening others’ eyes to God’s beautiful creation, and making them aware of the natural treasures in their own backyards.
“We just need to keep educating because people don’t even realize what we have and why we have what we have,” she stressed. “This environmental education certification is all about just making sure that we continue to talk about issues and highlight what is going on with habitat destruction. Everybody seems to be moving to this part of the country, especially the mountains. More people are starting to realize that we have a responsibility to care for God’s creation. They realize that we need to be the people who can talk about Jesus and talk about God’s creation and how those two things fit together. That’s my mission.”
At the end of the trip, Dr. Shuman added one final piece of advice. As the students listened to music and watched videos on the car ride home, she found her eyes still exploring the skies and vegetation on the other side of the windshield.
“My goal for you is that when you go on a trip, when you go to a new place, or when you go to a place you haven’t been before, that you can slow down enough to open up your eyes to see God’s creation and how intricate it is,” she emphasized. “I don’t care if you remember every fact. You can look that up on the Internet, but if you’re not curious and you’re not asking questions, then you’re going to miss life.”
