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EarthFoot Destination:
Southwestern Mississippi's
Laurel Hill Plantation

Theme: Learning Basic Nature Study Techniques
Guide: Jim Conrad
When: Year round, except during hunting season from October 1 to the end of January.
Length of tour: One day
Fee charged: $100/day, whether for individuals are small groups.

• Learn basic nature-study techniques
  • Plant and animal identification
    • Using field guides
    • Using technical keys
    • Using field marks
    • How to deal with technical terms and concepts
  • Names and classification
    • Using common names
    • Using scientific names
  • The naturalist's "tools"
    • Binoculars, and how to use them
    • The hand lens, and how to use it
    • Dissection tools for flower observation
  • Keeping records
    • Daily records and notes
    • Life lists
• See ecological laws at work in the field
• See manifestations of evolution in the field
• Basic introduction to plants and animals of the US Deep South

Other attractions:

• Instruction takes place while hiking on about 5 miles of isolated, one-lane dirt roads burrowing through a forest in which plants and animals typical of the US Deep South are found. Almost certainly hikers will see deer and traces of many other animals, including wild turkey, wild boar, and many small mammals
• Jim pays special attention to edible, medicinal and otherwise useful plants
• Laurel Hill's special loess-based geology will be explored
• During spring bird migration in April, birdwatchers appreciate that Laurel Hill lies within the heart of the Mississippi Flyway
• Laurel Hill Plantation has a fascinating history, and interested hikers will be invited to tour the plantation's old buildings
• For Jim, knowledge of nature has a spiritual value. This will not be further mentioned, but those interested in discussing the topic are encouraged to bring it up...
• There may be a possibility of staying overnight on the plantation

Background Notes

Laurel Hill Plantation lies about 12 miles south of Natchez, not far from the Natchez Trace Parkway's southern terminus, and close enough to the Mississippi River to hear the barges. Though the plantation's mansion burned years ago, several buildings remain from slavery days, including a hauntingly beautiful little chapel. Most of the plantation is mantled with mixed pine and broadleaf upland forests accessible by miles of one-lane dirt roads burrowing below Spanish-moss-festooned pines, oaks and hickories. The plantation adjoins the St. Catherine National Wildlife Refuge with its extensive bottomland swamps along the Mississippi River. At certain times of the year the refuge can also be visited.

One of the area's most fascinating features is that Laurel Hill rests upon a blanket of twenty to 100 feet of siltlike material called loess (pronounced more or less "lerss," from the German Löß). Loess is anciently deposited glacial dust, typically deposited on the downwind side of large rivers, which is the case here. One feature of loess is that it erodes into very deep, steep-sided gullies, locally called bayous. In fact, if the weather cooperates, one highlight of any walk at Laurel Hill is hiking for a mile or two in sandy, gravelly bayou bottoms. In these relatively cool, dim and humid bottoms, special biotic communities occur. On the bayous' floor can be found fossilized wood and semiprecious stones -- both which we leave in place -- and a good assortment of animal tracks telling interesting stories. Unfortunately, quicksand develops after rains so "bayou walking" isn't always an option.

Visitors should bring:

• Knapsack with food for themselves
• Binoculars and hand lens
• Insect repellent
• Solid hiking shoes

Visitors will reach Laurel Hill Plantation using a detailed map showing local roads. This map will be sent via e-mail. Arriving at the prearranged spot, we'll set off hiking as soon as we've covered the basics of hiking in this area -- such as "don't put hands and feet where you can't see" and "don't touch Poison Ivy." If it's been dry, we'll drop into the big bayou and hike a mile or so westward, looking especially for wildlife footprints, fossilized wood, and semiprecious stems, and we'll identify and talk about every interesting plant and animal spotted.

Once the bayou becomes too narrow and overgrown to make for comfortable hiking, we'll climb onto a ridge and follow a narrow, dirt trail westward through the oak-hickory-pine forest, to the loess bluffs, constantly stopping whenever anything interesting comes along -- mushrooms, forest ponds with frogs, exposed cliff faces showing layers of loess, deer and turkey affording brief glances...

Depending on the season, we may be able to continue into the lowland swamps along the Mississippi River, where huge numbers of ducks, geese, White Pelicans, herons and cranes, and other aquatic birds often congregate during the cooler months.

We'll picnic where there is a good view. All during the walk Jim will be gauging the visitor's interest in and expertise with field guides, note taking, and other techniques associated with being a good field naturalist. Any visitor wanting to learn how to begin a life's passion of identifying and documenting what is seen will learn what they need to here.

By the time the bluffs are passed and the swamp area explored at our easy, learn-as-you-go pace, several hours will have passed. We'll be able to return eastward inside another bayou, or take the easier dirt trail. Back at the plantation's building area, interested visitors will be shown the historic buildings, interesting grounds trees, and the gardens.

"Caution flags":

Main field of interest: Teaching nature-study techniques, and philosophizing about why understanding nature is so important.

Education: M.Sc. in Botany, B.Sc. in Geology

Languages: English, Spanish and conversant in German

Background: Born in 1947, Jim grew up on a small tobacco farm in western Kentucky, in the southeastern USA. Most of his adult life has been spent as a freelance writer focusing on topics relating to natural history and ecotourism. He has published over 200 magazine articles and stories, and six books. His most popular books are MEXICO: A Hiker's Guide to Mexican Natural History and The Maya Road. He has also served as a naturalist at a "jungle lodge" in Belize, and on archeological ecotours in Guatemala's Petén region. Most recently he's developed this web site, including the two extensive workshops on Nature Study Techniques, and Traditional Mexican Markets.