The Mountain is Calling
Ruffner staff members, Habitat Garden Club volunteers, community partners, and Birmingham City Councilors shared their favorite native plants that will be available for purchase at our online spring plant sale beginning Friday, April 1st for the Member Pre-Sale and Saturday, April 2nd - Sunday, April 3rd for the Public Sale.
Scroll through if you need a little inspiration!
We are two weeks away from our online spring plant sale!
You’ll be able to purchase individual plants or shop by groupings. For the ease of shopping, we’ve grouped species that grow well together by sun, shade and soil types. Mimicking natural plant groupings and choosing the species that are naturally adapted to your yard will make for happy gardening.
Does your yard get a lot of sun? Is your soil type alkaline? If you answered yes to these questions, these plants will thrive in your garden.
You can also find the complete list of our Spring Plant Sale inventory at https://ruffnermountain.org/2022-spring-plant-sale-inventory
We are two weeks away from our online spring plant sale!
You’ll be able to purchase individual plants or shop by groupings. For the ease of shopping, we’ve grouped species that grow well together in sun, shade, and soil types. Mimicking natural plant groupings and choosing the species that are naturally adapted to your yard will make for happy gardening.
Do you have a sunny spot with clay/acidic soil? These plants will thrive in your garden.
You can also find the complete list of our Spring Plant Sale inventory here.
It’s nearly time for spring gardening! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the inventory list and highlights for our Online Native Plant Sale.
Over 100 species of native plants!
The first signs of spring are popping up on the mountain— meaning more daylight and more time on the trails.
Beginning March 1st through November, our trails are open from 7:00 am - 7:00 pm.
University of Alabama graduate student and researcher, Vanessa Marshall, collects specimen from the Red Lakes at Ruffner.
If you hike a lot from the Eastern Trailhead to the Wetlands, you may run into University of Alabama grad student and researcher, Vanessa Marshall, collecting eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) and water samples from the ponds. We appreciate the dedication of scientists to help make Ruffner a better place for wildlife!
Ruffner’s history as an iron ore mining operation, and the mountain’s re-wilding and transformation, often present challenges and perils to the creatures inhabiting the nature preserve. This is especially true for the man-made aquatic habitats, the Red Lakes and the Wetlands. The ponds at the Red Lakes (off-trail and hiking prohibited) are mining relic settling ponds and tinged with rust/red. These ponds are metal-contaminated environments teeming with amphibious life, and the creatures that inhabit these ponds endure varying consequences, including metal contamination, basic pH, as well as chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)), a skin disease that can be fatal to amphibians. Sometimes these threats factor simultaneously to detrimental effects. We’ve experienced two known die-offs of eastern newts.
“To prevent Bd-related amphibian die-offs, it’s important to understand what factors are affecting Bd transmission and infection load,” Vanessa explains. “My study aims to 1) determine how the different Ruffner water sources affect eastern newt Bd dynamics and immune defenses, 2) determine the primary cause of die-offs at the Red Lakes, and 3) measure water quality of the Red Lakes and wetland areas. My project will provide direction for future amphibian conservation efforts at Ruffner Preserve via updated water quality restoration goals and chytridiomycosis monitoring practices. Additionally, healthier amphibian populations will have a positive cascading effect on other fauna of the Ruffner Preserve ecosystem.”
Learn more about chytrid fungus and how it affects amphibians here.
The ingenuity of beavers contribute to the constant changing of the wetlands. Situated on the Irondale side of the mountain and accessed from the Eastern Trailhead, this portion of Ruffner is owned by Jefferson County and managed by Ruffner Mountain Nature Coalition. The constructed ponds, fed by a mining relic, the artesian well, have become a wildlife refuge over the years, and inhabiting the ponds are various frogs and turtles. The ponds serve as breeding pools for salamanders, dragonflies and damselflies, and other critters that require water as part of their life cycle. Animal prints in the mud are evidence there are several species using the wetlands as a watering hole, and you can watch a wide variety of birds foraging the water’s edge and the surrounding grasses and forest.
Beavers continue to improve this special habitat by effectively maintaining water levels with dams. They gnaw and girdle pines and other trees which become snags for cavity dwellers. And they work to keep the surrounding land cleared by controlling the prolific black willow trees. Willow bark must be a favorite food, and the sticks and logs are a renewable resource for building dams and lodges as saplings grow quickly. You can see the paths and slides created by the busy beavers on the muddy banks between the ponds. The beavers have also been clever with the use of parts of the old boardwalk in constructing the dams.
Friendly reminder: When viewing wildlife at the wetlands, approach quietly, keep dogs from entering the water, and please be careful to stay on the paths and away from the dams and lodge.
