Close to nature

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

Richard Kretz takes his time. He notices details.
“Here is a rare wildflower, Pursh’s Petunia,” he says, stopping on the side of the trail. “It doesn’t look like much but that’s a rare wildflower right there.”
Kretz, a freelance naturalist photographer and Clinch River Days Festival featured artist this year, led a hike through the Pinnacle Natural Area Preserve in Lebanon, Va., as part of the Virginia Highlands Festival last week.
Located near the confluence of the Clinch River and Big Cedar Creek the group of about a dozen people meandered along the trail past a waterfall and different types of wildflowers. The area is in Virginia’s Clinch River watershed, which contains the highest number of globally imperiled and vulnerable freshwater species in the nation.
“This is where God is,” Kretz said. “If you can’t find him here, you’re not going to find him.”
Then, pointing at an opening to the creek, he said, “On a sunny day you’ll find fishing spiders about the size of my hand basking in the sun.”
Kretz stops and gets down on his belly, clears a little area around a small mushroom and snaps a photo. He said he uses his photographs as research to learn about plants.
He also said, “I love to be able to capture memories.”
Bill Dingus, the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Natural Heritage Program natural areas operations coordinator, was also on the hike.
“I like to call [the Pinnacle Natural Area Preserve] the crown jewel,” Dingus said. “It has more public access facilities than any other of the preserves in the state.”
The more than 700-acre preserve is named after a dolomite rock outcrop that towers over Big Cedar Creek. Despite more than 350 million years of passing time, the hard limestone and sandstone rock has evaded much erosion.
The land has belonged to Russell County, The Nature Conservancy and in 1992, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation took it over.
Under the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Natural Heritage Program keeps an inventory of rare and endangered flora and fauna in the state, maintains the database of that flora and fauna and formats that so other state agencies and private industries can access it. The program also identifies lands that are suitable for protection.
Dingus said the Pinnacle has 15 rare plants and three rare butterflies.
“The unique aspect of living in the heart of the Appalachia is we have both southern and northern species of many things,” Kretz said.
But there are constant threats like the Asian fresh water clam and the woolly adelgid.
“At one time there were 60 species of mussels, now there are about 45 species left,” he said. “Twenty-six of which are globally rare and 13 are listed as federally endangered.”
A loud squawk fills the air overhead.
“That’s a great blue heron,” Kretz says.
Between the months of April and June, Kretz said he finds something new every day, and it too will pass in a few days.
“If you take the time to look at things it’s amazing what you’ll find,” Kretz said. “Van Gogh said if you truly love nature you will find beauty everywhere.”
For more information on the Pinnacle Natural Area Preserve call the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation at (276) 676-5673.