September 2024 - Paint Rock Forest Research Center

The Southern Cumberlands Plateau and Ridge and Valley systems shelter the greatest diversity of tree species and aquatic life in the Appalachians. Paint Rock Valley supports almost double the oak species found in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Moderate elevation, isolation from glacial impacts, and diverse topography and soils helped buffer life from climate extremes.

The Nature Conservancy’s Sharp Bingham Preserve is an outstanding example of the region’s diversity and long-term climate resilience. Within a few thousand acres, complex topography and hydrology support an unusually diverse and intact forest. High diversity of species, genera and families and numerous relictual species indicate its long-term importance as a climate refugium.

Paint Rock’s distinctive landscape also offers what may be a unique opportunity to study and understand every aspect of the ecosystem, from its surprisingly undisturbed forests and soils, down through the extensive network of caves and underground streams that feed the Paint Rock River itself, one of the most biologically rich streams in the nation.

The research here may well help determine the future of North American forests. But just as important, we aim to use this facility to train a new generation of scientists who not only understand diversity, but also reflect it. We’re working with multiple funding agencies to develop a program that attracts minority and disadvantaged students and allows them to work directly with the world’s top scientists.

Center for large tree diversity in North America.
Bonap.org

Center for deciduous tree and shrub diversity in North America
bonap.org

Paint Rock Forest Research Center. 3400 County Road 10 Paint Rock, AL. 35744

Ann Prum’s Coneflower Studios spent almost a week at the Paint Rock Forest
Research Center in June, filming the lightning bug extravaganza at various sites in
Paint Rock Valley. The footage will play a significant role in a PBS special, Bugs
that Rule the World, a four-part series on the world of insects.

Ann and cinematographer Russell Kaye arrived in Paint Rock in a van loaded with
high tech photography equipment, and spent a couple of days touring with our
Research Center team to find the best possible spots for filming. But of course,
lights, camera, action has an entirely different meaning when filming fireflies – the
only light that matters is the light of the fireflies, and the crew had to find areas free
of the light pollution of the region’s growing cities. The undeveloped coves of Paint
Rock are a preserve for nature’s nights, where stars and fireflies can still glow in exceptional numbers.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had documentaries on Paint Rock insect life. How did
such small creatures come to attract big name filmmakers? It’s largely because two
of the nation’s top entomologists and nature photographers, Kendra and John
Abbott, directed them here. John is the chief curator of the University of Alabama
Museums. Kendra is a Blount Scholar working with the University’s School of
Communication, and also a member of the research center’s Science Advisory
Council. Because of their skills, they move in heady circles. And fortunately, they
saw the potential of Paint Rock as a major international resource years ago, and
began photographing here.

That’s how Silverback Films – David Attenborough’s go-to film crew from Brighton,
England – became one of the research center’s first customers. Their footage of
Paint Rock’s tiger beetles and diverse trapdoor spiders has already made its way
onto Netflix. And the Abbott’s influence is largely why Coneflower Studios came to
photograph the fireflies

Here’s Coneflower’s description of their current project:

“A handful of scientists and enthusiasts around the globe (will) explore the beauty
and complexity of bugs, discovering cunning adaptations, bizarre behaviors, and
why insects are known as “the little things that run the world.” Investigations into a
worldwide insect “apocalypse” highlight the critical roles bugs play on the planet
and the bleak picture of a future without them.

From pollinators like moths, bees and butterflies that bring color to the field and
food to our plates, to tiny insect assassins to the clean-up crews that work the land
and purify the soil, insects have been running the world since before the time of the
dinosaurs. Stunning macro cinematography reveals their color, complex body plans
and surprisingly charming lives in otherworldly detail, from intricate mating rituals to
staggering physical transformations straight out of science fiction. A glimpse into our
long history of dependence on insects reveals that even in some of the planet’s
most remote corners, this relationship – thousands of years old – may now be on
the verge of collapse. Bugs that Rule the World takes viewers on a fantastic voyage
of discovery, revealing that although they always seem to be buzzing around us, we
hardly know our fellow Earthlings at all.”

We are very grateful to the Abbotts and the Coneflower film crew for allowing us to
be a part of their work. We appreciate their commitment to educating viewers on the
necessity of the little guys surrounding us and making our earth livable. If you wish
to support them then you can either keep an eye out for the release of the
documentary “Bugs that Rule the World,” you can go to their websites (linked
below), or you can check in with us regularly and we will make a post announcing its
release.

The Abbotts have a website, https://www.abbottnature.com/about-us where you
can see more of their work.
For more on Ann and Russell:
https://coneflowerstudios.com/
https://russellkaye.com

Why Paint Rock

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Fireflies in the Paint Rock Valley

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