It’s hard to understand natural systems when all you can see is computer
monitors and sheetrock.
One of the missions of the Paint Rock Forest Research Center is to expose
students interested in sciences to the delightful chaos of nature in the flesh.
University of West Alabama botanist Brian Keener appreciates that, as well, and
he’s helping develop an educational center on the Cahaba River. But Brian has
made the Paint Rock center an important destination for the students in his
Alabama Natural Communities class — because, as he notes, it exposes them to
a fascinating and exceptionally diverse natural system that they’re unlikely to see
anywhere else.
Brian Keener, PhD Professor of Biology and Alabama Natural Commuities at University
of West Alabama. Founder of the Alabama Plant Atlas and Director of the Cahaba
Biodiversity Research Center.
Twelve tired students and teachers staggered in well after dark Saturday night
But they buzzed with excitement when they work up Sunday morning and got a
better vision of where they were.
With golden timing, they arrived as Paint Rock’s most famous wildflowers were
beginning to showcase their colors. The stars, as always, were the seemingly
endless stretches of bluebells, surrounded by dancing swallowtail butterflies. But
Brian made sure they made note of the bright yellow Celandine poppies, the
amusing dangling pantaloons of the Dutchmen’s britches, and the intense purple
woodland larkspurs. It wasn’t just a sight to behold. Students and professors
tasted and sniffed every aromatic, edible plant (pulled straight from the ground) and offered to them.
Keener runs the Alabama Plant Atlas, which holds specimens of every species of
plant know from Alabama. His knowledge of the Alabama flora, from one end of
the state to the other, is encylopedic. And so when Brian tells the students there
isn’t another wildflower site (or sight!) like this in Alabama, and maybe in the
South, they pay attention.
The trip provided insight into the younger generation’s optimism for the future.
One student, studying to become a middle school science teacher, expressed her
excitement about watching young minds develop and children grow in their
passion for science and the outdoors. Many of her peers agreed and shared an
appreciation for the abundance of hands-on learning experiences that students
now get to have, rather than just covering them in lectures or reading about them
in textbooks.
Keener may well be the state’s best botanist. But we think even he would agree
that Paint Rock is the best teacher.
— By Sakora Smeby and Bill Finch