Stories · Highlands Biological Station

Stories from the Station

Field dispatches, archive histories, monthly newsletters and press, from the scientists, staff and volunteers of HBS since 1927.

Notes from the FieldNotes from the ArchivesNewslettersIn the press

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Illustration of six bats in flight under a crescent moon, crossing above a mist net toward a hemlock where a glowing marker shows a roostNotes from the FieldNFF·018 · October 2026 · Current research

Five of the Six

A UNC team led by Field Site Director Dr. Rada Petric tracks endangered bats across Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, and most of the team came through HBS.By Sarah Vickery · Read the dispatch →William Hamilton Gibson’s original watercolor for Plate XXIII, Strobilomyces strobilaceus: three shaggy, dark-scaled mushrooms with a cut-away cap and a square detail of the poresNotes from the ArchivesOctober 2026 · From the Reinke Archives

The Mystery of the Misplacement of the Mycological Watercolors

William Hamilton Gibson’s original mushroom watercolors from his 1895 guide: six in the Reinke Archives, six at the New York Botanical Garden, and seventeen still unaccounted for.By Holly Compton Shields & Bryding Adams · Read the story →

Two series

From the field & the archives

Notes from the Field follows research at the Station as it happens. Notes from the Archives tells the stories of the people, places and discoveries behind nearly a century of HBS.

FieldNFF·022Oct 2026Forests & ClimateThe Grove QuartetFour old trees across a creek on the Blue Ridge Escarpment, nearly three hundred years of rings, every ring a note in G major.Liam StiefelRead →Illustration of a grasshopper on a stalk of wheat above a line of ants carrying grain home, with autumn leaves drifting across a hazy valleyFieldNFF·020Oct 2026BotanyWhat We GatherThe gardens take stock as fall arrives: migrants raiding fruit, the last flowers of the year, and storms that show both fragility and resilience.Canty WorleyRead →FieldNFF·021Oct 2026Forests & ClimateThe Fall of a TreeRalph M. Sargent’s 1948 essay on a windless June morning in the Great Smokies when a four-century-old hemlock came down.Ralph M. Sargent · foreword by Sarah VickeryRead →George Masa’s 1931 photograph of the Samuel T. Weyman Memorial LaboratoryArchivesSep 2026A Stranger No MoreGeorge Masa, the Weyman Laboratory and a 1932 fold-out map.Bryding AdamsRead →FieldNFF·017Sep 2026BotanyNothing Stays StillA season in the Highlands Botanical Gardens, from Skunk Cabbage to the first hints of frost.Canty WorleyRead →Trail camera view of the beaver dam under construction at the bridge to North CampusFieldNFF·016Sep 2026Water & AirLeave It to BeaverA trail camera watches four weeks of dam-building against the culvert on the path to North Campus.HBS staff · trail cameraRead →The Mico Standard Engraver, a cast-iron bench-top pantograph machineArchivesAug 2026What’s in a Name?The 1966 Mico Standard Engraver and the labels of the Highlands Botanical Gardens.Bryding AdamsRead →FieldNFF·015Aug 2026Water & AirA Fish with No NameThe Smoky Dace has never been formally described, yet it helps grade stream health across western North Carolina.Tayton Alvis & Jason LoveRead →Nature Films and Public Education at the Highlands Museum, 1935ArchivesJun 2026“They Give Us Those Nice Bright Colors”Nature films and public education at the Highlands Museum.Bryding AdamsRead →Archival portrait of A. S. WheelerArchivesMay 2026Dr. Arthur Seaver Wheeler: A Renaissance ManScience and art in one remarkable life.Bryding AdamsRead →Quoth the RavenArchivesMay 2026Quoth the Raven, Forever MoreBryding AdamsRead →Institutional MembershipsArchivesApr 2026Institutional MembershipsThe force behind the success of HBS.Bryding AdamsRead →
All field dispatchesNotes from the FieldAll archive storiesNotes from the ArchivesVolunteer storiesSixteen volunteers in their own words

Newsletters

This month at HBS

Every monthly newsletter since November 2024. Research dispatches, garden notes, events and community stories.

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Foundation publications

Annual reports & fall newsletters

Published by the Highlands Biological Foundation, a separate nonprofit that supports HBS.

Earlier issues, back to 2017

In the press

HBS in the news

News stories, research spotlights and features about the Station from across the region.

Writing about HBS? Contact Sarah Vickery, Business & Communications Manager, at svickery@wcu.edu or 828-526-2602.