Sixty-fourth annual

Roan Mountain Fall Naturalists Rally

Friday 18 – Sunday 20 September 2026

Roan Mountain State Park, Tennessee. Three days of field trips, evening programs and workshops on the jewel of the southern Appalachians — hosted by the Friends of Roan Mountain.

Friday night keynote: Dr. James T. Costa, Executive Director of the Highlands Biological Station, on the origin and evolution of Roan's grassy balds.

Friday evening keynote · 7:30 PM

Dr. James T. Costa

Executive Director, Highlands Biological Station of Western Carolina University

Roan Mountain in Time and Space: Exploring the Origin and Evolution of Roan's Grassy Balds

Roan Mountain holds the most extensive grassy balds in the southern Appalachians, and they are a genuine puzzle. The balds lie below climatic treeline yet carry no trees. They are dominated by native grasses and other southern Appalachian flora, yet they also shelter rare plants whose main range lies far to the north.

Do the balds constitute a natural biological community, or do they somehow owe their existence to people — or both? Are they unique, or are there other ecological versions of balds elsewhere, and if so, what do those teach us? Dr. Costa traces the geological and ecological history of the mountain and weighs the leading explanations for how the balds arose and how they persist, from the speculations of early naturalist-explorers to the investigations of modern ecologists.

An evolutionary biologist and Darwin and Wallace scholar, Dr. Costa is professor of biology at Western Carolina University, where he teaches biogeography, Darwin's Origin of Species, and a Humboldt-inspired comparative temperate–tropical ecology field course running between the southern Appalachians and the Andes of Ecuador. He is a Trustee of the Charles Darwin Trust, and his honours include the Alfred Russel Wallace Medal and the Stephen Jay Gould Prize of the Society for the Study of Evolution. His recent books:

  • Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace
  • Darwin and the Art of Botany: Observations on the Curious World of Plants, with Bobbi Angell
  • The Descent of Man: An Annotated Edition of Darwin's Classic Work, with Elizabeth Yale

highlandsbiological.org

Build your weekend

Every field trip, program and workshop from the brochure. Filter by what suits you, then select the ones you want — your plan collects at the bottom.

Your rally

Also on the program

Friday 18 September, 7:30 PM

Roan Mountain in Time and Space

Dr. James T. Costa — Executive Director, Highlands Biological Station

The Friday keynote, on how Roan's grassy balds came to be and why they persist.

Read about the keynote and the speaker

Saturday 19 September, 7:30 PM

Can't See the Forest for the Trees? Look at the Birds Instead

Adrianna Nelson

A look into the world of bird banding, birds as a tool for science, and how this work could turn a natural disaster into a win for conservation — with field stories, photographs, and the silver linings for wildlife after Hurricane Helene.

Adrianna began birding at nine, when a Dark-eyed Junco turned up in her yard on a cold winter day. She was hooked, and became involved with the Bristol Bird Club, Steele Creek Park Nature Center, and the Tennessee Bluebird Society. Undergraduate work on songbird behaviour at Appalachian State University settled her interest in avian research, and she went on to conservation and research projects across the US and abroad. She is now a master's student in Wildlife and Fish Biology at Clemson University, studying how Hurricane Helene disturbance has affected nesting birds in western North Carolina, with the aim of informing US Forest Service management practice in that changed landscape.

Saturday's midday program, “Sharks and Alligators of Southern Appalachia” with Jeremy Stout, runs at 12:30 PM in the Conference Center, alongside a lunchtime slide show by Marty Silver.

What you owe

The mail-in form as a running total. Members get free admission to all rally events, so most people only pay for meals.

Are you a member?
Meals — prepay by Tuesday 15 September

Total enclosed

Total$0

Make the check payable to Friends of Roan Mountain and mail it with the registration form to:

Nancy Barrigar, Treasurer
708 Allen Ave.
Elizabethton, TN 37643

Before you come

Meals

Catered by City Market of Elizabethton. Meals must be prepaid by 15 September — none will be available to anyone who has not prepaid. Evening meals are served buffet-style with salad, hot entrée, side items, drink and dessert. The Saturday lunch is a bag lunch with sandwich, chips, fruit, cookie and drink.

Lodging

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Save these dates

Saturday 13 February 2027

19th Annual Roan Mountain Winter Naturalists Rally

Friday 23 – Sunday 25 April 2027

67th Annual Roan Mountain Spring Naturalists Rally

Sponsored by the Friends of Roan Mountain. Gary Barrigar, President. Schedule and prices as printed in the 2026 Fall Rally brochure.