About 14 members and guests met at Sweetwater State Park at 9:00 on August 20 for our field trip. We started the morning with Ellen Honeycutt talking about tree identification. She spent a few minutes showing us how to look at trees, their bark and leaves to help with initial identification. She had some wonderful pictures and illustrations. Ellen explained our initial survey of the tree can often rule out many species and help narrow down our ID options. Then we followed Ellen on about a 3 mile hike as she pointed out trees and let us put our ID skills to use. We were treated to a wide range of trees that helped us distinguish many trees and tree families. We also enjoyed the ruins of a mill that was destroyed by Sherman's troops during the Civil War. James Dickinson was with our group and very knowledgeable about the mill and how the water wheel worked to provide power for the mill. Ellen made the tree identification understandable and useful to each of us.

When we returned to the Visitor Center we were met by Phil Delesterez one of the Park Rangers. Phil walked us around the visitor center and talked about some of the beds they are planting. He showed us the roof top planting currently looked after by the Douglas County Master Gardeners. This is part of the green building that comprises the Visitor Center. Phil then showed us some of the native grasses he has planted. WOW. Some of them are so beautiful. I think we have all ignored those grasses as we don't recognize them. What a mistake. Some would be beautiful additions to our gardens.

Phil also talked about his wish list of plans for the visitors center area. One plan is to have volunteers to plan, plant and maintain a native plant area. The area he pointed out offers many possibilities as it has both sun and shade areas. He has asked WGC-GNPS to consider adopting this area as one of our projects. This would be a wonderful way for us to help reach the public with the beauty and use of native plants.

The day ended about noon just as the temperature was climbing toward the 90's. We all agreed it was a wonderful day and look forward to putting our new knowledge to work.

	Attendees		Ellen explains some basics of tree identification.
	Learning about Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora).		Ellen tells the group about Florida Dogwood (Cornus florida) characteristics.
	Ellen shows the compound leaf of a Hickory (Carya sp.)		Pulling down a branch of Red Maple (Acer rubrum) so the group can see it better.
	Learning about seedlings.		Discussion about the different trees in the bottomland.
	Hop-Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) with seeds.		Coneflowers (Echinacea sp.) planted in the meadow garden by the Visitor Center.
	Grey Coneflowers (Ratibida pinnata), also in the meadow garden.		The Visitor Center rooftop garden.