Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center: Fall Color

November 18, 2011. We hadn’t been to Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center for a month or so. When we were there last the colors were just beginning to show. We usually enter at the northern entrance from GA-11 and make a circuit from Margery Lake to Fox, Shepherd, and Whitetail Lakes. Pine trees dominate most forests and woods in Georgia so Fall color comes in the form of individual, often isolated, trees.

Map: Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center

Bennett Lake. Looking south over Bennett Lake from the road over the dam for Margery Lake.

Fox Lake. The water level in the lake was lowered a year or more ago to control ‘alien’ water plants that were clogging the waters and diminishing the fish population. Owing to the droughts, the water level hasn’t risen to its original level. The area in the foreground should be under water. Instead, it is covered with a variety of grasses and wildflowers.

Fox Lake. Looking west from the parking lot. The light colored bushes on the point are Baccharis halimifolia (Eastern Baccharis) in bloom and a variety of trees in the background.

Shepherd Lake. Looking northwest to the far end of the lake where the color is.

Shepherd Lake. A closer look.

Whitetail Lake. Looking northeast across the lake from the parking lot, along the dam to the field beyond. The hay bales are now wrapped in plastic to produce silage. When we photographed this same area in December 2009, the hay was not wrapped as it is this year.

Whitetail Lake. Looking directly across the lake. Most of the deciduous trees have already dropped their leaves.

Even though we aren’t treated to the stretches of intense color that occurs ‘up north,’ we are treated to diverse color throughout the woods.
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Distribution:
- United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database: Baccharis halimifolia (Eastern baccharis)
[United States] [Georgia]
- University of North Carolina Herbarium: Baccharis halimifolia

Identification resources:
- Southeastern Flora: Baccharis halimifolia (Eastern Baccharis)
- Natural and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia: Baccharis halimifolia (Sea Myrtle, Groundsel-tree, Consumption Weed, Silverling)

Related post:
- Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center: Whitetail Lake