PISGAH PROJECT 2026

In 2026, I’m centering Mt. Pisgah, her ecological, historical, and cultural importance, through a body of work I’m calling “Pisgah Project 2026.” I’ll be creating 26 paintings of Mt. Pisgah, including long-range views from different vantage points and paintings from the forest floor of Pisgah National Forest. Every other week, a new painting, and a new letter of the alphabet offering a new reason to appreciate and look for her among our mountains. I hope you enjoy the A-Z of Mt. Pisgah as we move through 2026.

A - ANCIENT MOUNTAINS

The Southern Appalachians, including Mt. Pisgah, are some of the oldest mountains in the world, formed around 480 million years ago through massive tectonic collisions. Over time, wind, water, and ice wore them down. Mt. Pisgah was once more than twice as tall as it is now, but erosion shaped it into the beautiful, rounded, wise-looking summit we see today, rising 5,721 feet (that’s over a mile!!) above sea level.

And even with all that age, these mountains are still very much alive—home to rich forests, incredible wildlife (hello, salamander capital of the world), and countless streams feeding our rivers. Ancient, resilient, and full of wisdom.

B - Biodiversity hotspot

Pisgah National Forest is home to one of the greatest concentrations of temperate forest biodiversity on Earth. Here, northern and southern species overlap, high-elevation spruce-fir forests meet rich cove hardwoods, and countless microclimates create room for life to flourish. Rare salamanders, migrating warblers, wildflowers, fungi, and ancient trees all find a niche here. This abundance is more than scientific wonder; it is a living lesson in coexistence, interdependence, and shared belonging. The forest thrives not through dominance and competition, but through diversity, relationship, connection, and collaboration!

C - Cherokee Land

The Cherokee people lived in the mountains around Pisgah for thousands of years before European contact. Connection to the land was an integral part of their identity. Mt. Pisgah was part of a landscape they called home until their forced removal during the Trail of Tears in 1838, when approximately 16,000 Cherokee were expelled from their ancestral lands in western North Carolina and surrounding states. Today, the Eastern Band of Cherokee maintains the Qualla Boundary, a sovereign reservation about 30 miles west of Mt. Pisgah, where tribal members preserve their language, culture, and connection to their ancient homelands. The Museum of the Cherokee is a great place to learn more.

D — Deep Roots

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, intensive logging operations clear-cut vast swaths of Pisgah's old-growth forest, leaving behind stripped mountainsides vulnerable to erosion and devastating fires that consumed the remaining slash and topsoil. Yet the forest proved remarkably resilient: today, the deep roots of oak, hickory, rhododendron, and hemlock weave together an intricate web beneath Pisgah's mountains, creating a living network that stabilizes slopes, shares nutrients and water, and shelters countless species from salamanders in the leaf litter to black bears foraging in the canopy above.

E — Ephemerals

My favorite time of year in Pisgah National Forest is when the spring ephemerals seize their moment! Before the canopy closes and while the sunlight still floods the forest floor, these fleeting little blooms radiate with quiet urgency. They’re easy to overlook and gone before you know it, so don't wait for warm weather to get out on the trail!

F — FOREST FLOOR

The forest floor on Mount Pisgah is built from thousands of years of leaves breaking down into rich, dark soil, mixed with old rocks and a huge underground network of mycelium that helps everything grow. In the spring, you can see it come alive with trillium, spring beauties, and trout lilies, all rooted in the same ground that’s been walked on for generations. And if you pay attention, you’ll notice where water quietly rises up from underground aquifers, starting as a small trickle before becoming the creeks and streams you hear and follow through the forest.