The Tryon Garden Club wrote and produced a new video highlighting the environment of Pearson’s Falls and Glen in Polk County. The video, “Pearson’s Falls – A Beautiful Place,” enables students and teachers to learn more about the glen and falls. It explains the unusual factors that come together to make Pearson’s Falls.

A Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) award of $5,000 from the 2016 Great Charity Challenge Grant funded the project. Tryon Garden Club submitted a detailed grant proposal to develop an educational video for use with Polk County and area schools and their students. The video can be tied to classroom units of study of nature, geology, ecology, plants, science and history.

Kathy Wright wrote and produced the video, Eric Olsen did the video recording, Janet Orselli was the still photographer, and Patrick McMillan Ph.D., director of the South Carolina Botanical Garden, was the narrator.

The actors were third grade students at Tryon Elementary School who made the hike through the glen to Pearson’s Falls. Tryon Garden Club members were the trail guides.

Pearson’s Falls is an important place among all the beautiful spots in the Blue Ridge Mountains of WNC. The surrounding mountains sheltered the cove over millions of years resulting in a protected environment in the glen and incredible biodiversity. The river provides the most necessary ingredient for life, water. 

The metamorphic rock, amphibolite, weathers to make a rich neutral soil that nourishes the high number of plant species. Years of leaf fall provide nature’s compost to fertilize the soil. All these things work together to shelter and nurture a life web called a rich cove forest, found nowhere else in the immediate area.

Our video helps the students learn the importance of our water resources and the interesting relationship between water, rock, soil, plants, weather and time.

The Tryon Garden Club owns and operates Pearson’s Falls. It offers free admission and guided walks through the quarter-mile trail up to the 90 foot waterfall to school groups. It is open to the public Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and there is an admission charge.

In the spring there will be several guided wildflower walks as the glen has a changing display of ephemerals from late February through May. There are wildflowers, shrubs and trees blooming from spring through fall.

Pearson’s Falls is closed the month of January.

For information on Pearson’s Falls and to view the video “Pearson’s Falls – A Beautiful Place,” visit pearsonsfalls.org.

For those interested in joining the Tryon Garden Club,  write to P.O. Box 245, Tryon, NC 28782.

– article submitted by Lucy Brannon