Description
As you step onto the trail at The Nature Conservancy’s Keel Mountain Preserve, you are immediately immersed in a forest of oak, hickory, smoketree and cedar. Not far from the forest, ruggedly beautiful limestone bluffs emerge from the landscape, spotted with sinkholes and glade-like openings.
Depending on local rainfall, creek beds at Keel Mountain might be running high, or dry. When water is abundant, visitors might witness a small waterfall flowing into a sinkhole that has been dubbed by local residents as the "lost sink."
In 2001, TNC acquired this property in order to protect the federally endangered Morefield's leather flower (Clematis morefieldii), a unique plant endemic to approximately 20 populations in few locations within northern Alabama and southern Tennessee. In order to safeguard the flower, and other plants and animals inhabiting the preserve, TNC primarily works to remove invasive plants and works to safeguard the site from destructive users.
