Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefensive Plants podcast, the official podcast of

Indefenseauplants.com. What's up? This is your host, Matt. Welcome to the show. How is everyone

doing this week? I'm doing great because we are talking about one of the coolest ecosystems in North

America, and that is the spruce fir forests of high elevation areas of the Appalachian Mountain

Chain. Joining us to talk about this is Kelly Holdbrooks from the Southern Highlands Reserve,

and their efforts to restore Red Spruce are inspirational.

I'm going to let her detail why this tree is so cool and why the ecosystem it comprises

is so important, and of course, all of the amazing efforts going in to ensure it has a future on our planet.

But I can't emphasize enough that restoration like this is not only necessary, but it is a group

effort. It can't be done in silos. And the more we work together, the better off nature will be.

Before I get to that, I just want to say, if you enjoy the In Defensive Plants podcast, consider supporting it because I literally couldn't be doing this without support. There are a lot of great ways to do that, but one of the best is to become a patron over at patreon.com slash In Defensive Plants. For a little financial support each month, I'm talking less than a couple cups of coffee. You get some great kickbacks and you keep the show up and running. So thank you to everyone that supports it through Patreon and all of the other ways to support this show. Just check the show notes over at indefensiveplants.com slash podcast to find all the other ways you can do that. But thank you. I couldn't be doing this without you. All right, that is entirely enough out of me. I can't wait for you to hear this conversation.

So without further ado, here's my conversation with Kelly Holdbrooks.

I hope you enjoy.

All right, Kelly Holdbrooks, welcome to the podcast. It is an honor to have you here.

I'm really excited to talk to you. But for those that aren't familiar with your work,

let's start off with an introduction. Tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what it is you do. Absolutely.

Well, thank you.

It's a great honor just to be here and to talk about plants, first of all.

As you said, my name is Kelly Hold Brooks.

I'm the executive director of the Southern Highlands Reserve.

For those of you that don't know, the Southern Highlands Reserve is a private,

non-profit native plant garden located at an elevation of 4,500 feet, which is considered high

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