Summer 2024 Lady Slipper Award Goes to Kent Wilcox
Once every season, we honor an outstanding volunteer with our Lady Slipper Award. For this summer, the award goes to Kent Wilcox. AmeriCorps member Mary Miller talked with Kent about the great work he does to support Conserving Carolina. Thank you, Kent!
How long have you been a volunteer with Conserving Carolina?
I became a volunteer for Conserving Carolina when I joined the Board of Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy in 2014, so it’s been ten years.
In what capacity do you typically volunteer with Conserving Carolina? How have you volunteered for Conserving Carolina in the past?
I served on the board of CMLC, and subsequently Conserving Carolina, for six years. During that time I served as Chair of the Nominating Committee and Co-chair of the Bylaws Subcommittee. Since leaving the Board in 2020, I have continued to volunteer as a member of the Conserving Carolina Education Committee and the Transfiguration Preserve Advisory Committee. I enjoy volunteering with CC members to remove invasives from conservation lands.
What brought you to Western North Carolina, and what has been your inspiration for becoming involved with Conserving Carolina?
While growing up in North Carolina, I enjoyed camping and hiking in the mountains. I spent much of my professional life in Wisconsin and loved to canoe and camp in the Northwoods with my wife. When I retired, I was eager to enjoy the beauty of the NC mountains and coast.
What was your education/career background before coming to the area?
I graduated from college with a degree in chemistry, but decided that a career in the life sciences would be more fun. After I earned a PhD in Microbiology, I became a faculty member at a medical school in Wisconsin, where I conducted research in virology and taught graduate and medical students. More importantly, I learned how to research almost any topic, sort out fact from fiction, and communicate information to anyone who would listen.
How did you come to be so involved with Conserving Carolina? What motivates you to continue focusing so much of your time and energy on furthering conservation efforts?
When we moved to western NC, I joined the Board of Friends of DuPont Forest (FODF), where I met several members of the Board of Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. Both boards worked together to conserve properties near DuPont State Forest, so I became interested in working with CMLC when I left the Board of FODF.
What is your “favorite” environmental conservation issue, either facing WNC or in another community?
Favorite is probably not the best word for environmental issues that concern me most. One of my big concerns is the negative impact of more residents and more visitors on the natural environment in WNC. Visitation at DuPont State Forest has increased from 20,000 per year to more than 1.2 million visitors per year. I am also highly concerned about the spread of nonnative invasive plants in natural areas. Kudzu, oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, and numerous other nonnative plants are destroying native habitats and altering the landscape.
What has been your most rewarding experience in volunteering with Conserving Carolina?
By far, the most rewarding experience has been getting to know some well-informed and very dedicated environmentalists. They are a wonderful resource of information and always available to answer my questions.
What are your hopes and/or expectations for Conserving Carolina in the future?
Conserving Carolina will face increasing challenges in the future. Developers of both commercial and residential real estate will put pressure on local governments to overturn conservation easements. Climate change will bring droughts, floods, and forest fires that will alter the ecology of conserved lands. My hope is that Conserving Carolina will form deep partnerships with other environmental organizations in order to meet the challenges of the future.
What else do you like to do when you aren’t volunteering for Conserving Carolina? Your other interests, passions, hobbies and pursuits?
I like to combine hiking, wildflowers, and photography. The mountains of NC provide great opportunities for all three pursuits. My wife and I fostered rescued golden retrievers in WNC for several years, and have enjoyed sharing our lives with two that we adopted.
What other interesting, cool and exciting information about you can we share with our readers? Do you have a motto or quote that you try to live by, that has informed your commitment to volunteering with Conserving Carolina?
This year I served as Chair of the Earth Week Task Force for Givens Estates, which is a retirement community in Asheville. Our goal was to schedule a series of environmental events that would be relevant to a community of approximately 700 residents with an average age above 80. Planning those events required a completely different mindset from working on environmental research projects with high school students. Way back when, my motto (attributed to Sir Walter Scott) was “The will to do, the soul to dare.” It has served me well.