photo by Kevin Howe

Start off 2025 in nature with a walk in the woods and a chance to see Virginia’s earliest blooming plant – Skunk Cabbage – yes it often is in bloom on January 1. And the best woods walk in the Northern Neck is at Hickory Hollow Natural Area Preserve near Lancaster, off Regina Road.

Naturalists Kevin Howe and Betsy Washington from the Northern Neck Chapters of National Audubon Society and Virginia Native Plant Society will again this year lead a first day of the year nature walk on New Year’s Day, meeting at 1 pm at the Hickory Hollow parking lot. This is free and open to all.

Hickory Hollow is a delightful place to welcome in the New Year and is one of the four Virginia Natural Area Preserves in the Northern Neck. “Skunk Cabbage is one of the few plants that can produce its own heat enabling it to rise above a near freezing or snow-covered ground”, said Howe. Research has found it can raise its temperature in winter to 50-70 or more degrees and maintain a high internal temperature for about two weeks”. The walk will be to the unique 22- acre Cabin Swamp, about a two-mile walk roundtrip. Sturdy shoes should be worn as the trail down to the swamp is somewhat narrow and steep.

The 254 acres at Hickory Hollow is one of the 66 state natural area preserves, all of which were created and are protected because they contain some of the rarest natural communities and unique species habitats in North America. Hickory Hollow fits that definition well as it contains one of the few globally rare natural community known as a "coastal plain basic seepage swamp” and supports a high level of biological diversity including one orchid found nor where else in Virginia.

Hickory Hollow was established in 2000 and is owned by the Northern Neck Audubon Societybut managed by the Virginia Dept of Conservation and Recreation’s, Division of Natural Heritage.

For directions, comments, or just stating intentions to attend, email nnaudubon@gmail.com.