Timothy Gerla
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tybstar.bsky.social
Timothy Gerla
@tybstar.bsky.social
260 followers 140 following 63 posts
Chapel Hill, NC. he/him
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A photo of three small trees, the top, a green holly, the middle, a bright yellow (probably hickory), and a red shrub of some kind. The colors are lined up like a stoplight. A pollarded maple, with a few very bright orange-yellow leaves remaining. A bright yellow maple tree with a carpet of fallen yellow leaves on the ground. To the left, a tree trunk with a bright orange "no trespassing" sign attached. Two trees in bright fall foliage: a deep maroon Japanese Maple, and behind it, a shockingly bright yellow ginko. The yellow color is so warm, it's almost an orange.
November 10, 2025 at 2:24 AM
tybstar.bsky.social
Such great colors out there right now.
A ginko tree with bright yellow-green leaves, backlit. Some brown vines drape down in the foreground. A tree-lined asphalt street curving into the distance, with a carpet of red and yellow maple leaves on the left margin, and a bright green-yellow moss shoulder on the right. The colors over overall very yellow, yellow-green, a bit of a bit reddish orange. The sky is overcast, and the asphalt is wet indicating recent rain. In the foreground, two small buckeye shrubs with very bright yellow foliage. In the background, a southern magnolia (still glossy dark green), and other plants and trees. In the foreground, yellow and brown leaves, a small patch of River Oats grass (Chasmanthium latifolium) also turning yellow. The grass plants are upright in a cluster, and the leaves are draping down towards the ground. In the foreground, tree trunks and some assorted understory.
November 9, 2025 at 1:32 AM
tybstar.bsky.social
My favorite part of all of this, from the town's website: www.townofchapelhill.org/government/d...
A diagram of a 3 by 3 by 9 foot pile of logs, illustrated using golden retriever dogs for scale.
November 1, 2025 at 4:35 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Hey NC friends, I've recently gotten involved in a new project called the Triangle Central Kitchen, a social enterprise fighting hunger and food waste, and we are launching on Sept 24 at Namu in Durham. Want a great dinner for a greater cause, check it out! trianglecentralkitchen.org/tck-launch-p...
September 18, 2025 at 11:48 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Fire on the forest floor Fire on the forest floor
September 11, 2025 at 8:43 PM
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Blowing some fire lines for a small burn this evening. #rxfire #goodfire
A photo of a forest floor, half of it cleared to the duff underneath, the other half covered in pine needles. Green trees in the background. A black dog wearing a fluorescent yellow and orange safety coat, prancing near a big pile of logging slash. A black dog wearing a fluorescent yellow and orange safety coat, with a wild look on her face. She’s barking.
September 11, 2025 at 2:59 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
And this Baptisia alba (White Wild Indigo)! This is the second Baptisia species we've found on the property.
A plant in the foreground with small, long, oval leaves, with a bean-like vibe. A flower stalk is emerging upwards, with small white flowers in the process of opening up. Towards the top, closed buds. In the background, trees and grasses. Blue sky. Someone is holding the flower stalk with the white bean-like flowers.
May 25, 2025 at 8:37 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
And this Amianthium muscitoxicum (Fly Poison or Crow Poison).
Someone is holding the stem of a flower stalk. At the end of the stalk appears to be a clustered dome of small white flowers. The dome is maybe a couple of inches in diameter. At the base of the plant, strappy narrow leaves. There are some other plants on the ground, as well as some bare earth. A closer look at the flower on the end of the stalk, with someone's hand behind it. It's egg shaped, made up of tiny white flowers. Most of the lower flowers have already opened, but towards the top of the stalk there appear to be buds still in progress. The background is more greenery and some bare earth.
May 25, 2025 at 8:33 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Such great botanizing out there right now. From one spot in the Uwharries, we've got this Matelea carolinensis (climbing milkweed) 😍
Large, round or oval shaped green leaves in the foreground, with small, 5-petaled dark maroon flowers. It seems to be a vine, climbing up a small tan stem of another plant. In the background, more green plants and perhaps some sticks and small tree limbs. In the foreground, a cluster of small, 5-petaled, deep maroon flowers. The petals are delicate and are curved. In the center of one flower you can perhaps see some yellow color. Behind the cluster of blossoms, large oval shaped leaves with pointed tips appear to twine up the small stem of another plant. In the blurry background, a small tree trunk fallen over, other branches and grasses and other plants.
May 25, 2025 at 8:29 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Quick little growing season #rxfire in the Uwharries. Goals: clear out some accumulated fuels and reduce hazard near our storage shed.
A scrappy young pine forest, the forest floor is on fire on the right hand side. Downed saplings and pine needles and ferns on the left. A small stand of pine trees, the forest floor on fire, smoke rising and obscuring the sun. Foreground is a dirt road. Some handheld equipment can be seen.
May 24, 2025 at 10:57 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
If you smelled smoke in Chapel Hill today, it might have been from a prescribed fire. We burned several meadows at the NCBG's Mason Farm unit behind the golf course. #rxfire #goodfire
A medium distance photo of several humans standing around a vehicle, chatting. They are wearing yellow. In the foreground are green plants, grasses, shrubs. The people and vehicle are framed by two dark tree trunks in the foreground. A green natural area, with shrubs, grasses, and other plants, on fire. Smoke and fire moving to the right, across an open green meadow. On the right, flames. On the left, two people standing in the shade of a tree. They are holding metal drip torches. One is wearing a hard hat. Smoke rising into the blue sky with a few white clouds. A black burned area and some surviving green trees in the foreground. To the right, a green grass and gravel two-track road. You can just barely see some people and maybe a a vehicle at the end of the road.
April 29, 2025 at 10:27 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
There is some excellent botanizing (and other kinds of izing) out there this spring!
A photo of a very large moth, a Callosamia angulifera (tulip tree silkmoth), mostly black in the center, with prominent fuzzy antennae (a boy?), and lighter gray and cream colored fringes on the edges of the wings. A photo of a small purple iris, Iris cristata (Dwarf Crested Iris), with other greenery and some brown leaves around it. A photo of some very delicate and filamentous white flowers from a blooming Chionanthus virginicus (White Fringetree). A flower on a Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxter Flower) shrub.
April 24, 2025 at 5:38 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Nasty looking fire in Kernersville, apparently it is a metal recycling plant on fire. The same plant caught fire in 2023.
A photo taken from a car, on the road, a four lane boulevard with a grass median. In the distance, plumes of gray smoke are visible.
April 14, 2025 at 12:40 AM
tybstar.bsky.social
Great turnout at Chapel Hill NC's Hands Off protest! I don't know, maybe 2000 people?
A lot of protesters holding signs, many wearing hats.
April 5, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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Fire lines are often plowed or disced, but that can damage the structure of the soil and makes it hard to walk. So these are hand lines: mowed, leaf blown, and raked clear of flammable material. The goal is to create a 10ft+ wide lane that won't carry fire.
A path in the forest, leaf-blown down to bare earth, with some clumps of grasses and other plants. A view of a path in a forest, with a backpack leaf blower sitting on the ground in the foreground.
April 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
We are prepping a small 10-acre area of young pine trees for a hot burn this spring. This is a Kunz tow-behind mower that we're using to mow the fire lines--it's huge and heavy, 600lbs with a 27hp engine. I fired it up for the first time yesterday and only got it a little bit stuck twice.
A 4-wheeled tow-behind mower painted gray (but covered in leaves and pollen already), with wheels mounted on rails above the mower deck. In the background are young pine trees and brush. A red UTV towing a large mower, with trees in the background.
April 3, 2025 at 12:15 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
A sign in a bathroom, dark blue background, red and white text that says "Please DO NOT drink and/or bathe in here", with an arrow pointing to the toilet.
March 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
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Based on this soil map, I think I am seeing the difference between 26 (coastal plain) and 15 (clay-y southern piedmont), but I am not a soil expert. tile.loc.gov/image-servic...
A big map of soil types in NC.
March 16, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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Look at the two colors of clay on the UTV's tires. Both colors collected within probably a half mile of each other.
A photo of a tire with large treads, the deep portions of the tread have a light colored beige/yellow clay, and the raised portions are covered in red clay.
March 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Here is a closer picture of the lichen(?).
A close up photo, the left hand side is a gray rock with lots of little gray dots on it. The dots have a thin darker outline. There is moss on the right hand side of the photo. It is mostly yellowish green and brown.
February 25, 2025 at 11:12 PM
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They're burning a big area in the Uwharrie National Forest today. Check out the smoke. The buckeyes and trout lilies are waking up. And check out this weird lichen pattern on this rock!
The leaves of an early Buckeyes (Aesculus) plan starting to open. Set on a bed of brown beech leaves, there's a gray rock, half covered in a thick moss, the other half of the rock appear to be covered in a bunch of little darker gray dots. Upon closer inspection, they look like spots of lichen forming. But I am not a lichenologist so I am not sure. A close up of a little yellow flower emerging from a spotted green and purple pair of long, skinny leaves. It's a trout lily, Erythronium americanum. There are twigs and brown leaves in the background. A view across a field of of young loblolly pine trees to a ridge and the sky. There is a very large distant plume of smoke visible. The sky is half clouds, half blue.
February 25, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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We had a tiny prescribed fire this week, about a 1/8 acre near our campsite. After the fire I thinned some of the skinny pines, so hopefully this spring with the fire and extra light we will see some ground cover plants come back. This also gives us some defensible space near camp.
A pine forest with a small fire creeping along the ground. On the left, a black dog and a human wearing teal and green, holding a bright red drip torch. A small stand of pines with a fire underneath, and a column of smoke heading towards the sky.
February 1, 2025 at 3:15 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Ready for some fun.
A black dog wearing a fluorescent orange and yellow safety vest, standing at a jaunty angle with a ball in her mouth. The background is brown, pine trees and pine needles on the forest floor.
January 30, 2025 at 1:36 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
Thanks for following along! I'll post more to this thread when I have updates and I remember.
A photo of a forest, on the left, a some very young pines with a more established windbreak of older pines in the distance. On the left, a deciduous forest in the winter. In the center of the image, the lights of a small red utility vehicle as it climbs the hill towards the camera. The sky is clear and bright blue, and there's a bit of a lens flare in the upper-right corner from the sun. Another photo of a forest, brightly lit, the camera is pointed right at the sun through the trees. There is a large holly branch in the top of the frame, and the ground is covered in ferns. The sun shining through the trees is casting long shadows on the ground.
January 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
tybstar.bsky.social
I'm using a handheld brush cutter (like a string trimmer but with a sawblade on the end) to mow down the saplings to widen this path that will be our firebreak. After brush cutting, it will need to be mowed closer and blown free of organic matter. At that point it'll be an effective firebreak.
A two-frame animated GIF showing a before and after of a path being widened. On the left is a young pine forest. On the right, an older forest.
January 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM