East Tennessee is filled with a grand biodiversity of plants and animals. Our presenter, naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales, has written three books and over 600 newspaper and magazine articles about nature and natural history. Join us for December’s First Thursday Nature Supper Club as Stephen shares his favorite stories about some some unique and unexpected plants and animals he has encountered during his career. Osage orange, freshwater jellyfish, rufous hummingbirds, pawpaws, 17-year cicadas, red pandas, bald eagles, wild turkeys and the return of smoky madtoms are a few of the interesting stories Stephen Lyn has written about in the past 30 years and will share with us.

Join UT Arboretum education coordinator Michelle Campanis and Stephen Lyn for “It’s a Wonderful Life,” their next UT Arboretum First Thursday Supper Club on December 1 at 7 p.m. EST via Zoom. The program is free but you must register at to receive the Zoom link and recording. Closed captions are available. Contact Michelle at mcampani@tennessee.edu for questions or registration issues.