We appreciate Julie Tracey’s article on climbing in Hickory Nut Gorge [“Moving on Up,” Outdoors, April 22] and are generally supportive of responsible climbing. A clarification is appropriate, however, about Rumbling Bald. The majority of Rumbling Bald is private property. The Nature Conservancy purchased it in 2001, first and foremost because it is a nationally […]

With climate change hovering over us like a sword of Damocles, how we produce electricity has become critical. Burning fossil fuels is the most damaging way to get our power, since that produces CO2. And the power we use in North Carolina comes chiefly from coal, most of which comes from dynamiting mountaintops in neighboring […]

On Friday, April 24, I was at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Governors’ Proclamation ceremony, representing the Carolina Mountain Club—but Gov. Bev Perdue, my governor, was not there. It was a bad call and mistake on her part. This park is not just an outdoor destination, but also an economic engine for our state. […]

I’m writing about a man who was walking along Biltmore Avenue by the Biltmore Fitness Center at around 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22. I was on a treadmill by the window when he came by and stopped to pick up some trash along the street. I watched as he then crossed Biltmore Avenue, deposited […]

The governor of Texas recently spoke approvingly of the possibility of seceding. Frankly, my dears (and admittedly, I may be showing my Yankee roots here), if I were President Obama, and the governor clearly asserted secession or independence, I would take just the opposite tack of Republican Lincoln—if for no other reason than the element […]

I was talking to a friend about my video project “My Marshall,” which was about to air on URTV, and how excited I was. Even though the piece was uninspiring and probably boring, that was unimportant. What was important was the chance to communicate to my friends and strangers a little of what I see […]

On April 30, the World Health Organization *ratcheted up the threat alert for the swine flu epidemic to Phase 5 (out of 6). Its H1N1-type virus is nearly identical to that of the Spanish flu, which killed more than 50 million people in 1918-19. Today’s factory farms constantly expose sick, crowded, highly stressed animals to […]