The pursuit of health and happiness continues this week in the second of our two-part focus on wellness. Last week, we noted Western North Carolina's history as a health mecca and its growing reputation as a nexus for both Western and Eastern medicine traditions — from 19th-century tuberculosis sanitariums to modern cardiac centers and traditional […]
Author: Margaret Williams
Showing 1114-1134 of 1653 results
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/MLK2A_thumb.jpg)
MLK Day of Service Turns Into Largest Ever at Mars Hill College
Sixty-two students, faculty and staff turned out for Mars Hill College’s Day of Service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, making it one of the largest voluntary service events at the college in recent memory, say college representatives.
The Green Scene
"The environment: It's not just for tree-huggers." That could be the 2010 motto for the Asheville Hub Alliance, a local think tank that was formed several years ago as part of a visioning project focused on economic growth. The group's mission has evolved over the years, and most recently it has embraced the notion of […]
Going native: How green is your garden?
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service offers tips on “greening” your garden landscape with natives.
The Green Scene
The E-Conservation Program is helping North Carolina residents go green this year. Administered locally by the Buncombe County Cooperative Extension, the program can help area residents stay warmer while saving them money. A workshop scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 21, in Asheville will kick things off with a bonus: a discounted home energy audit for those […]
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/KSpotz_thumb.jpg)
NEW UPDATES: Katie Spotz eight days into Atlantic rowing crossing
Eight days ago, Katie Spotz started rowing across the Atlantic. The Warren Wilson College student has taken on this gargantuan task as a way to raise money for The Blue Planet Run, a San Francisco based nonprofit funding safe drinking water projects for the billion people around the world in need. Well equipped for the […]
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/buncombe_thumb.png)
Going green starts at home: E-Conservation workshop Jan. 21
Have you set a New Year’s resolution to be a little greener? Start at home with the E-Conservation program. Administered by the Buncombe County Cooperative Extension, the program aims to help local residents stay warmer for less money — starting with a Thursday, Jan. 21, workshop that qualifies attendees for discounted home-energy audits. Residents who […]
The Green Scene: Happy New (Green) Year
Here in Western North Carolina, we're not waiting around for the fruits of the 2009 Copenhagen climate-change agreement to trickle down to us. Across our region, organizations big and small, colleges, businesses and activists have already jumped on the green bandwagon. In the Asheville area alone, there are sustainability initiatives under way at UNCA, Warren […]
The Green Scene: Where we’ve been
Year's end is a time for reflection: in this case, looking back over 12 months' worth of Green Scene. Online, the most-viewed story was "Arsenic Found in Stream Near Progress Energy Plant" (Feb. 11). In print, the most recurring topic was the contamination at the old CTS plant on Mills Gap Road — from a […]
The Green Scene: Linking up
The World Bank might seem an unlikely institution to turn its attention to small-scale sustainability projects, and even less likely to use social-media tools to spotlight them. But such perceptions may be outdated, says Noah Wilson, a Warren Wilson College senior who got an inside look at the organization last month at an event the […]
Find community snowstorm news on mountainx.com
Like it did to so many in Western North Carolina, last week's snowstorm caught us scrambling to get our work done, get home, stay warm and help whomever we could. And while our newspaper publishes only once a week (on Wednesdays), Xpress is trying new ways to disseminate emergency news around the clock, every day. […]
The Green Scene
For neighbors of the contaminated former CTS site on Mills Gap Road, there are two key questions: What's to be done about it, and who's going to pay for it? The answers, say those residents, are clear: Force the Indiana-based company to clean it up and pay for it. But CTS has recently countered that […]
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Poppies2_thumb.jpg)
Popping poppies! Buncombe, Div. 13 DOT win state wildflower awards
If you’ve driven the highways around Asheville at any time since 1985, you’ve caught a glimpse of daylilies, poppies and wildflowers covering large swaths of medians and roadsides. The displays are part of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Wildflower Program, which has been enhancing the overall appearance of the state’s highways for more than […]
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/AppV_vidshot_thumb.jpg)
Appalachian Voices teams up with Coal River residents, Google Earth
An interactive-video project that keys in on the issue of mountaintop-removal coal mining will be featured at the Copenhagen climate conference this month. Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore narrates the project’s introductory video.
The haze we see, the air we breathe
When was the last time you actually saw the azure haze that gave the Blue Ridge Mountains their name? These days, it's most likely to be visible soon after a rainstorm, when the air starts to clear and the sun comes out. But all too soon, that misty blue turns a washed-out white. That's because […]
The Green Scene
By the time you read this, UNCA senior Ellie Johnston will be in Copenhagen, Denmark, observing closeup what happens at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which runs through Dec. 18. Chosen earlier this year to join a 25-member youth delegation for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit SustainUS, Johnston plans to share her experiences via a […]
Askville
Stewart David knows how to stir the pot. The longtime Asheville resident has been a persistent presence in the Mountain Xpress Letters section since the early '90s. He's also contributed several commentaries (most recently "Greenwashed," July 1 Xpress). Spreading the word: Animal-rights activist Stewart David has been speaking up ad speaking out in Asheville since […]
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SAHC_farm_thumb.jpg)
Grants help nonprofit assist local farmers
The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy got $43,000 in grants to help farmers In Sandy Mush, Fairview & Spring Creek.
The Green Scene
Rain gardens boost water quality The kids at Francine Delany School have been learning about water quality in hands-on fashion lately. The youngest ones got to pitch in with a recent Adopt-A-Stream project, while the eighth-graders got down and dirty: They dug out, prepped and planted a rain garden at their West Asheville school on […]
The Green Scene
News from around the region lands in the Xpress inbox via various routes each week, from old-fashioned e-mail to TweetDeck (a handy tool for tracking all those 142-character tweets) to a message from a BlackBerry-toting concerned citizen. Here are a few standout tweeted tips: Appeals court overturns trout stream variance in Yancey County The North […]
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Kilwin2_thumb.jpg)
Kilwin’s skates away as judges’ fave downtown Asheville holiday display
Kilwin’s Chocolates was named the judges’ favorite in the Asheville Downtown Association’s annual holiday-window-display contest.