The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reports that demolition of a North Toe River dam downstream from Spruce Pine is under way. Agency staff say its removal “will make the river safer for paddlers and open up miles of upstream habitat to fish and other aquatic life.” Here’s the latest update from the agency.
Move over, kudzu: Oriental bittersweet and a grab bag of other non-native, invasive plants may actually pose more of a threat to our Southern forests. Like kudzu, Oriental bittersweet can rapidly overwhelm native plants by covering and choking them. But unlike kudzu, which tends to be limited to sunny, open areas along roadways, Oriental bittersweet […]
I take no chances with poison ivy. Its oil, urushiol, gives me little blisterlike welts that itch for weeks. But by early July, the three-leaved varmint was creeping up the chainlink fence in the dog lot, sneaking into the great swaths of English ivy that cover some corners of my yard, and even assaulting the […]
Attention, science educators: he U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is offering a series of water quality workshops for educators, Aug. 31 through Sept. 3 on Western North Carolina rivers where the endangered Appalachian elktoe mussel makes its home.
Here’s your chance to get inside some usually restricted-access fire lookout towers in Western North Carolina: the Forest Fire Lookout Association’s annual summer conference in Asheville, July 25 and 26.
Move over, Costa Rica: Western North Carolina has its own selection of "zip-line" tree-canopy tours. OK, there's no jungle, but it is a temperate rain forest, and Nantahala Gorge Canopy Tours zips visitors along a half-mile route some 80 feet above the ground. Going down? A zip-liner gets ready to fly. Photo courtesy Nantahala Gorge […]
The push for green jobs is well under way in Buncombe County and nationwide, and A-B Tech students are right in the thick of it. As part of the school's array of sustainability programs and initiatives, students in construction-industry programs, in particular, have been busy with both on-campus and community projects. Roof 'n' tumble: Blending […]
On Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, the Western North Carolina Alliance needs volunteers to help clear a section of the Cheoah River near Robbinsville of invasive exotic species such as bittersweet. Invasives threaten a native species, Virginia spiraea.
After months of controversy, the North Carolina Division of Water Quality issued a water-quality permit for The Cliffs at High Carolina on July 2. The permit brings the developer a step closer to proceeding with a golf-course community on a roughly 3,000-acre site between Swannanoa and Fairview. The construction and maintenance plans will affect about […]
Time is not on Dot Rice's side. On a gray day in June, she stood in the shadow of the Federal Building and voiced her disappointment that Gov. Bev Perdue hadn't made time to meet with her during an Asheville visit. "My family's still in danger," said Rice. For decades, they've lived near the contaminated […]
I'm a random, somewhat lazy twitcher. That's British for bird watcher, Marilyn Westphal of the Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society told me many years ago (see "In Search of the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker," March 11, 1998, Xpress). These days, however, the North Carolina Birding Trail has piqued my interest in all things avian: The Western North Carolina […]
On July 2, the North Carolina Division of Water Quality issued a water-quality certification permit for The Cliffs at High Carolina, a golf-community development located between Swannanoa and Fairview.
If you're hunting for cancer-fighting substances, there's no need to journey to the Amazon in search of some rare plant dangling in the upper reaches of the jungle canopy. The Bent Creek Institute here in Asheville and its partners at Wake Forest University have discovered a dozen plant species that are “cytotoxic to breast and/or […]
Pick your day, pick your town, and there's probably a tailgate market nearby. In the Asheville area, in fact, you could spend the better part of your week bouncing from market to market. Click the image above to view a slideshow by Margaret Williams. But the bounty doesn't end with fresh, local veggies. I recently […]
If you’ve ever yearned to escape modern life, even for a short while, or you’re curious about how things used to be done … a long, long time ago … consider spending up to four days at the Firefly Gathering.
The Environmental Protection Agency lists two coal-ash-storage dams in Buncombe among similar high-hazard structures in North Carolina and the U.S. But there’s no indication the two dams — each about 90 feet high and located just off Interstate 26 near Arden — present an immediate danger.
Local family has magic touch when it comes to catching record-breaking salmon in North Carolina.
Craig Childs loves to clean things. When the 32-year-old met Xpress at a local café recently, he looked up at the ceiling and, noting the dirty ductwork, said, “It needs cleaning again!” Restaurants and home kitchens can present the toughest cleaning challenges, says the owner of the Asheville-based Pristine Clean. And sometimes you walk into […]
An excerpt from the blog of Jennifer Lapidus, project coordinator of the N.C. Organic Bread Flour Project (photo by D. Kaleb Rathbone):
On June 24, cycling volunteers installed the first of 10 bike lockers that will be available in downtown Asheville for public use.
On June 24, cycling volunteers installed the first of 10 bike lockers that will be available downtown for public use.
