The Marshall Senior Center serves nearly 300 meals a day and offers a variety of activities for Madison County's elderly population, but the facility needed an energy face-lift. Enter the green team, led by the Global Institute for Sustainability Technologies, a new A-B Tech program that tackles special projects and holds workshops on such topics […]
Author: Margaret Williams
Showing 1198-1218 of 1653 results
The Dirt: Learning from the masters
All right, I confess: In my neglected garden, the arugula has bloomed, the spinach survives only because of our cool mountain nights, my three tomato plants are only now sporting their yellow blooms, and my tatsoi begs to be picked before it goes to seed. I didn't have the time to plant a garden as […]
Outdoorsy photo of the week
Asheville on Bikes’s Summer Cycle
Calling all running sponsors!
Two long-running November events need sponsors: The Shut In Ridge Trail Run and Turkey Trot
5K.
Vote for ArtSpace’s Good Food Garden NOW
Help ArtSpace get a $10,000 Good Food Grant by going online and voting. But hurry: There’s a June 18 deadline.
ArtSpace needs your vote for garden grant
Help ArtSpace get a $10,000 Good Food Grant by going online and voting. But hurry: There’s a June 18 deadline.
Betting on Earth Exchange
Never underestimate a former first-grade teacher. On June 9, amid a global recession, Beccah Boman marched into a meeting of the Asheville Buncombe Sustainability Community Council and passed out cards calling for donations that started at $500 and ratcheted up to a cool ten grand. The council—an initiative of the Asheville Hub project—is itself strapped […]
The Green Scene
At Warren Wilson College, sustainability is more than just a buzzword: It’s the guiding principle behind the annual Mountain Green Sustainability Conference, slated for Wednesday, June 24. “It’s an attempt by the college to be a catalyst for change in the region,” says Phillip Gibson, director of research and community outreach at the school’s Environmental […]
Back to (Asheville’s) future
Josh Dorfman isn’t following the typical Asheville literary script. He wasn’t born here, like Thomas Wolfe and Charles Frazier, and he’s certainly not buried here, like O. Henry. Nor is he a poet (Fred Chappell), a historical-fiction writer (John Ehle) or a multitalented professor with a literary bent (David Brendan Hopes). Groomin’ green: New Asheville […]
The Green Scene
I was 9 years old when I first saw a cougar up close. The University of South Alabama kept him in a large pen shaded by tall Southern pines beside the science building. I often stopped by to watch him pace his cage, because I lived on campus when my father worked there in the […]
The Green Scene
Never underestimate the weather. Sure, the French Broad River crested a tad above flood stage on May 27 at Blantyre, near Brevard. Yes, May has brought us more than 8 inches of rain (that’s nearly a record, twice what’s been typical since 1971, and definitely greater than 2008’s paltry 0.81 inches, according to the National […]
Duke calls for dismissal in Cliffside case
On June 2 in Asheville, Federal District Court Judge Lacey Thornburg will consider dismissing the case for requiring Duke Energy to perform an analysis of hazardous air pollutants that could be emitted by a new unit under construction at its Cliffside plant in Rutherford County.
Calling all Twitterers and Flick-sters for Mountain Sports Fest
Bring us your tweets, your Flickr’d photos. It’s time for the Mountain Sports Festival!
Tailgate’shrooming
It’s tailgate-market time in WNC.
Buy local, support land/water conservation on June 6
On June 6, a host of local businesses will donate portions of their sales to the regional nonprofit Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.
The Green Scene
The Chucky madtom is so rare, a mere 15 of the little catfish have been found in the last 70 years. And an attempt to breed two Chuckies caught in 2004 yielded no results, says U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Mark Cantrell. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “It looked like they were […]
Fun is a three-letter word: MSF
Talk to past Mountain Sports Festival participants, and they stress one word: fun.
Many also point to the event’s evolution since its first run in 2001. Early editions featured teams of adventure racers converging on the lawn at City/County Plaza, map in hand, planning the best way to navigate mountains, rivers and roads during rigorous cross-country hikes, frantic cycling and frenzied kayaking. Those who weren’t into such extreme sports could practice rolling a kayak in a big portable pool, climb a wall in the shadow of Asheville City Hall, or watch a variety of demonstrations.
The core of MSF: Asheville’s Carrier Park becomes Festival Village during Mountain Sports Festival weekend. Photo by Margaret Williams
The adventure racing is no more, and the festival moved to Carrier Park on Amboy Road several years ago. But the heart of the event beats strong.
In part, that’s due to the other F-word behind most festival components: free. “We’ve expanded the clinics and demonstrations this year,” says organizer Jeff Makey, who owns River Right Instruction. Demos and clinics will get their own space at the Festival Village (aka Carrier Park), he mentions. Sessions will cover everything from knot tying for white-water sports to bicycle maintenance to backpacking equipment and skills. Among the more esoteric offerings are nonwinch recovery systems for off-road adventures and even a Hula-Hoop clinic.
“One of the keys to the festival mission is increasing awareness and participation in mountain sports. The festival is a chance to talk to the pros, check out equipment and learn something,” Makey explains.
Girls on the Run founder attends May 23 event
Molly Barker, Girls on the Run International founder, will kick off the 2009 New Balance Girls on the Run 5K on Saturday, May 23, in Biltmore Park. The New Balance Girls on the Run 5K is the culminating event for participants in the 14-week Girls on the Run Program and will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Local nonprofit wins grant to help minority cancer patients
African-Americans are roughly twice as likely as other Buncombe County residents to suffer from diabetes, prostate cancer and breast cancer, Elaine Robinson reports. And as executive director of the Asheville-Buncombe Institute of Parity Achievement, she’s trying to do something about it. Since its inception five years ago, the organization has worked to address such local […]
The Green Scene
Go to Wikipedia’s “civil disobedience” entry and you come face to face with a portrait of Gandhi, who helped India win independence from Great Britain. You’ll also read about Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his taxes to protest the Mexican War. There’s mention of Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement as well. […]
Outdoors: Guide me
I admit it: I’m guilty of not getting enough dirt on my boots so far this season. Despite ambitious winter-laid plans, I’ve not explored anything much wilder than a few garden trails at The North Carolina Arboretum and the sidewalks of West Asheville this spring. That’s far short of my intention to visit lookout towers […]