Climate change and extreme weather events disrupt habitat areas and food sources in NC mountain forests, while human infrastructure blocks natural migration paths and creates dangers near roadways for large animal species.
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Climate change and extreme weather events disrupt habitat areas and food sources in NC mountain forests, while human infrastructure blocks natural migration paths and creates dangers near roadways for large animal species.
About 35 acres of the nearly 450-acre tract — purchased by the nonprofit Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy in 2020 and recently transferred to the town of Canton — are now open, including the Berm Park mountain bike skills course and a mixed-use hiking/biking trail.
Xpress speaks with Jeff Ashford about his work at Appalachian Wildlife Refuge, the appeal of opossums and his unusual home pet.
Master falconer Leeann Shearouse discusses her rescue work and love of tulips.
Across the Northern Hemisphere, something is in the air. Gardeners are planting seeds. Dresses and skirts are getting shorter. As the first day of spring draws closer, Mother Nature turns her focus to the birds and the bees — and in Buncombe County, to the kittens. March to October is the feline breeding season, colloquially […]
Randy Tucker has a shadow, and her name is Star. With oversized ears and big paws that bear witness to her youth, the 3-year-old German shepherd mix was adopted three months ago from the Asheville Humane Society, which found her in mid-September, roaming as a stray in the Lees Creek area. Star now accompanies Tucker […]
Among the largest allocations are $12.2 million to accelerate the purchase and opening of Pisgah View State Park in Buncombe County, $7.2 million for the removal of hazardous dams in WNC and $5 million to upgrade the city of Hendersonville’s wastewater treatment plant.
White nose syndrome, a fungal disease first seen in Western North Carolina in 2011, has reduced some local bat populations by as much as 95%. And climate change poses a long-term challenge to their habitats and survival.
On an upper floor of Zeis Hall on the UNC Asheville campus is a small room containing many birds. None of these birds are alive. Each one is dead, preserved through taxidermy and stacked side by side in individual Tupperware containers. The room, smelling faintly of formaldehyde, is a biological specimen laboratory. The collection is […]
On Aug. 12, a subsidiary of nonprofit Conserving Carolina completed the $7.8 million purchase of the currently unused Ecusta rail line, stretching 19 miles between Hendersonville and Brevard, from the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council passed an ordinance on Aug. 5 allowing production and use of the crop, which the body had previously voted to decriminalize on May 6.
According to the N.C. Climate Science Report prepared by N.C. State University’s Asheville-based N.C. Institute for Climate Studies and other experts, the area will likely experience more landslides in the coming years due to climate change.
For many Asheville residents, seeing a bear at their trash can is a bucket-list item, the pinnacle of mountain living. But as exciting as a bear sighting can be, interactions with the furry, four-legged natives can quickly spell problems for bears and humans alike.
Ongoing habitat loss and warming temperatures present an existential threat to Western North Carolina’s only native trout species, the brook trout.
Eastern Tennessee-based author Frances Figart is helping children understand the realities of wildlife-vehicle collisions through her new book, A Search for Safe Passage.
The charging station program, funded by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality from part of the state’s allocation in the Volkswagen emissions-cheating scandal, partially defrays the cost of installing Level 2 infrastructure, which can recharge electric vehicles up to seven times as quickly as a standard 120-volt outlet.
The new outdoor classroom and garden area, the result of a three-year, $2 million project, features three distinct ponds, a boardwalk, a 20-person teaching shelter and interpretive signage, complete with a frog kiosk that plays different amphibian vocalizations.
The first such effort of its kind in North Carolina, the atlas will break the state into 937 sections of 10 square miles — covering roughly a fifth of its total land area — and ask birders to record all the varieties they see using the online platform eBird.
Increasing heat and stronger storms threaten trout populations dependent on clean, cold, oxygen-rich water. A decline in trout production could hurt farmers and recreational fishermen.
The Asheville-based nonprofit Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s work included both valuable wildlife habitats, such as the Wiles Creek and Little Rock Creek preserves, and prime farmland at risk of development. Sandy Hollar Farms in Buncombe County and Bowditch Bottoms in Yancey County were among the agricultural projects completed in 2020.
On Nov. 18, nonprofit Conserving Carolina announced that it had entered a contract to buy an unused 19-mile rail corridor between Brevard and Hendersonville for conversion into a greenway. Backers hope the Ecusta Trail will become a regional draw for running and biking enthusiasts.