Posts Tagged ‘North Carolina’
More Than a Market
By Megan Northcote Shopping for fresh, locally grown foods at farmers markets is always a refreshing way to find healthy foods while supporting the community. But in recent years, some farmers markets have transformed from grocery store alternatives to tourist destinations, featuring cooking and artisan demonstrations, hands-on healthy living activities for children, and food and…
Read MoreN.C. General Assembly to Consider Coal Ash
By Brian Sewell In the first North Carolina legislative session since a Duke Energy coal ash pond spilled 39,000 tons of toxic ash into the Dan River, two lawmakers introduced a bill based on Gov. Pat McCrory’s coal ash cleanup proposal. The governor’s proposal mirrors previous recommendations made by the utility itself, and State Senator…
Read MoreDoubts Follow Elk River Contamination
By Kimber Ray Four months after a Freedom Industries chemical tank contaminated the water of approximately 300,000 West Virginia residents this past January, only 36 percent of those residents were drinking their tap water, according a survey released in May by the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. The affected private utility, West Virginia American Water Company, is…
Read MoreCommunities Pursue Revitalization Plans
By Carvan Craft Convenient access to local food can be a rare commodity in rural communities. Thanks to the Appalachian Livable Communities grant program, founded in 2012, five Appalachian communities will receive a shared total of $375,000 to help make local food projects a reality. The grant will fund a new agricultural education facility for…
Read MoreStanding Up for the Guardians of Our Air and Water
North Carolina has learned a tough lesson in the Dan River coal ash spill: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Appalachian Voices’ own Amy Adams makes a strong case for protecting the water in the Tarheel State.
Read MoreConnecting the Dots of the Southern Appalachian Loop Trail
By Matt Kirk What unites many of us in the Southern Appalachians is a love for hiking along the hundreds of miles of trails in our region. Ten years ago, I discovered that many of these paths form a loop measuring over 350 miles in length. Pieced together, this route, known as the Southern Appalachian…
Read MoreCherokee Tribe Works to Replenish Deer Population
By Kelsey Boyajian On the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation’s Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, white-tailed deer are a rare species. The population was depleted in the late eighteenth century during the peak of the fur trade, but today, efforts are being made to restore the deer population — plentiful in the rest…
Read MoreVolunteering in North Carolina
Stream Monitoring Information Exchange For those interested in a hands-on experience, the Environmental Quality Institute offers training on how to analyze stream-dwelling bugs to determine watershed health in Buncombe, Haywood, Madison, Yancey and Mitchell counties. Volunteers attend six-hour training sessions in the spring and fall to learn about stream ecology and species identification, and participate…
Read MoreNorth Carolina to Set Precedent in Superfund Litigation
By Kimber Ray In January, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in a case that will impact victims of toxic Superfund sites across the country. The Superfund program, created in 1980, is a federal initiative designed to address the nation’s most high-priority hazardous waste sites. Long-term exposure to chemicals and heavy metals migrating from…
Read MoreMaison Reciprocity Takes on Europe
By Kelsey Boyajian Appalachian State University’s Solar Decathlon team is hammering away in preparation for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 to be held in Versailles, France this summer. ASU will be pairing with Universite d’Angers for the project, dubbed Maison Reciprocity. The task is almost 60 percent complete as of mid-January. ASU first championed this…
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