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Public And Scientists Document Diversity Of Bluff Mountain During Bioblitz
On June 4 and 5, MountainTrue Staff and 43 volunteers documented the astonishing diversity of Bluff Mountain in Madison County, NC. Bluff Mountain has long been an iconic place to local residents who have hunted and gathered food and medicinal herbs on its slopes for generations. Our bioblitz confirmed Bluff’s special character and documented over 400 species, including over 270 vascular plants, a dozen mosses and liverworts, more than 30 birds, over 40 lichen, five mammals, six amphibians, and more than 50 invertebrate animals in just two days!
French Broad Riverkeeper Father’s Day Clean-up
We want to thank all the people who came out for our French Broad Riverkeeper Father’s Day Cleanup. It was hot and sunny, and there were a lot of people splashing around and enjoying the river. And because of the hard work of our volunteers they were doing so in a river with less trash and debris floating in it.
MountainTrue Announces New Southern Regional Director
MountainTrue is excited to announce the hiring of Gray Jernigan as regional director for the Southern Regional Office, located in Hendersonville and serving Henderson, Polk, Rutherford and Transylvania counties. Gray comes to MountainTrue from Waterkeeper Alliance, where he served in Raleigh as a staff attorney and communications coordinator. To welcome Gray to WNC, MountainTrue is hosting an open house at our Hendersonville office on July 7.
June 19: Father’s Day French Broad River Clean-up
French Broad Chocolates is partnering with MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper and Asheville Greenworks for a special Father’s Day River clean-up. Fathers, mothers and children are all invited to come out on the water and lend a hand cleaning up the French Broad River. This day of hard work will be rewarded with French Broad’s bean-to-bar craft chocolate and followed by an afterparty on the South Slope at Catawba Brewing.
June 9: Hendersonville Green Drinks: Prioritization of Transportation Projects in North Carolina and Our Region
On Thursday, June 9, Hendersonville Green Drinks welcomes featured speakers Lyuba Zuyeva, Director of the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, and Tristan Winkler, Senior Transportation Planner with the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, who will discuss how transportation projects go from concept to funded project.
New Smartphone App Makes Anyone a Muddy Water Cop
Now anyone with a smartphone can help report illegal muddy water runoff and sources of sediment pollution. Muddy Water Watch, a project of MountainTrue, the French Broad Riverkeeper and the North Carolina Waterkeepers, has teamed up with Shiny Creek, an Asheville-based enterprise-class web and mobile application development company, to create a new smartphone app that makes documenting sources of dirty water easier than ever.
With the launch of the new app, MountainTrue and the Riverkeeper have also announced the first three Muddy Water Watch trainings of the season: June 20 at the Public Library in Marshall, June 28 at Haywood Community College’s Regional High Technology Center in Waynesvill and June 29 at AB Tech in Asheville.
What The Heck Is Going On In Raleigh Re: Coal Ash? Some Answers
The North Carolina House of Representatives passed SB 71 on Wednesday, May 25 by a vote of 86 to 25 and sent it to the Senate. While this bill contains some good provisions, such as requiring Duke Energy to provide a permanent, clean drinking water supply for some residents living near coal ash pits, overall we believe that risks of SB 71 outweigh its benefits. We are concerned that in the process of revising the state’s coal ash laws, the legislature may provide Duke Energy with an avenue to reclassify many of its coal ash pits and substantially decrease the quality of their clean up, including the number that are required to be excavated rather than simply capped in place. The legislature’s review of SB 71 is ongoing but moving quite quickly. North Carolinians who want to have their voices heard on this important legislation should act now.
Blitz the Bluff with MountainTrue, June 4 & 5
MountainTrue is thrilled to announce the Bluff Mountain Bio-blitz happening this June 4 and 5th in the Pisgah National Forest near Hot Springs, North Carolina. During the Bio-blitz, expert and amateur naturalists will work in teams to document the biological diversity of Bluff Mountain.
Statement on DEQ Coal Ash Classifications
On Wednesday, May 18, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released it’s revised risk classifications for North Carolina’s 34 coal ash pits, upgrading the sites that were classified as “low” or “low to intermediate” priority to “intermediate” priority. The following is MountainTrue’s statement on DEQ’s action:
One Day, Two Big Victories
Yesterday we got great news on two efforts MountainTrue has been leading the way on for years: coal ash and the I-26 connector. The Department of Environmental Quality announced that all of Duke Energy’s coal ash in Western North Carolina will be cleaned up and moved away from our Broad and French Broad Rivers.
#MTRaleigh Report
Get the latest on environmental policy and politics from the capitol with the #MTRaleigh Report.
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