Smart Growth and Henderson County’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan

The state projects that in the next 25 years, over 39,000 people will move to Henderson County. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the current populations of Hendersonville, Flat Rock, Fletcher, Laurel Park, and Mills River combined. Furthermore, when they get here, they’ll require 17,000 new homes — that equates to nearly 700 new homes per year!

How will we accomplish that? Where will those houses go? Fortunately, we have an opportunity to answer those pressing questions, as Henderson County is now developing a 25-year plan for future development.

This long-range plan, called a comprehensive plan, provides a significant opportunity for residents and businesses to inform the next 25 years of growth and development in Henderson County. Community input in the comprehensive planning process will ensure the county is better equipped to meet the challenges of a growing population, climate change, and increased pressures on our built environment.

When we think of how we typically meet a huge demand for housing, we envision sprawling subdivisions and massive apartment complexes.

Smart Growth: limiting the expansion of infrastructure and building only where infrastructure such as water, sewage, and electricity already exists is one of the most effective ways to combat urban sprawl, protect green space, and ensure higher density and more functional communities.

On February 10, MountainTrue Healthy Communities Program Director Chris Joyell chatted with us about smart growth in relation to Henderson County’s 25-year Comprehensive Plan. Taking the county’s predicted population increase into consideration, Joyell outlined how we can realize a vision for growth that encourages economic development, respects our natural resources and agricultural heritage, and enhances our communities’ quality of life for generations to come! Presented in partnership with Conserving Carolina, this free webinar was the first of four Special Edition Green Drinks series webinar, entitled Good Growth Makes Good Sense. Click here to watch the webinar recording!

Those projects usually require extending new water and sewer lines into rural and undeveloped land. Instead of expanding our infrastructure into rural landscapes, we can choose to invest in our existing communities by improving aging infrastructure to accommodate the growth that cities and towns are designed to absorb.

Focusing development in established neighborhoods protects our farmland and natural areas and represents a sound financial approach to the problem. By encouraging development in existing communities, the county reduces the long-term maintenance obligation of new infrastructure. Investing in our communities supports our neighbors and is ultimately more efficient, saving the county money and strengthening its tax base.

A greater focus on providing a wide range of housing options can serve as an antidote to sprawling development patterns that perpetuate gridlock, auto emissions, and the climate crisis. These housing options don’t always have to be 200-unit multi-family apartment buildings. Instead, we can encourage modest forms of infill development that are comparable in size and scale to large homes. These “middle housing” types include duplexes and courtyard apartments and have been largely missing from housing production since the 1970s.

If you visit any pre-war neighborhood in the region, you’ll find modest brick-faced townhouses and courtyard apartments blending in seamlessly with single-family homes. These middle housing types can provide a wide range of affordable options for, say, seniors looking to downsize or young adults looking to strike out on their own; for service workers, public servants, and school teachers looking to live closer to where they work.

Accessible, affordable housing options can help us build a community that accommodates all walks of life. To do this, we need a fair and predictable set of rules to guide development. When we leave these decisions to the discretion of a county board or a judge, the only people who benefit are the lawyers. Instead, we need to streamline the permitting and approval process to make development decisions more timely, transparent, and predictable for developers and residents alike.

If we want to preserve Henderson County’s farmland, forests, and heritage, we need to find a better way to accommodate the anticipated influx of new residents while supporting our existing communities. Henderson County’s ongoing comprehensive planning process allows county residents to articulate what middle housing options could look like and how they could fit in/around existing neighborhoods and town centers while preserving their unique character.

Visit Henderson County’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan website to learn more and get involved.

MountainTrue and The Creation Care Alliance of WNC on Eco-Grief

It’s hard to keep up with the news and harder still to process.

We see images of fires raging across the American west, driving both human and non-human communities from their generational homes. We hear farmers speak, in choked sobs, of unpredictable growing seasons and lost crops. We shake with the knowledge that we are losing species at 10 to 100 times the rate considered “natural” by scientists. We witness persistent environmental racism inflicted upon BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. We live in a reality in which BIPOC and low-income communities are the most affected by climate change and most frequently excluded from climate conversations.

Many of us find ourselves numb with grief and overwhelmed by the pain of the world we love. In other words, many of us are experiencing ecological grief and climate anxiety — completely reasonable responses to deeply challenging truths.

As we grapple with our changing climate and the devastation of natural spaces, we may feel fear, sadness, anger, or a sense of despondency. We may feel burnt out. It may be challenging to plan for “the next thing.” It may be difficult to do anything other than try to “fix the problem,” making it impossible to rest. This is why recognizing and processing ecological grief is so important.

Together, we can learn to navigate and be present in the world as it is — grounding our lives and our activism and perhaps discovering hope and community in the process. As Francis Weller says, “grief and love are sisters.” By honoring our grief, we can develop a clearer understanding of why we care for this world in the first place and ultimately reconnect to our love for it.

Those working at the intersections of climate and environmental justice often suffer from depression and anxiety. The impacts of climate change — like increasingly frequent and severe storms and the damage they leave in their wake — can lead to panic attacks and PTSD in impacted populations. Activists, educators, and vulnerable communities all deserve support in addressing the mental and physical health aspects of being climate-informed and climate-impacted. We and many others are striving to provide that support to all in our mountain communities who are in need and interested.

The Creation Care Alliance of WNC — MountainTrue’s faith-based program — began offering seven-week-long Eco-Grief Circles virtually in the fall of 2020 to help meet the needs of our community members struggling with ecological grief and climate anxiety. These Eco-Grief Circles are led by environmental advocates, counselors, and pastors, and sessions are inspired by the work of Francis Weller and Joanna Macy. In past meetings, participants provided mutual support, healing, and insight as they explored grief and sorrow, anxiety and fear, guilt and shame, anger, despair, and emotional integration. Participants expressed profound gratitude for being among people who could talk honestly about grief, suffering, and the ecological and social challenges of our time.

Since 2020, our grief group offerings have evolved substantially. What began as a local, online effort to offer support has blossomed into an initiative supported by various organizations and individuals internationally and throughout the United States. We’ve hosted in-person and virtual groups (serving more than 150 individuals), offered training and curriculum to support others as they lead their communities in this work, and we’ve spoken on panels for national organizations about our offerings and learnings.

Click here to learn more about eco-grief and our Eco-Grief Circles and click here to learn more about our current eco-grief efforts. Because our current Eco-Grief Circles have limited capacity, we continue to consider the next iteration of this work and how we can achieve that developing vision.

We know the need for this work continues. We know that many others are championing this necessary work in their own communities, both physical and online. We’re deeply inspired by the thought-leaders, educators, creators, innovators, and activists at:

The All We Can Save Project, whose mission is “to nurture a welcoming, connected, and leaderful climate community, rooted in the work and wisdom of women, to grow a life-giving future.” The All We Can Save Project offers an anthology of helpful and empowering resources, including resources for educators, climate emotions, and information on starting your own All We Can Save Circles.
Marine biologist and climate solutions communicator Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson — The All We Can Save book co-editor, along with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson.
Intersectional Environmentalist (IE), who provide accessible and inclusive, educational, and empowering resources — “IE is a climate justice community and resource hub centering BIPOC and historically under-amplified voices in the environmental space.”
Earthrise Studio, whose “goal is to humanize the impacts of the climate crisis by sharing the diverse experiences of those living on the frontlines of climate change and the activists who have devoted their lives to tackling it.”
The Work that Reconnects Network, whose mission is to “help people discover and experience their innate connections with each other and the self-healing powers of the web of life, transforming despair and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action.”
The BTS Center, whose mission is to “catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership.” The BTS Center offers various programs providing support in eco-grief and is also one of the partners supporting the Creation Care Alliance’s upcoming Eco-Grief Circles.

Have additional resources you’d like to share? Want to learn even more about our eco-grief offerings? We invite you to reach out to us! In the meantime, we’ll continue to learn from and listen to the climate activists, community educators, and creators leading the charge (including those mentioned above) so that we’ll be better equipped to engage with our communities as we process ecological grief and climate anxiety together.

Contact Us: Sarah Ogletree, Creation Care Alliance Director

Plastic-Free WNC

Plastic pollution: we’ve all seen it littered on the side of the road, blowing in the wind, floating down rivers and streams. Plastic pollution is a global problem, but we all have to be part of the solution.

Watauga Riverkeeper Andy Hill on plastic pollution: “We’ve spent years conducting river cleanups, engaging hundreds of volunteers and partner organizations. We spend a lot of time on the Watauga, New, and Elk Rivers collecting water samples, planting trees, and tracking pollution. I thought we had a good handle on the plastic problem. A watershed change and paradigm shift for how I considered the issue came about when we partnered with the Town of Boone and Asheville Greenworks to install a passive litter collection device known as a Trash Trout. The data we began collecting on the type and amount of single-use plastics — including styrofoam and other littered items — truly blew us away.”

MountainTrue Watershed Outreach Coordinator Anna Alsobrook clearly remembers the day she and French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson were confronted with the dismal reality of the plastic pollution crisis: “It was the final straw — figuratively and literally. A few years ago, Hartwell and I were paddling the Swannanoa River. Plastic was everywhere — thousands of plastic shopping bags littered the trees around us, and plastic bottles floated in the river like rafts of ducks. These weren’t new sights for us by any means, but they were the ultimate kick in the gut to start making more permanent changes to protect our rivers and streams.”

Following their experience, Anna and Hartwell started researching the plastics industry. The more they learned, the more they disliked. The strategy of the plastics industry is akin to the tobacco industry — both forced themselves on unsuspecting populations, fully aware of their products’ adverse health and environmental impacts. Both marketed themselves as “cool” and continue to disproportionately burden our most vulnerable populations with hazardous health concerns.

Cigarette usage has been on the decline since the tobacco industry’s regulation. The plastics industry, to this point, has gotten a free pass. Wrapped up in the oil and gas industry, Big Plastic is cozy with the idea of buying politicians and bullying consumers into buying their products. With few sustainable, affordable, and accessible plastic alternatives, we — the general public — remain Big Plastic’s captive audience.

Some places have started implementing their own rules on plastic — eight states have implemented their own single-use plastic bans, along with 345 municipalities across the nation. We at MountainTrue want to follow their lead, hopefully inspiring others to do the same. We based our proposed ordinance on the various successes of existing single-use plastic bans. It’s intended to mitigate plastic pollution in Western North Carolina by addressing the single-use plastic problem at its source.

Now, let’s get into the details:

We begin the ordinance with a whole slew of “Whereases” — a standard practice in bills and ordinances. Our Whereases spell out atrocities of the polluted reality perpetuated by the plastics industry: a reality characterized by environmental injustice, rife with increasingly negative impacts on human and environmental health.

The ordinance’s first section defines key terms and concepts, like what makes an item single-use, compostable, reusable, etc. We based these definitions on best practices across the country.

The following sections are the figurative meat of the ordinance:

Section two details prohibitions on:

Polystyrene as a primary chemical additive in styrofoam food and beverage containers
Plastic shopping bags at points of sale
Plastic stirrer sticks and splash guards
Plastic straws (we recommend a request-only policy, though nursing homes and hospitals are exempt from this policy)

Some items in this section have built-in exceptions: the ban on plastic shopping bags excludes bags used for produce, bulk items, meats, seafood, flowers, small hardware, live animals (like fish or insects), dry cleaning, or hotel-provided laundry bags. It also excludes yard waste, pet waste, and garbage bags.

With the ban on plastic shopping bags at points of sale, we hope to encourage people to bring their own bags to the store. But, people are human and will forget sometimes. To cover those times, stores can provide paper bags for a fee of $0.10 each. They can also offer reusable bags for sale at checkout. Some locations already provide empty cardboard boxes for customers to use, and that’s ok too. The purpose of the paper bag fee is to discourage customers from relying on paper bags — which have their own environmental impacts — each time they shop. Anyone with SNAP or WIC benefits will be exempt from the fee.

Section four highlights our proposed bans on disposable plastic service ware. The ban differentiates dine-in versus take-out operations. We recommend that no disposable plastic service ware be provided for dine-in customers and encourage businesses to provide reusable service ware instead. Should a business lack the dishwashing capacity to provide reusables, they are exempt and can provide alternative sustainable service ware. We recommend businesses provide no disposable plastic service ware for take-out operations and instead provide sustainable service ware at the customer’s request.

The next sections highlight the ordinance’s implementation and enforcement criteria:

From the passage of the ordinance, businesses will have a set amount of time to source new sustainable alternatives and exhaust their current stocks of and contracts for single-use plastics. Businesses that fail to comply with the ordinance after that period will face penalties of $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second offense, and $500 for a third offense.

You can read our proposed ordinance in its entirety here.

Together, we can stop plastic pollution at its source. Let’s enact common-sense laws at the state and local levels to limit the use of single-use plastics before they end up as litter in our rivers, lakes, and streams. Visit our Plastic-Free WNC site to learn more and take action against plastic pollution in WNC. And join us at 7 p.m. on January 26 for our virtual screening of The Story of Plastic.

Southern Regional Director

MountainTrue – Southern Regional Director

Organization

The mission of MountainTrue is to champion resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities in the Southern Blue Ridge. MountainTrue works across 26 counties in Western North Carolina and North Georgia and has 23 staff and a $1.7 million budget. For more information, please visit, www.mountaintrue.org.

MountainTrue is committed to the principles of equity, inclusion, and non-discrimination. We do not discriminate against individuals, communities, or organizations on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or physical/mental disability.

We recognize and honor diverse cultures and traditions and proactively seek individuals for all aspects of our work from varied backgrounds for the greater enrichment of the organization. To address structural bias, MountainTrue intentionally invests in diverse leadership within our programs, staff, board, volunteer base, and membership. We strongly encourage applicants from historically and currently marginalized groups to apply for open positions.

We are looking for enthusiasm, a can-do attitude, and real-world experience above formal accreditation. If you have a hobby or volunteer in a role that is relevant to the position, we would like to learn about it.

The Position

MountainTrue seeks a director for its Southern Region, based in Hendersonville. This will be the organization’s primary representative in Henderson, Transylvania, Polk, Rutherford, and Cleveland counties. This person will build public support for identified environmental and community issues in the region, focusing on MountainTrue’s programmatic priorities. Specific priorities include water quality, land use, public lands, energy, and advancing equity. They will increase membership; expand and strengthen relationships with communities, key stakeholders, and donors; and manage most programmatic activities in the region. This position reports to the Co-Directors and is supported by other program, development, and communications staff. This position supervises two positions, the Broad Riverkeeper and an Americorps Water Quality Administrator supporting water monitoring and education activities across the southern region.

Regional directors serve the following functions in their respective regions:

To be a resource for the public and advocate on community, health, and environmental issues.
To engage, organize, and lead residents in work/advocacy on local, state, and federal issues that are priorities for the organization
To organize membership engagement and fundraising events.
To build and maintain relationships with elected officials at the local and state levels.
To engage with regulatory agencies by reporting pollution issues, commenting during permitting processes, and relaying information and concerns from the public.
To engage with and support relevant local government boards and commissions.
To build and maintain relationships with community leaders and partner organizations (especially in traditionally marginalized communities) and communities of faith.
To actively seek funding and build/manage relationships with major donors.
To represent and promote MountainTrue’s work on social media.

Qualifications

Significant experience working on environmental and community issues.
Demonstrated commitment to racial equity and inclusion.
Demonstrated experience building relationships in historically marginalized communities.
Ability to organize and lead advocacy efforts and campaigns with partners, members, and the public.
Self-reliant, good problem solver, results-oriented.
Ability to make decisions in a changing environment and anticipate future needs.
Energetic, flexible, collaborative, and proactive. Team player.
Excellent written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
Ability to work across political, social, and economic lines.

The following are preferred:

College or advanced degree in a field related to the environment, health, or community development.
Policy advocacy experience.
Fundraising and membership engagement experience.
Experience with online communications tools.

Compensation: Mid-50s. Benefits package includes 20-25 vacation days per year, 12 holidays, sick leave, sabbatical after five years, health insurance, simple IRA with employer contribution of up to 3%.

How to apply

Email cover letter, resume, and three references to Bob Wagner, Co-Director, wagner@mountaintrue.org. The subject line should read: Southern Regional Director. The cover letter should include answers to the following questions in 600 words or less:

1. Why are you interested in this position?

2. Why do you think you would be good at it?

3. Do you have a demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion? If so, please describe.

Application deadline: February 18, 2022

MountainTrue Wins Historic Investments for WNC

As you may know, lawmakers at the North Carolina General Assembly finally approved a budget in November after months of wrangling among themselves as well as with Governor Cooper. The new spending plan represents the first full budget approved by the legislature and signed by the Governor since 2018.

The budget makes substantial investments in Western North Carolina, including many of the funding priorities MountainTrue has been promoting since this time last year — when lawmakers began their 2021 session.

Every year, MountainTrue makes a list of priority projects and programs for funding in the state budget. We then work with WNC legislators and our various partners — including our members at the grassroots level — to help convince lawmakers to invest in our rivers, streams, mountains, and forests.

Here’s a quick look at MountainTrue’s budget victories in Raleigh:

Funding for removal of dams across WNC — $7.2 million.
Recurring funding for landslide mapping in WNC — $370,000.
Restoration of the successful Waste Detection Elimination Program (WaDE) to help property owners identify and remedy failing septic systems on their property — $200,000 in both years of the biennial budget.
Recurring funding for water quality testing in the French Broad and other WNC rivers and streams — $100,000.

MountainTrue also went to bat for several important projects to improve public access to and/or protect water quality in rivers and streams throughout our region. New state funding for these projects included:

Watauga River Paddle Trail in Watauga County — $150,000.
Permanent public access to a popular recreational area on the Green River Game Lands in Henderson and Polk counties — $150,000.
Removal of the Ward Mill Dam on the Watauga River in Watauga County — $100,000
Outdoor recreation improvements at Island Park on the Tuckaseegee River in Swain County — $200,000.
Expanded fishing, canoeing, and kayaking on the Valley River in Cherokee County — $125,000.
Improved access to and stream restoration on the Bakersville Creekwalk in Mitchell County — $200,000.

Some other budget items that MountainTrue supported include $12.2 million for Pisgah View State Park in Buncombe County and $750,000 for planning and improvements to DuPont State Forest.

Of course, no one gets everything they want in the state budget process. Two of MountainTrue’s priorities — additional funding to help livestock producers reduce water pollution from their farming operations and communities to manage stormwater runoff — did not make it into the state’s spending plan. MountainTrue will continue to work in support of these investments in 2022.

We at MountainTrue extend our gratitude to the WNC legislators from both parties for their help with these budget victories. A big shout out to Sen. Chuck Edwards of Henderson County — from the beginning of his time in the Senate, Edwards has shown a consistent commitment to water quality issues in our region and used his position on a key Senate budget committee to address them. We are especially grateful to him for his partnership with MountainTrue.

But you, our supporters, are still MountainTrue’s most important partner. We are the only WNC environmental organization with a year-round presence in Raleigh. Your support makes our work in the capital possible! Thank you and cheers to an impactful 2022!

Read about our 2021 organizational successes here!

Tell FERC to Protect Mountain Rivers

On October 4, 2021, the Oconaluftee River below Ela Dam — once a high quality mountain river — was completely filled with sediment during a reservoir drawdown for a repair by the dam’s owner, Northbrook Carolina Hydro II, LLC.

TAKE ACTION

Tell FERC to protect rivers in the Little Tennessee and Hiwassee River basins by monitoring and enforcing the provisions of Northbrook’s license for the Bryson, Franklin, and Mission Hydroelectric Projects.

MountainTrue has been tracking the successful efforts of state agencies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hold Northbrook accountable for this disaster. However, our review of public documents revealed that Northbrook “has conducted no active sediment management activities since obtaining the Bryson Project” in 2019. Furthermore, the company hasn’t developed the long-term sediment management plans required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s project license at any of its three Nantahala Projects: Bryson on the Oconaluftee (where the massive sediment release occurred), Franklin on the Little Tennessee River, and Mission on the Hiwassee River.

Our mountain rivers contain a dazzling array of wildlife species, some of which are threatened or endangered. High quality water means high survivability for aquatic wildlife, especially those species most sensitive to pollution. Increased sediment pollution in our local waterways makes it difficult for native wildlife to feed, mate, move, and even breathe. This was the unfortunate fate suffered by many aquatic species when tons of sediment were unloaded into the Oconaluftee River last October.

Mountain rivers often provide our communities with drinking water. They’re also important recreational resources in our region, hosting a wide variety of recreation opportunities, including fishing, snorkeling, canoeing, and kayaking.

Hydroelectric dams owned by private companies like Northbrook are licensed every 30-40 years by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Licenses have many pages of provisions designed to minimize impacts to human safety and the environment from the dams and their operations. But FERC’s responsibility doesn’t stop when the license is finalized. FERC must ensure that the requirements of the license are met to protect our river resources!

We’ll deliver this petition to FERC on January 28, 2022. We’ve got to do all we can to prevent a catastrophe like this from happening again!

Update: Thanks to all who signed on! We’re thrilled to have exceeded our goal of 500 signatures. MountainTrue will continue to monitor the situation — stay tuned for updates!

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MountainTrue FAQ: Live Staking

We love live staking here at MountainTrue, as it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to support native biodiversity and stream bank restoration! This blog hopes to answer many of the frequently asked questions we get about live staking. Most of this information is general, but some is specific to the Watauga Basin and Riverkeeper Program.

Q: What’s live staking?

Live staking is a method of stream bank repair using native tree cuttings to revegetate the riparian buffer. The riparian buffer consists of trees, shrubs, and grasses alongside stream banks — it plays a crucial role in protecting stream health. The resiliency of riparian buffers is frequently impacted by land use. Activities like mowing to the edge of a stream, cutting down trees to see the water, or new development can negatively impact water quality. By live staking, we can positively and directly impact the overall health of our waterways!

Q: Where do you get the stakes from?

We get our live stakes from Foggy Mountain Nursery in Lansing, NC — their team harvests the stakes from native tree species, cutting stakes two to three feet long and one-half to two inches thick. While it’s possible to cut the stakes ourselves, we choose to support a fantastic local business and ensure that we’re planting the correct species. We’ve also harvested stakes from our previous live staking sites, where planted stakes have become well established.

Q: How do you choose where you’ll be planting?

We prioritize local public parks and river accesses because they’re easy to access and directly benefit the public. We’ve frequented Valle Crucis Community Park in Banner Elk, Cove Creek, and other public riverside locations around Watauga County. We also partnered with the City of Hendersonville to host two live staking workdays in Henderson County this February!

Q: What species do you plant?

We only plant tree species native to our region — primarily silky willow, silky dogwood, elderberry, and ninebark stakes. We’ve also planted other species, like buttonbush, black willow, and red stem dogwood. Recommended for stream bank repair by the NC State Cooperative Extension, these native tree species prefer moist soil and thrive in riparian habitats. These species support native wildlife, especially local pollinators. They can also establish extensive root systems to successfully hold soil in place along riparian buffers, ultimately preventing erosion.

Q: Why do you plant during the winter?

Live stakes are living cuttings of dormant trees that can propagate or sprout a new plant from the cutting of the parent plant. During winter, trees enter a state of dormancy to conserve their energy and weather the colder temperatures. Our live staking season lasts from November to March. We plant hearty hardwood stakes that use their energy to establish roots, waiting until spring to grow their branches and leaves. These resilient roots serve as a stream bank’s first line of defense against erosion, especially during high-flow events. Planting live stakes while tree species are in their natural pattern of energy conservation allows for a higher likelihood of survival along riparian buffers.

Q: How successful are the stakes?

Live stakes have a survival rate of 30-80%. However, survival varies from species to species and depends on environmental conditions. For example, we’d likely have very low survivability if a drought occurred after planting. But, if we plant under ideal conditions using correct planting techniques and have favorable weather post-planting, our stakes can do remarkably well! We can also remove invasive plant species and water the freshly planted live stakes to give them a better chance of success.

Stakes are most successful when planted along naturally sloped stream banks. They can still be planted on extremely incised banks, though they’re more likely to be less impactful in those locations. In our experience, silky willow and silky dogwood stakes tend to fare better than other native tree species we plant.

Q: How long does it take for the stakes to grow?

Roots, leaves, and branches can be well established after one growing season. From there, they continue to grow in length from the tips of their roots and branches year after year.

Q: How do live stakes benefit our waterways?

Live stakes grow root systems that hold soil in place and prevent erosion in local waterways. Sediment pollution remains a significant threat to the Watauga River Basin. This type of pollution clogs aquatic habitats and transports toxic substances through local waterways, increasing water temperatures and negatively impacting native biodiversity.

Once planted, small live stakes will grow into larger trees that stabilize and support riparian buffer health. Healthy riparian buffers benefit stream health in a multitude of ways — they also absorb nutrients, create wildlife habitat, and reduce the intensity of flooding from rain events. Unvegetated streams are often incised and can lose several feet of bank in a single rain event — this can be detrimental to nearby homes and other structures.

Q: What’s a typical day of planting?

We prep the stakes by cutting the live ends at a 45-degree angle. The NC State Cooperative Extension states that such cutting is enough to catalyze root growth at the nodes. The folks at Foggy Mountain Nursery kindly mark the planting ends of our stakes, so we know which ends to cut (pictured right). Once prepped and ready, we take the stakes in buckets down to the stream. We plant along the bank from the water’s edge to the bank’s top — not in the actual stream bed. Stakes are planted at an angle and submerged into the soil about two-thirds of the way. From there, the rest of the work is up to the stakes!

Want to learn more about live staking? Check out our Events page to sign up for one of our upcoming volunteer workdays, or contact our resident live staking experts listed below:

Andy Hill, High Country Regional Director and Watauga Riverkeeper

Hannah Woodburn, High Country Watershed Coordinator

Community Action Safeguards the First Broad River

Before I was your Broad Riverkeeper, I founded the Broad River Paddle Club in 2011 to connect with other river paddling enthusiasts seeking to get together and float the local rivers. At the time, accessing the river was difficult — only the Broad River Greenway offered public river access. So, the Broad River Paddle Club decided to help each other and their community find ways to get outside and on the water.

On behalf of the Broad River Paddle Club, I asked Richard and Betty Hord of Lawndale permission to access the river via a sandbar the couple owned behind the Methodist Church on the First Broad River — a tributary to the Broad.

David Caldwell

Broad Riverkeeper

The couple’s reply: “Just don’t leave any trash behind.” No problem there!

With a new access point secured, things were looking up. But around the same time, Cleveland County Water was working to build a reservoir on that same stretch of river. The proposed project would have dammed the river; destroyed 24 miles of free-flowing water; submerged 1,400 acres of forest, several farms, ten homes, and parks; and harmed aquatic habitat and endangered species both up and downstream.

Worried about the future health of the Broad River, I also joined a coalition of concerned residents called Stop the First Broad River Reservoir that, with the help of the Southern Environmental Law Center and American Rivers, fought to stop the damming of our beloved First Broad. Coalition members attended the water authority’s board meetings and spoke out about their opposition to the reservoir.

It took more than a decade of community opposition to compel Cleveland County Water to abandon the project and withdraw the reservoir construction application it had submitted to the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2005. Instead, Cleveland County Water constructed a far less damaging off-river reservoir to store water in Lawndale and installed infrastructure for a new water intake on the Broad River in Boiling Springs, NC.

The defeat of the reservoir wasn’t just a victory for the environment. It also allowed for the possibility of creating something extraordinary on the banks of the Broad River.

Remember the Hords and their sandbar in Lawndale? Richard Hord had been raised on the shores of the First Broad River and loved it. When he passed away in 2019, his wife Betty offered the 60 acres — land that would have been forever changed had the reservoir been built — to the water authority on the condition that it be made into a public park. Betty’s contribution land in honor of Richard spurred the Lawndale community and Cleveland County Water administrators to think bigger and start planning an extensive new Greenway.

Now two years into the project, the community has just received some much-needed grant funding to complete what we now know as the future Stagecoach Greenway. The project’s first stage — a public swimming beach, picnic area, and canoe access at the sandbar — should be completed by 2024 and will provide increased access to river recreation along the First Broad to many more folks.

In summary, when we fight bad proposals, we don’t just avoid the immediate harm to our environment and our communities. We make room for better things to come in the future — like a greenway that contributes to economic growth, adds new recreational opportunities, and creates a wonderful place where our community can gather and enjoy the long and winding First Broad River.

Learn more about the Stagecoach Greenway’s master plan here.

SMIE: What’s Bugging Our Rivers?

A species of stonefly that is sensitive to pollution in streams. This quick, crawling predator is an indicator of overall good water quality.

MountainTrue has many water sampling programs that tell us much about the health and status of our waterways. The Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) program is a volunteer-based water quality monitoring program that operates throughout Western North Carolina. MountainTrue works in partnership with the Environmental Quality Institute based in Black Mountain to facilitate bi-annual sampling across our Southern and High Country Regions each year. SMIE sampling efforts occur each spring and fall typically in the months of April and October.

Some of MountainTrue’s water quality monitoring programs look specifically at the chemical indicators of water samples, which give us a snapshot of the water quality at one particular moment in time. SMIE is unique in that we look for living samples to help us form a more holistic understanding of water quality over a longer period of time — a process known as biomonitoring. Biomonitoring allows us to assess the ability of certain underwater habitats to maintain the right chemical conditions needed for the survival of living aquatic species.

Close-up of an ice cube tray that we use to collect and identify species of macroinvertebrates. Pictured here are net-spinning caddisfly larvae.

So, what do we find when we’re looking for living aquatic samples?

Insects! Or benthic macroinvertebrates, if you want to get more scientific. While benthic refers to the bottom of a stream bed, macroinvertebrates are any animal without a backbone (invertebrate) that you can see without a microscope (macro). Essentially, we’re looking for stream bottom-dwelling bugs, including species like mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, and many more!

Why do we care so much about bugs?

Different species of macroinvertebrates have different abilities to tolerate pollution.

Species that are highly sensitive to pollution are found in our cleanest waterways, while more pollution-tolerant species can be found in our less healthy streams. These special little bugs are excellent bioindicators — their health and presence in local waterways give us key insights into the health of our region’s aquatic ecosystems.

This year, we had many returning volunteers join us in the water, along with some new enthusiastic volunteers willing to learn on the fly. We recently wrapped up this year’s SMIE efforts after spending some colorful and scenic fall days sampling local streams. October and November saw13 hard-working volunteer teams sample the streams of Henderson, Polk, and Cleveland counties. The excitement and investment of long-standing and new volunteers who helped us throughout the 2021 sampling season was infectious — every time we don the waders, hop into the water, and rustle up rocks and leaves to scour for bugs, we get to share in discovery together.

Want to learn more about the results of these biomonitoring efforts over the years? Check out the Environmental Quality Institute’s interactive Water Quality Map to see sampling locations and review data from the past 30 years of biomonitoring efforts!

If you’re interested in becoming a SMIE volunteer, sign up for our spring season training in Hendersonville! Hosted by Americorps Water Quality Administrator and SMIE extraordinaire, Mara Chamlee, our spring SMIE training promises to be a fun day full of learning (and bug watching!) on the Green River that you won’t want to miss!

3/5/22 SMIE training: Sign up!

‘Tis the Season to Treat Backyard Nonnative Invasive Plants

With winter around the corner, many of our region’s native plants now lay dormant — they’ve paused their seasonal growth to conserve their energy until springtime returns once again. The wintry absence of leaves, blooms, and other seasonal greenery makes it easier to spot common evergreen nonnative invasive plant species (NNIP) found throughout our region, in our backyards, and even in our gardens. Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to your garden until spring — now is the perfect time to identify and weed out pesky NNIPs around your home! Read on and find out how you can identify and treat common backyard NNIPs.

Why are NNIPs bad?

Abundant, thriving native biodiversity is our best defense against climate change. The harmful presence of NNIPs decreases the capacity of ecosystems to withstand the effects of climate change. NNIPs are capable of fundamentally altering the natural state of any ecosystem they invade, compromising the ability of native plant and animal species to survive. NNIPs pose major threats to biodiversity as they compete with native plant and animal species for resources like sunlight, water, nutrients, and space.

According to the US Forest Service, “invasive species have contributed to the decline of 42% of US endangered and threatened species,” serving as the primary cause of decline for 18% of the country’s endangered or threatened species. Learning and sharing knowledge about NNIPs — like how to identify, remove, and treat them — is one of the best ways we can support native biodiversity and combat the effects of climate change locally. In fact, the Southern Appalachian Mountains are one of the most biodiverse regions in the temperate world — it’s up to all of us to work together to safeguard our region’s abundant biodiversity!

Identifying common NNIPs

Let’s review some of our region’s more noticeable NNIPs. If you discover your garden has been invaded by one or more of these common NNIPs, know that you’re not alone — you can use your newfound NNIP knowledge to help treat and remove those pesky plants! If your situation requires the use of herbicides, remember to always observe labels.

Remove those roots!

Oftentimes, home gardeners can successfully remove NNIPs through mechanical control (digging them out), though herbicide use is also a good option for more challenging situations. When working with herbicide, it’s important to remember that the label is the law, so make sure to thoroughly read it and only use the product as directed — following the label helps you protect yourself and your natural surroundings.

For English ivy, vinca, and Japanese honeysuckle:

We recommend using glyphosate* as a foliar spray application. This time of year is particularly good for foliar spray applications, as other native plants that now lay dormant are less likely to be harmed by this herbicide application technique.

*A note on glyphosate: when treating NNIPs, we only recommend using glyphosate when other herbicides would be ineffective in comparison. Much of glyphosate’s bad press can be attributed to its overuse in large agricultural operations — its use in this setting differs from its use as a NNIP removal aid, where it can be used sparingly. Click here for more information on glyphosate.

For other NNIPs like sacred bamboo, multiflora rose, privet, and Oriental bittersweet:

We recommend a cut stump treatment using a dauber bottle filled with triclopyr. In this treatment method, the smallest effective amount of herbicide is directly applied in order to minimize harm to the surrounding environment. Use these pro tips for a successful cut stump treatment:

Cut the NNIP within one inch of the ground
Apply triclopyr within one minute of cutting for the highest chance of success — outside temperatures should be at least 40 degrees during application.

Questions? Contact our resident native plant expert and Western Region Program Coordinator, Tony Ward.

English Ivy

English ivy (Hedera helix) is easily identified by its dark green and glossy leaves with distinct white veins. Younger leaves have three to five lobes, but the lobes can become indistinct as the leaf matures. This vine attaches its aerial roots to walls and trees in cascading, blanket-like structures. Recommended treatment: foliar spray.

Periwinkle

Periwinkle (Vinca minor) is a semi-evergreen trailing NNIP — its cascading foliage has a blanket-like ground cover. Its thick oval-shaped, small, dark, and glossy leaves grow opposite each other, producing small purple flowers in the spring and fall seasons. Recommended treatment method: foliar spray.

Japanese Honeysuckle

Capable of growing up to 80 feet long, Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) stems can become very thick, often forming dense clumps. This climbing NNIP can smother small native trees and shrubs. Stems are distinguishably tan and have opposite, elliptical-shaped leaves that produce light yellow and white tubular flowers in the spring and summer seasons. Recommended treatment method: foliar spray.

Sacred Bamboo

While Sacred bamboo’s (Nandina domestica) bright red berries persist throughout the winter, its leaves change color with the seasons and often turn a purplish-red in the colder months. Its opposite leathery-textured leaves have smooth edges and pointy tips. The leaves themselves are bi and tripinnately compound, so one leaf has several leaflets. Recommended treatment method: cut stump treatment.

Privet

One of our region’s worst NNIPs, Privet (Ligustrum sinense) is a shrubby plant with “hair” — a.k.a., trichomes — growing densely along the twig when young. Its opposite oval-shaped leaves have smooth edges and are less than one inch wide. Its dark purple berries persist throughout the winter. Recommended treatment method: cut stump treatment.

Multiflora Rose

Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) is a thorny shrub and climbing vine that can form thickets. Its opposite leaves stem directly above the thorn with five to eleven elliptical leaflets. This NNIP appears to have a set of eyelashes — known as fringed stipules — where its sharp-edged leaves connect to the stem. Its “eyelashes” distinguish multiflora rose from other rose species. Recommended treatment method: cut stump treatment.

Oriental Bittersweet

The last NNIP we’ll cover is Oriental bittersweet. Those who are familiar with this woody plant likely know it’s not an evergreen species. However, this NNIP is easily distinguishable thanks to the dark circles on its bark, which are formed by its lenticels — the woody stem’s raised pores that intake oxygen (O2) and release carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O). Its entwined vines are capable of astounding growth, frequently encircling and killing native trees via strangulation as they hoard sunlight. Recommended treatment method: cut stump treatment.

We hope this information inspires you to get out into your garden, backyard, or local green space to put your NNIP identification skills to the test. Check out this helpful resource for more information on NNIPs and NNIP removal, or reach out to our native plant and NNIP virtuosos (featured below).