Calling All Businesses: Our Planet Needs You

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Businesses and Groups can compete against each other for a better planet through the #WNCforthePlanet Business & Community Challenge

Asheville, NC – As part of #WNCforthePlanet – a celebration of Earth Day throughout the month of April – local conservation and environmental nonprofits are recruiting businesses, civic groups and community organizations to take part in the Business & Community Challenge. Through this competition, groups compete with each other to earn Planet Points and work for the improvement of our local environment.

The #WNCforthePeople Business & Community Challenge is open to area businesses, civic organizations and community groups, who then recruit teams from among their members to compete for prizes and bragging rights. Companies interested in getting involved should contact Devon Hathaway, Americorps Outings and Education Coordinator at MountainTrue at outings@mountaintrue.org or by calling (828) 258-8737 ext. 214.

“Environmental stewardship is a core tenet at Mosaic Realty, which is why we’re teaming up with MountainTrue for a workday” said broker and owner Mike Figura. “Mosaic Realty welcomes you to join us and the #WNCforthePlanet team in cleaning up Asheville. We will be putting in a work day at Richmond Hill Park to eradicate invasives and we encourage other local businesses to get involved with service projects in April.”

Teams commit to one or more service projects throughout the month of April and are paired up with a #WNCforthePlanet partner nonprofit organization which will provide staff guidance and equipment for a day of working on behalf of a cleaner and greener WNC. Groups earn Planet Points according to how much they accomplish and the strenuousness of the project. Each team’s score is calculated according to a difficulty scale and averaged on a per-person basis. At the end of the month we tally the Planet Points, rank teams, name victors and hand out awards and prizes.

Available service projects include river cleanups, native habitat restoration, trail workdays and more. The team with the first, second, and third most Planet Points will choose from prizes, including a river float with MountainTrue, RiverLink and Asheville Greenworks, a hike led by the Southern Appalachians Highland Conservancy, or a private tour of New Belgium Brewing. Victors will honored on wncfortheplanet.org and through the social media of participating #WNCforthePlanet partners.

Register your team today. Contact Devon Hathaway, Americorps Outings and Education Coordinator at MountainTrue at outings@mountaintrue.org or by calling (828) 258-8737 ext. 214.

About WNC for the Planet:
WNC for the Planet is a collective made up of local environmental organizations that provides access to service, educational, and recreational opportunities in recognition of Earth Month. We strive to unify our community to encourage and celebrate environmental stewardship for our planet and the region. wncfortheplanet.org

Celebrate Earth Day All Month Long

Audrey & Frank Peterman are tenacious advocates for breaking the color barrier and making America’s natural treasures accessible to all Americans regardless of race. They will give the keynote address at UNCA’s Spring Greenfest 2018 on March 26.

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With great natural beauty come great advocates.

Many organizations have formed over the years to preserve Western North Carolina’s natural places and unique character. That’s why this year, MountainTrue and more than 20 area conservation and environmental organizations are combining forces to celebrate Earth Day throughout the entire month of April.

We’re calling this collective effort WNC For The Planet, and we’re teaming up with local businesses, universities, community groups and individuals like you for a month of environmental service, educational opportunities, and celebrations in Asheville and across Western North Carolina.

Susan Bean, Community Engagement Manager for MountainTrue, worked with an organizing committee that included leaders from RiverLink, Friends of the Smokies, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, Asheville Greenworks and New Belgium Brewing Company. “Once we had the broad strokes of an idea – that Earth Month is a great opportunity for all of us to come together and make the biggest impact possible – things really picked up steam. The enthusiasm from our partners and the wider community has been amazing.”

As part of the effort, WNC for the Planet launched an online community calendar at wncfortheplanet.org with educational and service opportunities for people of all ages and from all walks of life. Come hear Audrey & Frank Peterman speak on March 26 at UNCA about their book, Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care. Recycle items that might otherwise end up in the landfill at Asheville GreenWorks’ Hard 2 Recycle event, and catch a screening of the documentary Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry put on by the Organic Growers School. Or, learn how to build a bat box, restore native plant and animal habitats, and weatherize your home to fight climate change.

Keller Williams Realty and Movement Mortgage pitched in for a stream clean up last year.

WNC For The Planet also includes a Business & Community Challenge allowing area businesses, civic organizations and community groups to create teams and compete for prizes and bragging rights. Here’s how it works: Each team earns Planet Points according to how much you accomplish at WNC For the Planet events – how much trash you collect, how many trees you plant, etc. – and at the end of the month we rank your team against other teams. The harder your team works, the more points you earn. The more points you earn, the more you’ve helped keep Western North Carolina beautiful.

WNC for the Planet’s Earth Month culminates with a weekend of celebrations, including Earth Day Kids’ Festival with RiverLink on Saturday, April 21st, and MountainTrue’s annual Earth Day Vigil with faith groups on Sunday, April 22nd. Join us for a final Earth Day party to celebrate our hardworking volunteers and environmental advocates at New Belgium Brewing Company.

Want To See For Yourself?

Check out the WNC For the Planet Events Calendar

Sign Up for our Richmond Hill Invasives Removal Work Day March 10!

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MountainTrue has worked for the past six years to restore Asheville’s only forested park, Richmond Hill. A favorite of dog walkers, mountain bikers and disc golf fans, the park has unfortunately become overrun with non-native invasive plants like multiflora rose, which has very sharp thorns that can harm our canine companions. The invasives crowd out native species and prevent them from growing, reduce valuable habitat, and diminish the natural beauty of the woods.

We have seen incredible improvements at Richmond Hill since holding invasive species removal days, with a 95% reduction of invasive species in some areas! We hope you’ll join us for our next restoration workday on March 10th, and we will subsequently host work days at Richmond Hill on the second Saturday of every month for the rest of the year.

Where: Richmond Hill Park, 280 Richmond Hill Drive, Asheville, NC 28806

When: Saturday, March 10 2018 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

Other Info: Be sure to wear long sleeves and pants as well as closed-toed shoes to this event. Bring a snack and water. We will provide all other equipment necessary! We ask that you leave your pets at home for this work day.

Speak Out: No More Leaks At Duke’s Cliffside Coal Ash Ponds!

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Thanks to your voice, Duke Energy has not been let off the hook for its coal ash pollution. We are making progress and applaud the Department of Environmental Quality for its recently drafted special order by consent that will require the corporate polluter to dewater its ash ponds with the goal of stopping most of the illegal seepage of its toxic waste at the Cliffside Power Plant. But it doesn’t go far enough.

For too long Duke Energy has been allowed to pollute the Broad River. The special order by consent recognizes the illegality of that pollution and starts to remedy it, but this order still allows some of the polluting seeps to be permitted and remain in place.

Between now and February 14th, North Carolinians can weigh in on the state’s draft order before it goes to the Environmental Management Commission for approval. This is our chance to ask DEQ to strengthen this order even more by not permitting any seeps and ensuring that any seeps remaining after dewatering are cleaned up. We should also demand that when the time comes, DEQ require full excavation of Cliffside’s coal ash to lined storage away from the Broad River.

Press Release: Duke Energy Request to Raise Energy Bills Would Hurt Working Families, Limit Energy-Efficiency in Western NC

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Duke Energy Request to Raise Energy Bills Would Hurt Working Families, Limit Energy-Efficiency in Western NC

Media Contact:

Eliza Stokes

Advocacy & Communications Associate, MountainTrue

E: eliza@mountaintrue.org; P: 828-258-8737 ext. 218

Jan. 10, 2018

Macon County– On Tuesday, January 16, residents of Western North Carolina will have the opportunity to gather at the Macon County Courthouse in Franklin to voice their opinions about Duke Energy’s proposed rate hike. Duke Energy Carolinas, which serves 2.2 million customers across the state and much of Western North Carolina, has requested approval to raise residential energy rates by 16.7% and to increase their revenue by approximately $647 million. The rate hike is being requested soon after the company rose energy rates by 5% in 2013.

Public interest advocates call the request an attempt to pass Duke’s coal ash clean up costs to the public, which they say would discourage energy-saving measures and be especially harmful for low-income families. The North Carolina Utilities Commission, the body that decides whether or not to approve Duke’s request, will receive the public testimony.

The rate hike would increase a typical residential customer’s bill by $18.72 per month, and would raise energy bills for residential customers more than for industrial and commercial customers. The rate hike would also include a 66% increase of the base energy charge from $11.80 to $17.79, discouraging energy saving measures by customers.

“Working families in Western North Carolina know that when you’re struggling to pay the bills and the mortgage and to put food on the table, you learn to be careful about how you use electricity,” says Robert E. Smith, a former Board Chair of the Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance. “But with Duke Energy’s new mandatory fee, all families would be charged a minimum of $17.79 per month – about $213 per year – even if they never turned their lights on.”

Public interest advocates believe this rate hike would leave residents of North Carolina’s far western counties, many of whom already face a harsh economic reality, with another unneeded financial burden. Counties including Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham, Cherokee, and Clay have been named Tier 1 counties by the North Carolina Department of Commerce for 2018, meaning they face the highest level of economic distress in the state. According to the NC Department of Commerce’s 2018 County Tier Designations, Graham County has a median household income of less than $34,000, with 22% of families living below the poverty line. Swain County has a median family income of $36,103 and a 24.5% poverty rate, while Yancey County has a median household income of $36,418 with a 21.7% poverty rate.

Over half of Duke’s rate hike – a total of $336 million – would be used to pay for the company’s coal ash cleanup costs. Before proposing the rate hike to the NC Utilities Commission, Duke sought to have these costs covered by its insurance provider, but was refused. Due to past actions, the insurance company stated that “Duke failed to take reasonable measures to avoid and/or mitigate the damage resulting from coal ash disposal.” In 2015, three Duke Energy companies including Duke Energy Carolinas plead guilty to nine criminal environmental violations for their failure to protect NC waterways from coal ash pollution. More recently, it was revealed that Duke was aware of the harms of coal ash beginning in the 1980’s, but did not begin to take precautions.

The NC Utilities Commission hearing will be held Tuesday, January 16 at 7 pm at the Macon County Courthouse located at 5 W. Main St. Courtroom A, Franklin, NC, 28734. Those who plan to speak should arrive at 6:30 pm.

MountainTrue is the oldest grassroots environmental non-profit in Western North Carolina. With offices in Hendersonville, Asheville, and Boone, we work in 23 counties to champion resilient forests, clean waters and healthy communities in our region. MountainTrue engages in policy advocacy at all levels of government, local project advocacy, and on-the-ground environmental restoration projects. Primary program areas include public lands, water quality, clean energy, land use/transportation, and citizen engagement. For more information: mountaintrue.org.

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Support Local, Sustainable, Farmers From Your Watershed This Holiday Season!

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The following post is by North Carolina’s Riverkeepers through the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Dear Friend,

A lot of folks in North Carolina produce meat. The state ranks second nationally in pork production and is among the nation’s leaders in poultry production. But the way meat is produced makes a big difference.

Corporate-controlled industrial animal operations are one of the leading contributors to water pollution across North Carolina. But there are farmers throughout the Tar Heel state striving to provide high-quality food without harming their local communities. And they deserve our thanks and our business.

Waterkeepers across North Carolina have compiled a list of farms in their watersheds that feed us without threatening our rivers, lakes, and streams. The inventory at these farms varies, but they all have one thing in common: they’re trying to do things the right way. If you’re looking to buy a bird for your Thanksgiving feast, we encourage you to buy from one of the farms listed below (we recommend calling to reserve your bird now). And if you aren’t able to buy directly from a farmer, be sure to look for their products at farmers markets and grocery stores in your neighborhood, as many supply to local distributors.

This holiday season, let’s show our appreciation for environmentally conscious farmers who raise meat sustainably and humanely using traditional techniques. Please choose to make your holiday meal even more special by purchasing from true family farms and pledging to buy sustainably-raised meat this holiday season. And when you make your purchase, be sure to thank the farmer for taking steps to protect our environment!

Pledge to serve sustainable meat this holiday season here.

*Don’t see a sustainable farm in your community on this list? Please let us know!

Cape Fear Watershed
Grass Roots Pork Company
Patch Farmstead
Humble Roots Farm
Changin’ Ways
SF Farms
Old River Farms
AJ Family Farm
Lizzy Lou’s Family Farm
Red Beards Farm
Creeks Edge Farm
Beartrack Farm
Growing Tall Acres
NC Natural Hog Growers AssociationCatawba Watershed
Carolina Farm Trust
Foothills Pilot Plant
All Natural Farms
Bluebird FarmFrench Broad & Broad Watersheds
Buffalo Ridge
Cold Mountain Angus Beef
Farm House Beef
Frog Holler Organiks
Franny’s Farm
Gaining Ground Farm
Happy Hens & Highlands Farm
Hickory Nut Gap Farm
Hominy Valley Farms
Mountain Valley Brand Beef
Warren Wilson College Farm

Haw Watershed
Rocky Run Farm
Cane Creek Farm
Reverence Farms
Braeburn Farms
Piemonte Farm
Twin Oaks Farm
Chapel Hill Creamery
Pine Trough Branch Farm
Beechcrest Farm
Meadows Family Farm
Lilly Den Farms
Perry-winkle Farm
Bushy Tail FarmsLumber Watershed
Fairfax-Lewis Farm
Chandler Worley Family Farms
Floyd Brothers Farm & Livestock
Happy Land Farms
Moore Brothers Natural
Raft Swamp Farms
John L. Council Farm
Country Corners Farm
SF Farms
Shepherd’s Run FarmNeuse Watershed
Rainbow Meadow FarmTar-Pamlico Watershed
Mae Farm Meats
Ray Family Farms
Lucky 3 FarmWhite-Oak Watershed
The Barnyard

Yadkin-Pee Dee Watershed
Grace Meadow Farm