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Trump Uses Crises to Attack The Environment — Take Action!

Trump Uses Crises to Attack The Environment — Take Action!

Trump Uses Crises to Attack The Environment — Take Action!

Action Expired

 

Our country is in the midst of two historic crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and a watershed moment in the fight against racist policing and the murder of George Floyd and other people of color. Instead of trying to bring people together, President Trump is exploiting a disease that has already killed more than 100,000 Americans and a moment of national grief to pursue his radical pro-pollution environmental agenda.

Stand up to Donald Trump’s abuse of power.

On June 4, Trump signed an executive order that uses the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to allow federal agencies to ignore regulations like the National Environmental Policy Act on projects like pipelines, new highways and mines during the crisis. At the same time, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a new rule that would circumvent the Clean Air Act by letting the agency undervalue public health in their cost-benefit analyses.

Trump cited “emergency authorities” to sign his executive order but his radical anti-environmental agenda benefits corporate polluters at the expense of the public, especially poor people and communities of color. When communities are displaced by highway projects or a new pipeline is constructed, it’s almost always the homes of poor people that are destroyed and communities of color that are negatively impacted.

Similarly, Trump’s EPA is trying to change the rules so that they can ignore the wider health benefits of keeping our air clean of mercury and asthma and lung disease-causing pollutants such as PM 2.5 — this despite a recent nationwide study linking long-term exposure to PM 2.5 to higher death rates from COVID-19.

It’s time for our members of Congress to denounce Trump’s authoritarian abuses and his radical anti-environmental agenda. Tell Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis and your member of the House that it’s time to stand up to Donald Trump.

Protect Our Rivers By Supporting Sustainable Farms

Protect Our Rivers By Supporting Sustainable Farms

Protect Our Rivers By Supporting Sustainable Farms

Action Expired: Update Coming Soon

 

We have compiled this map of farms in our region that feed us without threatening rivers, lakes and streams. The inventory at these farms varies, but they all have one thing in common: They’re going the extra mile to do things the right way.


Farms are color-coded by watershed. Click the pinpoints on the map to view a description of each farm.
To see the farms listed by watershed, click the icon on the top left of the map or scroll below.

Many small farms in Western North Carolina have lost business due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, large-scale meat operations in North Carolina are one of the leading contributors to water pollution in the state. Buying from sustainable local farms now is a way to not only feed your family but to protect our fragile environment.

Many farmers are still happy to have people come out to their farms. Check their websites or Facebook pages, because these small farms may request that you order over the phone or online to arrange pick-up. If you aren’t able to buy directly from a farmer, be sure to look for their products at farmer’s markets and grocery stores in your neighborhood, as many supply to local distributors. We have not included farms that are currently closed to the public.

 

Sustainable Farms List

Broad Watershed

  • Belflower Farm
  • Beam Family Farms
  • Colfax Creek Farm
  • Greene Family Farm
  • Hardscrabble Hollow Farm
  • Martins’ Charolais Farm
  • Piedmont Homestead
  • Proffitt Family Cattle Company
  • A Way of Life Farm

French Broad Watershed

  • Cold Mountain Angus Beef
  • Creekside Farm at Walnut Cove
  • Farmhouse Beed
  • Frog Holler Organiks
  • Gaining Ground Farm
  • Hickory Nut Gap Farm
  • Hominy Valley Farms
  • Leatherwood Family Farm
  • Lenoir’s Creek Beef and Bakery
  • Sunburst Trout Farms®
  • Shady Brook Farm
  • Smoky Mountain Mangalista
  • Sunburst Beef LLC
  • Ten Acre Garden

Green River Watershed

  • Looking Glass Creamery
  • Once Upon a Cow Micro Dairy
  • San Felipe Farm
  • Sunny Creek Farms
  • Bearded Birds Farm

Hiwassee River Watershed

  • 7M Family Farms, LLC
  • Brothers on Farms
  • SMM Farms
  • Walnut Hollow Ranch – Premium Black Angus Beef

Upper Tennessee River Watershed

  • 4 Corners Ranch

Little Tennessee River Watershed

  • Breedlove Family Farms
  • Carringer Farms
  • Darnell Farms
  • Deal Family Farm
  • Gnome Mountain Farm
  • J.W. Mitchell Farm
  • JAAR Farms
  • Pine Row Farm
  • Yellow Branch Pottery and Cheese

Watauga River Watershed

  • A Bushel and a Peck Farm
  • Against the Grain Farm
  • Beach Farm and Nursery
  • Creeksong Farm
  • Daffodil Spring Farm
  • Faith Mountain Farm
  • Fire from the Mountain
  • New Life Farm
  • North Fork Farm
  • Shipley Farms Signature Beef
  • Sunshine Cove
  • Heritage Homestead Farm

Yadkin Watershed

  • Asa Acres
  • Aunt Bessie’s Natural Farm

 

Introducing Topic-Specific Info Sessions on the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Management Plan

Introducing Topic-Specific Info Sessions on the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Management Plan

Introducing Topic-Specific Info Sessions on the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Management Plan

Action Expired

 

MountainTrue will kick off our series of topic-specific info sessions on the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest Management Plan on Tuesday, April 28 with a deep dive into water quality issues in the draft plan.

Our hope is that these sessions will answer any lingering questions about how topics you care about will be addressed in the new forest management plan, and will help you craft your own public comment to improve the plan.

Register at the links below to access the webinars and submit questions to our speakers in advance. Each session will begin at 5:30pm and last one hour, including time for questions and answers.

Update: Did you miss our April 7 info session where we provided a broad overview of the draft management plan? Good news! Public Lands Field Biologist Josh Kelly will be doing a reprise in association with the Public Policy Network of WNC and North Georgia on May 3, 4:00-5:30. Josh will give an overview of MountainTrue’s perspective on the draft Nantahala Pisgah Forest Management Plan and provide tips and information about how the public can positively influence the final version. The webinar is free of charge and you do not have to be a member of PPN to register for the webinar. 

Celebrate 50 Years of Earth Day with MountainTrue

Celebrate 50 Years of Earth Day with MountainTrue

Celebrate 50 Years of Earth Day with MountainTrue

Action Expired

 

As social creatures, we need to maintain our connections and find new ways to lean on each other during hard times. As creatures of nature, we need to connect with our forests, our rivers and the plants and animals we share this planet with. Today more than ever, we appreciate how important clean water and healthy forests are to our mountain communities.

Hikers like to say, ‘the trail gives you what you need’. I’ve experienced that personally and watched it play out in the lives of others. So regardless of whether you are looking for community, solitude, a challenge, stillness, simplicity, therapy, inspiration, resilience, or reassurance… there’s a good chance you’ll find it in the woods.

Jennifer Pharr Davis

Owner, Blue Ridge Hiking Company and 2012 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year

But our forests and rivers would not have been the wonderful sanctuaries Jennifer describes had they not been protected by people like you. Together, we have built a legacy of action to be proud of. You stopped timber companies from clearcutting in Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests. You kept the pressure on Duke Energy until they were ordered to clean up their coal ash pits and move their toxic ash to lined landfills where they will no longer pollute our rivers.

When you stand with MountainTrue, you fight for our environment. Will you stand alongside MountainTrue this Earth Day?

Protect the Places We Share

The fight to protect the health of our forests, rivers, and mountain communities is more important than ever. We ask that you donate today so we can continue to protect the places we share.

Happy 50th Earth Day, and thank you for being part of MountainTrue and making this work possible!

​It may have started with a bat in a cave, but human activity set it loose

​It may have started with a bat in a cave, but human activity set it loose

​It may have started with a bat in a cave, but human activity set it loose.
– David Quammen

COVID-19 is a wakeup call. This pandemic is testing our health systems, government institutions, and civil society in an unprecedented manner. The immediate costs — in lives losts, to our economy, and to people’s livelihoods — are staggering.

Though this disease is new and especially contagious, it is not unique. COVID-19 is among a growing number of animal-borne viruses, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens on the rise due to the twin threats of habitat destruction and climate change. Research conducted more than a decade ago showed as much as 60% of new diseases between 1960 and 2004 came from animals.

​The destruction of natural habitats is a key contributor to the spread of new and existing diseases. As human development encroaches on forests and other natural habitats, people come into greater contact with animals and are at greater risk for catching the diseases they carry.

Similarly, human development, resource extraction and climate change can reduce biodiversity. In the natural world, the most diverse ecosystems are the healthiest, having intricately woven webs of species balancing one another. When those webs are torn, the species most likely to carry and spread disease — such as rats and bats — thrive. Meanwhile, climate change is making our region warmer and wetter, and waterborne and mosquito-borne illnesses like dengue fever, Zika virus, chagas disease and malaria are moving north.

Support Our Healthy Ecosystems

​You can protect our mountain region. With your support, we can protect our forest and aquatic habitats.

These diseases are seen as exotic and foreign, but the same conditions of habitat destruction, degradation of biodiversity and increased human-wildlife interaction are happening right here in our mountain region. Tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease, alpha-gal syndrome, and ehrlichiosis are spreading in our region. Studies have documented growth in tick populations when forests are broken up and the number and diversity of species are reduced.

COVID-19 is an immediate threat, and we encourage our members to find ways to directly support our communities and our neighbors now. But we are also asking you to continue to invest in our environment, our communities and to help do your part to prevent the next pandemic.

When you support MountainTrue, you power:

  • a Public Lands Team hard at work ensuring a management plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests that protects our natural carbon sinks, reduces habitat destruction, and promotes biodiversity.
  • a Land-Use Team that promotes smart growth and community planning so that our continued growth doesn’t come at the expense of our environment.
  • Four Riverkeepers and a Western Region Clean Waters Team that work to reduce urban and agricultural pollution, minimizing levels of E. coli and other harmful pathogens in our rivers and streams, and
  • an Energy Team that has successfully fought to move our region away from coal and is helping to lead us toward a renewable energy future.

The fight to protect the health of our forests, rivers, and mountain communities is more important than ever. We ask that you donate today so that we can continue to protect the places we share.

Thank you for standing with us in this time of uncertainty.

Update NC’s Spill Notification System to Keep People and Waterways Safe

Update NC’s Spill Notification System to Keep People and Waterways Safe

 

We’re Refreshing Our Look — But Our Mission Remains the Same

Read our blog to learn more.