MountainTrue Weighs in on Henderson County 2045 Comprehensive Plan

MountainTrue has sent an open letter to the Henderson Country Planning Board that lays out our priorities and goals for a comprehensive plan that will guide future growth and development in a responsible and sustainable way for Henderson County. The letter (included below) addresses public participation in the process, smart growth principles, land preservation, protection and expansion of public lands, protecting clean water, and advancing clean energy.

Over the past several months, MountainTrue has been busy meeting with groups in Henderson County to increase public participation in the 2045 Comprehensive Planning Process. Every 20 years, comprehensive planning offers residents the opportunity to weigh in with their vision for the future. We need everyone’s voice represented as this key initial public input and engagement phase winds down. Here are some links with information about how to get involved:

The County’s 2045 Comp Plan site: This site will provide links to the community survey (available in Spanish), upcoming events, and contacts at the county.
MountainTrue’s recommendations for taking the Public Survey: these are our thoughts on how to fill out the survey.
MountainTrue’s planning principles: this is our take on a set of principles that we feel should guide the county’s planning process.

December 13, 2021

Henderson County Planning Board
100 North King Street
Hendersonville, NC 28792

Via email

RE: MountainTrue’s Principles for Henderson County 2045 Comprehensive Plan

Dear Henderson County Planning Board Members:

On behalf of MountainTrue, a nonprofit organization that has worked to champion resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities in Henderson County for over 30 years, and our local members, we appreciate the process that you are beginning of formulating a new 2045 Comprehensive Plan that will serve as the vision and guide for growth and development in the County for the next quarter century. As we embark on this important task together, we would like to convey the following principles and issues that we believe the comprehensive plan should address:

Public Participation – Overall, we believe that communities should play a central role in planning for their future growth and development. We advocate for a design process that invites diverse voices, including those that have traditionally been excluded or ignored. The process should be equitable and inclusive of all communities and people regardless of class or clout.

We encourage the County to engage in targeted outreach to people in historically underrepresented communities. Surveys were mailed to all property-owning residents early in the process and, while we understand that there are many other input opportunities and that anyone is welcome to participate in the process, no such targeted outreach has been planned for renters and residents of housing authorities — who are disproportionately low-to-moderate income households. And although a Spanish language survey is available, Stewart consultants reported at the October 22nd Planning Board meeting that few if any of these have been returned. We encourage the County to work with organizations that serve these communities to target outreach and solicit participation to ensure that there is equitable participation and representation of all County residents regardless of wealth. Advertising should also be expanded and conducted in multiple languages on various media outlets.

Smart Growth – MountainTrue supports economic vitality and growth in Western North Carolina without compromising our mountain ecosystem. We champion our cities and small towns, which function as economic, cultural, and residential centers. We encourage public and private development in areas where adequate infrastructure already exists. At the same time, we discourage the expansion of infrastructure that induces sprawl into natural areas or the rural landscape. We advocate for a wide variety of housing choices and multiple modes of transportation.

According to our analysis, the County can accommodate projected growth within existing urban areas by focusing on increasing density without any zoning changes. To accomplish this, the County should confine industrial uses to specifically defined areas so that communities are protected from potential impacts. The County can also discourage urban sprawl by resisting developers’ calls to expand water and sewer service beyond the urban service area. The County should also streamline the permitting and approval processes so that development decisions are more timely, transparent, and predictable for developers and residents alike.

The County has made great strides in recent years around multi-modal transit options and connectivity between communities. The Ecusta Trail, Oklawaha Greenway Feasibility Study, and Greenway Master Plan are all efforts that should be included in future planning.

Land Preservation – We support planning for development in a way that protects valued natural resources. Planning can identify critical landscapes, like agricultural lands, wetlands, forests and steep slopes, and identify strategies for preserving those resources from destruction or degradation by development. There are a wealth of resources available to planners including landslide hazard maps, the National Wetland Inventory, NC Natural Heritage Program areas, the National Land Cover Database, and others that should guide development restrictions and define priority preservation areas.

Our rural and agricultural heritage are important to our communities and the economy of Henderson County. Therefore, the County should invest in preservation by establishing a funding mechanism that is dedicated to protecting open space and agricultural and forested lands and is replenished annually.

Public Lands – MountainTrue advocates for the protection of our national and state forests in addition to our national, state, county and city parks and trails. We believe the management of public lands should maintain and restore their ecological integrity and promote recreational opportunities.

The County has a wealth of public land resources including the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest, DuPont State Recreational Forest, Green River Game Land, privately conserved land that is publicly accessible, and many county and municipal parks and trails. The County should encourage and expand access to these resources through increased public transit options and greenway connectivity. The County should create buffers and transition zones between development and public resources, and manage these areas in a way that protects them from encroachment and reduces the threats of wildfire to surrounding communities.

Clean Water – We work to preserve and restore waterways as healthy ecosystems as well as recreational and aesthetic resources. MountainTrue supports the development and enforcement of standards and regulations to protect surface and groundwater from pollution, litter, and the negative impacts of development.

MountainTrue has been monitoring and sampling water quality in the County for decades and will be glad to share our data with planners to determine impacted waterways deserving of increased protection, development buffers, and stormwater runoff reduction measures. As climate change drives increased frequency, intensity, and quantity of rainfall in our area, it is imperative that we reduce impervious surface cover and encourage infiltration and stormwater best management practices to reduce impacts from urban and agricultural runoff on water quality. Development standards around sediment and erosion control should be updated to account for increasing rainfall. Impacts from litter, especially from single-use plastic products, should also be considered and addressed.

Clean Energy – MountainTrue supports the development of clean, sustainable, locally-produced energy. We are dedicated to helping communities transition to renewable energy. We work with local community members, policymakers, and utilities to bring our region sustainable solutions for our energy demands and to promote energy efficiency.

County facilities should incorporate renewable energy generation features, and design standards for all government buildings should promote this. New development approved by the county should similarly be encouraged to incorporate renewable energy features. Housing, especially for low-income residents, should be audited for energy usage and retrofitted to maximize energy efficiency.

Thank you for your consideration of these principles and issues as the Comprehensive Planning process moves forward, and we look forward to working with you to realize a vision for growth in Henderson County that continues an upward trajectory for economic development, preserves our rural and agricultural character, enhances our quality of life, and respects our natural resources for decades to come.

Sincerely,

Gray Jernigan
Southern Regional Director

Katie Breckheimer
Interim Southern Regional Director

CC: Henderson County Board of Commissioners
Jake Petrosky, Stewart, Inc.
Henderson County Manager and Planning Staff

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).

Tell DEQ to Clean Up The Cottages of Boone

The Cottages of Boone has discharged tens of thousands of gallons of sewage and untreated wastewater into Laurel Creek, which flows into the Watauga River. Call on the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to make The Cottages clean up their act and stop polluting our rivers.

TAKE ACTION

MountainTrue has been closely monitoring this facility’s illegal discharges, including large overflow events in April and September that dumped 70,000 gallons and 5,000 gallons of untreated wastewater into Laurel Creek, which flows into the Watauga River. In August, DEQ levied a $38,000 civic penalty against The Cottages’s treatment plant, and now DEQ is currently considering whether to renew its discharge permit. We need you to speak up and help us hold this egregious polluter accountable and prevent future wastewater spills.

While we are not asking DEQ to deny the permit outright (displacing 900 households), we are requesting that DEQ make monitoring data publicly available online, and the permit stricter and conditional upon The Cottages cleaning up their operations.

Fill out the form below and sign on to our letter to DEQ asking that they:

Reduce the term of the permit from five years to a term of two years to make it easier to hold The Cottages accountable if they don’t clean up their act.
Increase monitoring of The Cottages of Boone and make monitoring data from all Sewage System Overflows — including those from The Cottages of Boone — publicly available in a timely manner and easy to find online.
Make any approval of the permit conditioned on The Cottages cleaning up their act. DEQ should promise to change or revoke the permit if The Cottages illegally discharge more than 2,500 gallons within any 3-month period of time.

UPDATE: Thank you to all who have responded to our action alert and signed our letter to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) demanding better monitoring and a stricter wastewater discharge permit for The Cottages of Boone. We surpassed our goal of 1,000 signatures, and we emailed a copy of the letter to DEQ on the afternoon of Monday, December 13.

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Houston, We Have a Budget

After almost a full calendar year in session (to say nothing of a three-year delay since the last budget was approved) the North Carolina General Assembly has approved — and Governor Cooper has signed — a complete spending state plan, which now totals more than $25 billion annually.

If you have been following the budget, uh, “process”, you already know that despite generous revenue in the state’s coffers, legislators and Governor Cooper have been unable to reach an agreement on the budget since 2019. (If you are not familiar with the details of this impasse, here is a good overview).

We will spare you the gory details of how we arrived at a budget in November – almost halfway through the fiscal year, which officially started in July.

Much more important is the what of the budget. And on that front, the news for the environment is good. And particularly good for Western North Carolina.

For starters, the budget makes very generous investments in open space conservation. Major trust funds for state parks, land and water conservation, and farmland preservation all received substantial new funding. Legislators also went big on funding for trails — long overlooked in our opinion — with $29 million in new funding. And there is $15 million for Pisgah View State Park in Buncombe County.

With state funding plentiful as a result of a robust economy and generous federal funding for post-pandemic economic recovery, legislators also opened up the bank to better protect the state from flooding and extreme weather. Indeed they invested close to $300 million to help the state become more storm resilient — a good start to help the state adapt to the effects of climate change.

For MountainTrue, advocating for WNC investments is a major part of our 2021 legislative agenda, and we’re pleased to report success. The new budget includes funding for landslide mapping in our region, water quality testing, pollution cleanup, and dam removal for our rivers and streams. We have spent the last year lobbying in Raleigh for these priorities. Some of our other victories include a variety of smaller investments in stream improvement, paddle trails, and public access that will make it easier to enjoy some of the most beautiful places in the mountains.

As you know, MountainTrue is the only environmental organization located in WNC with a year-round advocate in Raleigh. So, thank you to all of you who make our lobbying efforts possible.

The budget received strong bipartisan support — a rarity these days in Raleigh. So another thank you to all of the legislators who made this fiscal win possible. We also want to include a special shoutout to Sen. Chuck Edwards of Henderson County, who chairs a particularly important budget subcommittee and was critical to MountainTrue’s budget success this year.

Of course, no budget or bill is perfect and this year’s budget is no exception. While the new spending plan is generous when it comes to one-time funding, its new recurring investment in the Department of Environmental Quality, — while very welcome — is still too modest. Yes, there is new recurring funding to address “emerging contaminants” like GenX and to do the landslide mapping we mentioned earlier; but NC DEQ has suffered from more than a decade of continuous budget-cutting even as the environmental issues facing our state have become more numerous and complex. We would have preferred a more ambitious investment to address this years-long shortfall.

Having said that, there is a great deal more to like than dislike in this budget — one, which despite all the delays, was well worth the wait.

Highlands, NC Becomes the Country’s First BearWise Certified Town

It took a decade of effort, but this scenic Western North Carolina town did what no other town or city in the country has done to date: become a BearWise certified community. However, this major accomplishment was no easy feat.

Highlands’ six-member BearWise Liaison Committee — chaired by former MountainTrue Highlands Chapter head, Cynthia Strain — began its work as the Bear Education and Resources (B.E.A.R.) Task Force of MountainTrue. Members worked hard to engage their community with over a decade’s worth of educational programs, school visits, special events, newspaper articles, brochures, and online resources.

Becoming BearWise

Expertly developed by black bear biologists and supported by state wildlife agencies, BearWise, according to its website, “shares ways to prevent conflicts, provides resources to resolve problems, and encourages community initiatives to keep bears wild.”

BearWise Communities

While no other town or city in the US has received a BearWise certification, it’s important to note that Asheville’s own Mountain Meadows neighborhood recently received its BearWise certification in October. The Mountain Meadows neighborhood is North Carolina’s first BearWise certified neighborhood — read more about the accomplishment here.

The BearWise website defines the three steps counties, cities, towns, or neighborhoods that want to become BearWise certified must take:

First, communities must consult with local authorities (like conservation and police officers) or local experts (like fish and wildlife biologists) and assess if garbage and other food attractants are drawing the attention of local black bears. Potential food attractants include birdseed, pet food, and outdoor grills.

Second, communities must organize and rally support for a BearWise certification among community members, after which they can discuss the next steps with local officials, including fish and wildlife personnel.

Lastly, communities must take action by implementing strategies to reduce human-black bear conflict.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s (NCWRC) BearWise certification process obligates interested North Carolina communities to meet five requirements that expand upon the three-step process described above. The NCWRC requires communities to establish a BearWise liaison committee to coordinate information and act as the point of contact between the community and the agency.

Highlands has successfully met all of the NCWRC’s BearWise requirements, working with Mayor Patrick Taylor, community leaders, and NCWRC officials to effectively reduce instances of human-bear encounters in the town. Highlands residents and visitors should keep an eye out for BearWise certification signage, which will soon be proudly displayed throughout the town!

Despite this monumental achievement, Highlands’ BearWise work continues. Being a BearWise certified community has proved to be a dynamic endeavor, explains Mayor Taylor, “We’ve had to go back and change ordinances several times, and we’ll change more. We always want to look back at what we’re doing and improve upon it.”

Why it matters

While it can be a memorable experience to see wild black bears in an urban setting, it’s a risky one. Human-bear conflict is exacerbated by increased human development and subsequent habitat fragmentation, resulting in the increased likelihood of bears coming into contact with humans, especially in urban areas. Those interactions can be dangerous for humans and deadly for bears. Unfortunately, bears can become reliant on human sources of food and display more assertive or aggressive behaviors toward people. When such conflict arises, those ‘problem bears’ often have to be put down by Wildlife Resources staff.

Highlands’ success in becoming a BearWise certified community makes a big statement about the importance of advocating for human-bear coexistence. Black bears are no strangers to residents of the Southern Blue Ridge; they live among us, trekking through our backyards and across city streets, and they’re often found digging through our neighborhood trash cans.

Highlands’ trailblazing efforts showcase the fact that organized community action leads to impactful change. We hope other communities around North Carolina and the greater Southern Blue Ridge region are inspired by Highlands’ success and choose to follow in the town’s footsteps (or pawprints) in the years to come.

On the importance of BearWise communities:

Ashley Hobbs, NCWRC Black Bear and Furbearer Biologist: “When you coexist, you keep the people safe and the bears wild… The bears can still move around; they’re just passing through. Highlands didn’t go halfway; they went all in. With all the effort that’s gone into this, you’ll see the benefit for years to come.”

Colleen Olfenbuttel, NCWRC Black Bear and Furbearer Biologist: “Not only is Highlands the first town to be BearWise certified, but the passion of the people working to accomplish this is a model community for North Carolina… People need to adapt to living with bears, and becoming a BearWise Community is key.”

Check out the BearWise website to:

Learn more about black bears and human-black bear coexistence
Get important safety tips
Download fact sheets and kids’ activity sheets
Find out how your community can become BearWise certified