Liquidlogic Donates Kayak for Water Monitoring

First in Fleet for MountainTrue’s Southern Region

Liquidlogic, the fletcher-based whitewater and crossover kayak manufacturer, has donated a Remix XP10 crossover kayak to MountainTrue to help them keep Western North Carolina’s rivers healthy, clean and safe places to swim and play.

“We’re thankful for everything MountainTrue does to keep our rivers clean, and we’re glad to donate a Liquidlogic boat to help advance their work,” said Tyler Brown, Director of Marketing. “With this boat going to the Southern Regional Office in Hendersonville, we know that they’ll put it to great use to protect water quality in our backyard.”

Photo above: Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue Southern Regional Director, accepts the Remix XP10 from Miqe Alexander, LiquidLogic Assistant Warehouse Manager

This will be the first boat in MountainTrue’s fleet that is solely dedicated to work in the organization’s Southern Region, covering Henderson, Transylvania, Polk and Rutherford counties.

Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue Southern Regional Director, explains, “This donation will significantly improve our ability to monitor local waterways and respond to pollution reports. We are so grateful to have Liquidlogic as a supporter of MountainTrue’s work and as a member of our community.”

About MountainTrue:
MountainTrue is Western North Carolina’s premier advocate for environmental stewardship. We are committed to keeping our mountain region a beautiful place to live, work and play. Our members protect our forests, clean up our rivers, plan vibrant and livable communities, and advocate for a sound and sustainable future for all residents of WNC.

About Liquidlogic:
Located in Fletcher, NC, Liquidlogic Kayaks focuses on creating the highest quality kayaks in whitewater and crossover paddling. Beginning as a dream along the banks of the Green River, Liquidlogic was founded in 2000 and has quickly grown to become a worldwide brand with distribution centers in Europe, New Zealand, Japan, and Russia. Founded by Woody Callaway, Shane Benedict, Bryon Phillips, Liquidlogic is a company owned and operated by paddlers who have paddled on all types of water around the world, but the mountains of Western North Carolina had their hearts, specifically, the Green River.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival Comes to WNC for Sixth Year

MountainTrue is pleased to announce that it is hosting the sixth annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival presented by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., taking place at Sierra Nevada’s Mills River location on September 1.

Tickets available: http://bit.ly/WSFFWNC

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival features the year’s best nature, wilderness and outdoor adventure short films and is sponsored by Mountain Xpress, Blue Ridge Energy Systems, BorgWarner, Holly Spring Farm, JAG Construction and Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty. This year’s festival features 12 films covering a wide range of subjects from the story of our own Southern ancient stream-dwelling Hellbender salamander to rock climbing the Baatara Gorge in Lebanon to grassroots indigenous activism in Honduras.

Avaatara: The First Route Out – David Lama achieves first ascent of the Baatara Gorge in Lebanon, a surreal ‘Avatar’-like landscape, unexploited and untouched.
Leave it as it is – The Grand Canyon is one of the most iconic landscapes on the planet, but this natural masterpiece of the Colorado River faces a battery of threats.
The Last Dragons – An intimate glimpse at North America’s Eastern Hellbender, an ancient salamander that lives as much in myth as in reality.
Diversity & Inclusion in our Wild Spaces – A campfire discussion on improving the diversity of both the visitation and the employment within our parks and wild spaces and brings light to important issues facing today’s conservation movement.
Mile for Mile – A trio of professional ultrarunners travel 106 miles through the newly opened Patagonia Park in Chile to celebrate and highlight Conservacion Patagonica’s efforts to re-wild this vast landscape.
Co2ld Waters – Five of the most respected names in the fly fishing world converge on a single creek in Montana to talk about their passion and to discuss the single biggest threat to their timeless pursuit, climate change.
Parker’s Top 50 Favorite Things about Northwest Rivers – This fun film celebrates the best things about Northwest rivers from a kid’s perspective.
In Current – Rowing a dory in the Grand Canyon is considered by some as the most coveted job in the world. Amber Shannon has been boating the Grand Canyon nine years, trying to work her way from the baggage boat to a dory, while spending as many days as possible in current.
Comes with Baggage – This lighthearted history of bicycle travel in the Americas makes you want to sell all your possessions, quit your job and escape on a bike.
Mother of All Rivers – Berta Cáceres rallied her indigenous Lenca people to wage a grassroots protest that successfully pressured the government of Honduras and the world’s largest Chinese dam builder, SinoHydro, to withdraw from building the Agua Zarca Dam. Narrated by Robert Redford.
The Thousand Year Journey – Jedidiah Jenkins quit a job that he loved to ride his bicycle from Oregon to the southern tip of Patagonia. Friend and filmmaker Kenny Laubbacher joined him for a month and a half to pose the question “why?”
The Accidental Environmentalist – John Wathen was just an average guy until coming into contact with toxic chemicals, stumbling upon a video camera, and discovering his passion for protecting Alabama’s waters.

Our Wild & Scenic festival is a selection of films from the annual festival held in Nevada City, CA which is now in its 14th year. The festival focuses on films that speak to the environmental concerns and celebrations of our planet, and works to build a network of grassroots organizations connected by the common goal of using film to inspire activism.

The 2016 Wild & Scenic festival will take place under the open sky at Sierra Nevada’s new outdoor amphitheater located on the banks of the French Broad River at their Mills River brewery. The event begins at 7 p.m.; show starts at 8 p.m. Get there early to grab a drink, explore the gardens and snag a prime viewing spot for the main event!

WHEN: September 1
WHERE: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – 100 Sierra Nevada Way, Fletcher, NC 28732
Price: General Admission $15; $10 for students

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is made possible by the support of national partners: Patagonia, CLIF Bar, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Orion Magazine, Klean Kanteen, Earthjustice, and Barefoot Wine & Bubbly. There will be door prize giveaways, silent auction items and chances to win premium raffle prizes generously donated by our sponsors. Tickets can be purchased at http://bit.ly/WSFFWNC.

For more information, contact Susan Bean, susan@mountaintrue.org, (828) 258-8737 or mountaintrue.org.

About MountainTrue MountainTrue fosters and empowers communities throughout the region and engages in policy and project advocacy, outreach and education, and on the ground projects. To achieve our goals, MountainTrue focuses on a core set of issues across 23 counties of Western North Carolina: sensible land use, restoring public forests, protecting water quality and promoting clean energy – all of which have a high impact on the environmental health and long-term prosperity of our residents. MountainTrue is the home of the Watauga Riverkeeper, the primary watchdog and spokesperson for the Elk and Watauga Rivers; the French Broad Riverkeeper, the primary protector and defender of the French Broad River watershed; and Broad River Alliance, a Waterkeeper Affiliate working to promote fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters in the Broad River Basin. For more information: mountaintrue.org

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Bad Coal Ash Bill Being Rushed Through Raleigh

Action Expired

On the evening of Tuesday, June 28 the North Carolina Senate rushed through a rewrite to H630, the state’s coal ash cleanup law. This bad coal ash bill is quickly making its way through the legislature and we expect the House to take it up as soon as today.

Please call your NC Representative Immediately and ask them to NOT CONCUR with the Senate’s version of House Bill 630.

Official statement by MountainTrue Co-director Julie Mayfield:

“The legislature’s rewrite of the state’s coal ash cleanup law is a betrayal of the people of North Carolina. The General Assembly has abdicated its responsibility to clean up North Carolina’s coal ash and protect us from the ill effects of toxic pollutants.

“HB630 would disband the Coal Ash Management Commission and with it any effective oversight of the Department of Environmental Quality, which has a poor record of protecting our communities and our environment. Worse, this new legislation delays final classification for North Carolina’s coal ash pits and completely guts the criteria the state uses to determine the threat of these pits to our communities. The result will leave coal ash in place to continue polluting groundwater, our rivers and our streams.

“The strength of the Coal Ash Management Act of 2014 (CAMA) was that it used science to guide the coal ash cleanup effort. That science indicated that there are no low priority coal ash sites or low priority communities. Now the legislature wants to scrap the protections that are based on that science – protections lawmakers themselves have repeatedly touted as ‘the best in the country.’ The legislature’s willingness to weaken laws that protect so many people from such harmful pollution is both bewildering and shameful.”

Read the full text of H630.

H630, as passed by the Senate, would:

eliminate the Coal Ash Management Commission and, with it, legislative oversight over the NC Department of Environmental Quality, a deeply politicized agency with a poor track record;
eliminate criteria for risk assessment based on a site’s threats to public health, safety, welfare, the environment and natural resources;
give Duke two years, until October 15, 2018, to provide clean drinking water to affected households through a water line or filtration device;
require that DEQ classify ponds as “low risk” if dams are repaired and public water supply hookups are provided, regardless of whether they continue to pollute ground and surface waters;
allow the DEQ to revise and downgrade their classifications of coal ash pits for 18 months, until November 15, 2018;
delay closure plans for low and intermediate sites until December 31, 2019; and
give DEQ expanded authority to grant variances and extensions to the deadlines above, creating further delay and less accountability for Duke Energy.

The time to act is NOW. Call your representative and tell them that no North Carolina community is a low priority. Tell them to oppose H630.

MountainTrue Announces New Southern Regional Director

Public Invited to Meet Gray Jernigan at Open House on July 7

Hendersonville, N.C. — MountainTrue is excited to announce the hiring of Gray Jernigan as regional director for the Southern Regional Office, located in Hendersonville and serving Henderson, Polk, Rutherford and Transylvania counties. Gray comes to MountainTrue from Waterkeeper Alliance, where he served in Raleigh as a staff attorney and communications coordinator.

To welcome Gray to WNC, MountainTrue is hosting an open house at our Hendersonville office.

WHAT: Meet and Greet Gray!

WHO: MountainTrue

WHEN: July 7 at 4:00-6:00 p.m.

WHERE: MountainTrue Southern Regional Office, 611 N. Church St., Hendersonville, N.C. 28792.

The public is invited to meet Gray, learn about MountainTrue’s efforts to promote sensible land use, restore public forests, protect water quality and promote clean energy, and how they can get involved as members, supporters and volunteers.

Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue’s southern regional director:
“I spent my childhood summers at Falling Creek Camp in Henderson County, and that’s when I fell in love with the mountains and beauty of Western North Carolina. I am thrilled to be back and I’m ready to work with local communities to protect our mountains, forests, rivers and streams.”

Gray received his undergraduate degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a master’s degree and a law degree from Vermont Law School. Gray has extensive experience in environmental law, policy, and advocacy and has worked on land and water conservation issues across the state.

Bob Wagner, MountainTrue’s co-director:
“We are thrilled to have Gray as a member of our MountainTrue team. He has an exceptional background in environmental policy and will be a valuable partner and resource for our community. ”

About MountainTrue

MountainTrue fosters and empowers communities throughout the region and engages in policy and project advocacy, outreach and education, and on the ground projects. To achieve our goals, MountainTrue focuses on a core set of issues across 23 counties of Western North Carolina: sensible land use, restoring public forests, protecting water quality and promoting clean energy – all of which have a high impact on the environmental health and long-term prosperity of our residents. MountainTrue is the home of the Watauga Riverkeeper, the primary watchdog and spokesperson for the Elk and Watauga Rivers; the French Broad Riverkeeper, the primary protector and defender of the French Broad River watershed; and Broad River Alliance, a Waterkeeper Affiliate working to promote fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters in the Broad River Basin. For more information: mountaintrue.org

June 9: Hendersonville Green Drinks: Prioritization of Transportation Projects in North Carolina and Our Region

Hendersonville, N.C. — On Thursday, June 9, Hendersonville Green Drinks welcomes featured speakers Lyuba Zuyeva, Director of the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, and Tristan Winkler, Senior Transportation Planner with the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, who will discuss how transportation projects go from concept to funded project.

The State of North Carolina uses a data-driven process that is open and transparent, but not always the easiest to understand. Presenters will go through the process the state uses to prioritize projects, what projects are currently being considered, and how the public can get involved.

What: Hendersonville Green Drinks: Prioritization of Transportation Projects in North Carolina and Our Region
Who: Lyuba Zuyeva, Director of the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, and Tristan Winkler, Senior Transportation Planner with the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Where: Black Bear Coffee Co. 318 N. Main St. Hendersonville, NC
When: Thursday, June 9 networking at 5:30 p.m. , presentation at 6:00 p.m.

About Hendersonville Green Drinks
Hendersonville Green Drinks is presented by MountainTrue and the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. Come to Green Drinks to learn more about current environmental issues, have relevant discussions, and meet with like-minded people. This is a monthly event and everyone is welcome. You don’t have to drink at Green Drinks, just come and listen. Black Bear Coffee offers beer, wine, coffee drinks and sodas. A limited food menu will be available.

New Smartphone App Makes Anyone a Muddy Water Cop

Muddy Water Watch Launches New App; Announces Volunteer Trainings

Asheville, N.C. – Now anyone with a smartphone can help report illegal muddy water runoff and sources of sediment pollution. Muddy Water Watch, a project of MountainTrue, the French Broad Riverkeeper and the North Carolina Waterkeepers, has teamed up with Shiny Creek, an Asheville-based enterprise-class web and mobile application development company, to create a new smartphone app that makes documenting sources of dirty water easier than ever.

The Muddy Water Watch app can be downloaded for free from Apple iTunes or the Google Play stores. Once installed on a smartphone or tablet, a user can easily snap a photo of the pollution source, provide notes and submit a report. The report is geotagged so that it goes to the appropriate authority.

“This is a powerful new tool for tracking and shutting down sources of illegal sediment pollution,” explains Hartwell Carson, MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper. “Identifying the right group or official to submit a report to has always been the biggest challenge for our Muddy Water Watch volunteers. This app solves that problem, makes the reporting process much easier and allows anyone to alert the proper authorities.”

“We are excited to partner with MountainTrue to deliver a mobile app that can really make a difference for the environment here in Asheville where we work and around the country. Hartwell Carson and the crew at MountainTrue have a great team working to protect the environment and we are glad to be a part of that mission,” says Brett Crossley, President, Shiny Creek.

Sediment is the number one pollution source in the French Broad River Watershed and nationwide. It smothers aquatic life, warms the water, reduces oxygen levels, destroys habitats, and clogs fish gills. Sediment pollution often comes from the runoff from construction sites, stream bank erosion, and runoff from agriculture.

New Muddy Water Watch Trainings Announced

With the launch of the new app, MountainTrue and the Riverkeeper have also announced the first three Muddy Water Watch trainings of the season: June 20 at the Public Library in Marshall, June 28 at Haywood Community College’s Regional High Technology Center in Waynesvill and June 30 at REI in Asheville.

June 20 – Marshall Public Library from 4 p.m to 7 p.m.
11 N. Main Street
Marshall, NC
June 28 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Haywood Community College, Regional High Technology Center 112 Industrial Park Drive – Room 3021
Waynesville, NC
June 30 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
REI Asheville, 31 Schenck Pkwy, Asheville
Asheville, NC>> Register for trainings.

Participants will get training on how to identify, document and report sources of sediment pollution. Each training session will also include a site visit to an active construction site.

The French Broad Riverkeeper and Riverkeepers around North Carolina previously held dozens of Muddy Water Watch trainings around the state, training over 150 volunteers and reporting hundreds of sediment runoff from construction sites. This program proved to a great example of how grassroots volunteers can stop our biggest pollution source and clean up our waterways.

“The Muddy Water Watch program is a great way for people to have an immediate impact that benefits our local environment and water quality,” explains Hartwell Carson, MountainTrue French Broad Riverkeeper. “Western North Carolina’s rivers are some of our greatest treasures and economic assets. Both locals and visitors paddle, fish and play in these waters and we need to protect them.”

About Shiny Creek
Shiny Creek designs and builds data-driven cloud-based mobile and web applications for enterprises and nonprofit organizations. Established in 2013, their consulting team includes designers and developers with decades of combined experience taking client ideas from concept to product quickly and efficiently. Shiny Creek has developed applications that range from sports statistics to enterprise data and environmental monitoring. For more information on Shiny Creek, visit www.shinycreek.com.

About MountainTrue
MountainTrue fosters and empowers communities throughout the region and engages in policy and project advocacy, outreach and education, and on the ground projects. To achieve our goals, MountainTrue focuses on a core set of issues across 23 counties of Western North Carolina: sensible land use, restoring public forests, protecting water quality and promoting clean energy – all of which have a high impact on the environmental health and long-term prosperity of our residents. MountainTrue is the home of the Watauga Riverkeeper, the primary watchdog and spokesperson for the Elk and Watauga Rivers; the French Broad Riverkeeper, the primary protector and defender of the French Broad River watershed; and Broad River Alliance, a Waterkeeper Affiliate working to promote fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters in the Broad River Basin. For more information: mountaintrue.org