Raise up your voice, show off your MountainTrue pride, and take part in our #BeMtnTrue
Awareness Raiser!

This social media campaign will help MountainTrue reach new people and recruit more supporters and members. Take part in our #BeMtnTrue Awareness Raiser and help us build the movement to protect our communities and the places we share.

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Get outside and take a selfie, photo or video of yourself doing your part to protect our communities, cleaning up our rivers and trails, or just getting out to enjoy our beautiful Southern Blue Ridge Mountains.
2. Then share your photos or videos on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and let the world know why you’re proud of being MountainTrue.
3. Use the #BeMtnTrue hashtag and tag us in your post!
   Our tags:
   Facebook – @MountainTrue
   Twitter & Instagram – @mtntrue

You can start now by taking photos and videos and sharing them on social media while the weather is beautiful. Beginning on November 22, MountainTrue will share our favorites by reposting them on Facebook, featuring them on our Instagram story highlights, and retweeting them on Twitter

Thanks for being a part of MountainTrue. Now get out and have some fun!

[DATELINE] — Starting this Memorial Day weekend, area swimmers, paddlers, anglers and others who enjoy spending time playing in our local rivers and streams can access up-to-date water quality results for more than 65 popular recreation areas throughout western North Carolina, northeastern Tennessee, and Towns and Union counties in north Georgia. This service is due to the hard work of MountainTrue volunteers and staff who collect water samples every Wednesday and rush to process, analyze and post the results on the swimguide.org website and smartphone app in time for your weekend fun.

“E. coli is a reliable indicator of the presence of other bacteria and pathogens that are harmful to human health,” explains MountainTrue’s [RIVERKEEPER/WATER TEAM REP]. “MountainTrue and our community of dedicated donors and volunteers are proud to be able to offer this public service.”

[DATELINE] — Starting this Memorial Day weekend, area swimmers, paddlers, anglers and others who enjoy spending time playing in our local rivers and streams can access up-to-date water quality results for more than 65 popular recreation areas throughout western North Carolina, northeastern Tennessee, and Towns and Union counties in north Georgia. This service is due to the hard work of MountainTrue volunteers and staff who collect water samples every Wednesday and rush to process, analyze and post the results on the swimguide.org website and smartphone app in time for your weekend fun.

“E. coli is a reliable indicator of the presence of other bacteria and pathogens that are harmful to human health,” explains MountainTrue’s [RIVERKEEPER/WATER TEAM REP]. “MountainTrue and our community of dedicated donors and volunteers are proud to be able to offer this public service.”

Email your North Carolina State Senator and Representative and urge them to support the bipartisan Energy Bill compromise (revised HB 951) announced by Governor Roy Cooper and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger on Friday, October 1, 2021

The Senate plans to vote tomorrow, and the House is expected to vote on a reconciliation bill next week. So we need you to take action today to help pass this critical energy bill. The bipartisan compromise put forward by Governor Cooper and Senator Berger sets aggressive clean energy goals and would establish North Carolina as a leader on climate action in the Southeast.

The revised bill sets an ambitious carbon reduction goal of 70% of 2005 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. It removes a mandate to replace coal plants with natural gas — another significant source of greenhouse gases. It maintains the authority of the North Carolina Utilities Commission to effectively regulate Duke Energy, design a multi-year rate plan, and determine future energy generation based on carbon reduction goals, reliability, and cost. And it establishes an on-bill tariff that would allow homeowners to finance energy efficiency upgrades through their monthly power bill.

The bill, however, is not perfect. It continues to come up short on protections or offsets for low to moderate-income households that could see their energy bills rise to pay for the transition toward renewable energy and the ongoing clean-up of coal ash. We encourage our legislators to fund programs aimed at making sure that these costs don’t fall disproportionately on the shoulders of families already struggling to make ends meet — such as the $400 million allocated in the current draft budget to help low-income households weatherize their homes. We also think legislators should clearly authorize the Utilities Commission to create other programs to support these families.

Take action today to support this bipartisan compromise energy bill, and let’s make North Carolina a leader on climate action.

Encourage the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality (DAQ) to improve its Regional Haze Rule State Implementation Plan.

Take Action:

1. Use the form below to submit public comments asking DAQ to consider all haze-causing pollution including nitrogen oxides and expand its list of sources to include all of Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plants.
2. Attend the public hearing on October 6 at 6 p.m. and voice your support for stronger air pollution controls.

Air pollution threatens the health of wildlife and our communities, drives the climate crisis, and remains one of the most serious problems facing our national parks. In fact, nearly 90 percent of our more than 400 national parks are plagued by haze pollution caused mostly by coal plants, vehicles, and other industrial sources, as well as oil and gas development and operations.

National parks and wilderness areas like Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Shining Rock, Linville Gorge, Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock, and Swanquarter Wilderness Areas are labeled “Class I” areas, have the strongest clean air protections in the country, mandated by the Clean Air Act (CAA). The Regional Haze Rule is the CAA’s time-tested, effective program that requires federal and state agencies as well as stakeholders to work together and put forth implementation plans that will reduce air pollution and restore clear skies at Class I areas around the country.

This is a great opportunity to make our air cleaner and healthier. Let’s encourage the Division of Air Quality to improve its Regional Haze Implementation Plan by including all of Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plants and taking into account all haze-causing pollution such as nitrogen oxide.

Take action today and attend the public hearing on October 6 in support of clean air and a better Regional Haze Implementation Plan.

TALKING POINTS:

• While most haze pollution does not originate in national parks, it can travel hundreds of miles from its source, thereby affecting parks and nearby communities. In fact, nearly 90% of national parks are plagued by haze pollution, and on average, park visitors miss out on 50 miles of scenery because of haze — a distance equal to the length of Rhode Island.
• The Clean Air Act’s Regional Haze Rule (RHR) is a time-tested, effective program that has resulted in real, measurable, and noticeable improvements in national park visibility and air quality. The RHR is intended to protect Class I national parks and wilderness areas both inside and outside North  Carolina including Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Shining Rock, Linville Gorge, Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock and Swanquarter Wilderness Areas from air pollution. North Carolina’s plan is required to address visibility impairing pollution that has the potential to affect Class I areas in order to make reasonable progress towards clear skies in the second round of planning.
• A recent study found that air pollution in some of our most iconic national parks is comparable with densely populated cities like Los Angeles and Houston.
  • The study’s key findings show that between 1990 and 2014, average ozone levels in the parks were indistinguishable from levels in the United States’ 20 largest metro areas.
  • The study also found that park visitation drops by at least eight percent when ozone pollution is high — a clear indicator that air quality is an important issue for the public and directly impacts their use and enjoyment of our national parks.
• The same sources of pollution harming our communities are also fueling the climate crisis, and the consequences are alarming. Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires over natural levels across the western U.S., including at Yosemite and other parks, raised sea level at the Statue of Liberty and other coastal parks, and is melting glaciers at Glacier Bay and  Glacier National Park.
• The same sources of pollution causing haze in our national parks are also disproportionately affecting communities near those sources; communities that are most often living below the poverty line and/or are communities of color. State agencies and the EPA have the opportunity to take into account the benefit that controls on haze-causing pollutants have for disproportionately affected communities and ensure that those benefits are considered and prioritized in developing state or federal implementation plans.
• Poor air quality in our national parks also threatens our economies. Our national parks provide nearly $42 billion in economic benefit and support hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country each year. Without strong safeguards protecting the air we breathe, we can’t keep these places and local economies strong, let alone keep people healthy. Every visitor to a national park deserves to experience clean air and clear views.