Test Title. …

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

October 2020 E-Newsletter

To get this in your inbox, sign up for our email newsletter here.

October 14, 2020

If You Can, Vote Early!

Early in-person voting in North Carolina starts tomorrow and lasts until October 31. In Georgia, early voting began on Monday and will last until October 30. No matter where you live, we encourage you to vote early if you can. Here are some other tips to make sure your voting experience goes as smoothly as possible:

While the first day of early voting tends to be pretty busy, the first week of early voting should be your best bet to avoid crowds. Try to arrive in the morning if you can.
Wear your mask and practice social distancing.
If you see anything unusual or have problems voting, immediately report it to election staff on site and call the voter protection hotline: 888-OUR-VOTE (888-687-8683). It’s against the law to intimidate voters or interfere with the voting process.

For more information, visit our 2020 voting page here.

Happy voting!

Announcing Our 2020 MountainTrue Award Winners!

We’re honored to be recognizing five critical MountainTrue supporters next week at our Virtual Annual Gathering: Representative Chuck McGrady, Craig Weaver, Joan Parks, Maureen Linneman and Suzanne Hale. Click here to read more about the great work these folks have done on behalf of a healthy environment over the years, and click here to register to attend the Annual Gathering on October 21 and celebrate them in real time. We hope to see you there!

Support MountainTrue and Enter to Win a Handcrafted Paddle!

We’re excited to announce a raffle drawing for a handmade, one-of-a-kind wooden paddle crafted by your Broad Riverkeeper David Caldwell! The winner will be announced at our Virtual Annual Gathering on October 21. You can get one entry ticket for $10 or three tickets for $20, and all funds raised will support the work and programs of MountainTrue. Enter today for your chance to win one of these beautiful paddles!

MountainTrue Members Successfully Defend Solar Projects On Asheville City Schools!

Last Monday, October 5, the Asheville City School Board made a surprise decision to no longer pursue nine solar panel installations on city school properties. The projects in question were among the 40 solar projects approved by the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners this summer, which MountainTrue members advocated fiercely in support of.

Even though it was a long shot, last week we decided to do everything we could to try to save these solar projects and get the school board members to change their minds. Since the County was closing on the financials for all of the solar projects this Monday, October 12, the school board had to make its decision by last Friday – leaving a very short timeframe to reverse the decision. But when we called, you answered, and MountainTrue supporters sent over 250 messages to the school board calling for them to reverse their vote on the solar panels in only two days. As a result, the school board convened an emergency meeting last Friday afternoon and approved eight of the nine solar installations. Thanks to everyone who made this quick turn of events to support solar energy possible!

Local Residents Fend Off the Asphalt Plant Proposed for East Flat Rock!

We’re so excited to share the good news that developer SE Asphalt has withdrawn their application to the Henderson County Board of Commissioners requesting rezoning to allow construction of an industrial asphalt plant in East Flat Rock! We are confident that the pressure applied by concerned residents like you raising your voices in opposition to this dangerous proposal is what resulted in this victory for our community. Together we have proven, yet again, that engaged citizens can and do make change for the better in our communities. Huge thanks to the Friends of East Flat Rock and everyone that spoke out in opposition of this project.

Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) Biomonitoring Is Underway

Students from Gardner-Webb University’s Animal Physiology class join our macroinvertebrate sampling on the Broad River.

Despite challenges presented by the pandemic, our fall season of Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) biomonitoring is underway. Benthic macroinvertebrates, also known as water bugs, tell us a lot about water quality in our rivers because different species have various levels of tolerance to pollution.

Students from Gardner-Webb University’s Animal Physiology class recently joined Water Quality Administrator Grace Fuchs and Broad Riverkeeper David Caldwell on the Broad River in Boiling Springs to sample macroinvertebrates. If you’d like to get involved as a volunteer with this program, reach out to Grace at wqa@mountaintrue.org.

Broad Riverkeeper and Appalachian State University Partner to Study Heavy Metal Pollution

For over a decade, fishermen in our region have been concerned about the contamination of game fish in the Broad River due to discharges from industrial operations. To assess the level of contamination, a team of Ecotoxicology students from Appalachian State University have sampled for heavy metal contamination on the Broad over the past few years – revealing that almost all of the fish and water samples taken downstream of industrial polluters have elevated amounts of arsenic, lead, zinc, selenium and chromium.

To continue this research, Appalachian State University’s Ecotoxicology team came down to the Broad River again last month and spent three days taking water, sediment and fish tissue samples on 30 miles of the Broad River. The team has now collected over 120 samples that will be processed and analyzed for the presence of 20 different heavy metals. The results of this study are important to help determine safe fish consumption rates, and to help the Department of Health & Human Services issue fish consumption advisories if needed.

Inaugural Union County Environmental Awareness Day Was a Success

Students checked out our Native Tree ID Scavenger Hunt at the first ever Union County Environmental Awareness Day.

Western region staff had a great morning at Meeks Park on the inaugural Union County Environmental Awareness Day! We had visits and meaningful conversations with many Union County residents about water quality, recreational safety, native and invasive plants and MountainTrue’s work. Several people enjoyed a nature walk with Tony on one of the many park trails, and five homeschool students and their teachers participated in the Native Tree ID Scavenger Hunt. We hope to make future celebrations of the environment on this day bigger and better! Mark your calendars now for October 1, 2021!

10th Annual Lake Chatuge Shoreline Cleanup Is Happening November 7

Although we’re changing things up a bit to keep people safe during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Lake Chatuge Shoreline Cleanup will proceed on the first Saturday in November in conjunction with Georgia Rivers Alive! The event will again kick off at the Towns County Swim Beach Pavilion at 9 AM. After signing waivers, volunteers will be assigned to specific areas of the lake to clean up trash, as usual. Bags, gloves, coffee and grab-n-go breakfast snacks will be available, but we ask volunteers not to congregate in the pavilion this year before heading out to their assigned site.

Also new this year, we are encouraging everyone to register in advance by noon on the Friday before the cleanup to make the site assignments easier for event organizers. When registering it is important to verify the number of vehicles as well as the number of people in your group, so that we can assign volunteers to clean up areas with enough parking for them. We ask that participants do not carpool with others outside of their families for this year’s event. As in prior years, volunteers will leave trash piled up near the entrance to the assigned site for pickup by the big truck toward the end of the event.

We will not gather for awards after the cleanup this year; however, your team can still win prizes for your good work! Just be sure to take photos and send them to callie@mountaintrue.org for a chance to win. More details on the categories and prizes will be available at the event. Since we had a light turnout last year due to very cold temperatures, We hope to see lots of registrations coming in for the event this year!

Fall Native Tree Sale Ongoing Through November 4

Orders are still being taken for the Native Tree and Shrub Sale through November 4! Choose from 36 species of native trees and shrubs ranging from large shade trees to native ornamental shrubs while supplies last. Descriptions for the various plants indicate that there are good pollinator and wildlife species on the list. All plants are quality nursery stock ranging in size from one to three gallon potted trees.

You must pay for the order at the time you submit it and pick up your plants from our Western Regional Office parking lot in Murphy, NC on Saturday, November 14 between 9AM and 1PM. Why so late? The dormant season is the best time to plant woody trees and shrubs so that they can develop a strong root system before putting energy into flowers, leaves and fruit in the spring.

Place your plant order today!

2021 Watershed Gala: February 25, 2021

Save the date of February 25, 2021 at 6 PM for the first ever virtual Watershed Gala! Yes, we are disappointed too, but the difficult decision had to be made. The team agreed that too much is still up in the air related to the pandemic to count on being able to gather 200 people for an indoor meal in February. We’re working hard to make sure it’s still going to be fun – and you’ll want to celebrate our Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award winner with us!

We are also planning an online auction fundraiser that will start on February 15 and run through the evening event on February 25. More details will be rolling out soon. In the meantime, please consider what you might be able to donate or recruit for the auction and email callie@mountaintrue.org about your ideas.

Update on Pollution from The Ponds Sewage Plant

Water samples in our lab.

After identifying a significant source of pollution stemming from a deteriorating private sewage plant on the Watauga River, our Watauga Riverkeeper program has continued to monitor the area and follow up with the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). “DEQ found multiple sources of regulatory non-compliance such as corroded leaking pipes, inactive overflow alarm systems, and uncontrolled solids buildup,” said High Country Water Quality Administrator Hannah Woodburn. “Overall, the facility shows a serious lack of regular maintenance and a significant threat to water quality on the Watauga River.”

As a result of our diligent sampling, the plant is now receiving fines and notices of violations, and has been required to make repairs to fix their failing infrastructure. Thanks to all our members who make this work possible.

High Country Swim Guide Season Wraps Up

The results are in! Our top 3 cleanest sites are Watauga Point, Wilbur Dam and Wildcat Lake. The three sites that failed the most frequently this summer were Boone Greenway, Guy Ford Road, and WR 321 Gorge Access. The sampling season is over for now, but we will start back up in May. Thank you to our wonderful team of volunteers that makes this program possible!

Calling All Volunteers For Our Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) Program in the High Country!

We’re starting a Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) program in the High Country! The SMIE program mobilizes volunteers to check our local waterways for the presence of macroinvertebrates (also known as bugs). Since the presence of certain bugs in streams tells us a lot about the health of those waters, this is a useful metric that we plan to collect, analyze and share widely. Within MountainTrue, we will join our Green Riverkeeper, French Broad Riverkeeper and Broad Riverkeeper programs in collecting these samples in October and April. We’ll distribute new data on the High Country’s waters to the Environmental Quality Institute in Asheville, the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources, partner organizations and the public.

If you’re willing to get out in a stream on one or two weekends this October, click here for more info!

Events Calendar

September 21-November 4: 2020 Fall Native Tree & Shrub Sale
Once again, our Western Regional Office is holding a native tree and shrub sale to raise awareness about the resilient plants that are native to the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains and to raise some funding for our ongoing non-native invasive plant eradication efforts. Orders must be picked up from the parking lot of our Western Regional Office in Murphy.

October 17, 9AM-4PM: Fall Scenic Hike
Join MountainTrue’s Ecologist and Public Lands Director, Bob Gale, for a gorgeous and educational hike on the Pilot Cove Loop Trail through Pisgah National Forest. This hike offers breathtaking views of the fall foliage, and if we’re lucky, we’ll catch glimpses of the monarch butterfly migration.

October 17, 10 AM-5PM: Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) Training
Interested in helping preserve our waterways? Then join us for our Stream Monitoring Information Exchange (SMIE) training to learn how to safely examine macroinvertebrates in order to determine stream health. The rain date for this training is October 31.

October 18, 1-4PM: Broad River Race Day
Join us for the 2nd annual Broad River Race Day! We welcome folks to race at their own pace and enjoy five miles on the most beautiful stretch of the Broad River. Remember, the hare may not outrun the tortoise!

October 21, 6-7PM: Virtual Annual Member Gathering
For this year’s Annual Member Gathering, we’ll be gathering virtually on Zoom to celebrate recent accomplishments and honor recipients of this year’s MountainTrue awards – such as it is in 2020!

October 28, 12PM-1PM: MountainTrue University: Recycling & Waste Diversion
Tune in for this discussion on municipal recycling and waste diversion programs in WNC with MountainTrue’s Southern Regional Director, Gray Jernigan, and Henderson County Environmental Programs Coordinator, Christine Wittmeier. They will cover what materials can and cannot be recycled, logistical challenges with recycling vendors, local and global markets and more.

November 1, 10AM-2PM: Microplastics Volunteer Program
We’re hosting this training for volunteers who can collect water samples from the river every month going forward that we will test for the presence of microplastics. If you’re willing and able to collect small amounts of river water each month, rain or shine, we would appreciate your help!

November 7, 9-11:30AM: Lake Chatuge Shoreline Cleanup
MountainTrue will host the 11th Annual Lake Chatuge Shoreline Cleanup in conjunction with Georgia Rivers Alive! The event will kick off at the Towns County Swim Beach Pavilion with breakfast and coffee, and volunteer coordinators will lead teams of 5-10 to clean up designated trash sites along the shores of Lake Chatuge. We’ll meet back at the swim beach pavilion at 11:30 for prizes.

November 7, 10AM-2PM: High Country Live Staking Event
Reduce the amount of sediment that flows into our rivers by planting live-stakes along eroding riverbanks with Watauga Riverkeeper Andy Hill.

November 9, 3-4PM: MountainTrue University: Fish Tissue Sampling Project
For years, students from Appalachian State University and our Broad Riverkeeper David Caldwell have taken fish tissue samples in the Broad River to assess the presence of heavy metals in the water. In our latest installment of MountainTrue University, tune in for a discussion between our High Country Water Quality Administrator Hannah Woodburn and our Broad Riverkeeper David about their ongoing studies and efforts to raise awareness for communities affected by heavy metal pollution.

November 10, 12PM-1PM: Building Our City Speaker Series: How Accessory Dwelling Units Can Meet Housing Needs
What is an accessory dwelling? Although many people have never heard the term, the greater Asheville area is speckled with examples of these creative ways to foster aging in place. In partnership with AARP NC, Building Our City is excited to present this virtual tour of accessory dwelling units in our community and teach more about this concept.

November 12, 6-7PM: Virtual Green Drinks with French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson
Virtual Hendersonville Green Drinks welcomes MountainTrue’s very own French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson to discuss the many issues plaguing the French Broad River and what’s being done to combat them. We can and need to do more to make sure we finally meet the goals of the Clean Water Act to provide fishable and swimmable river access to all.

2020 MountainTrue Award Winners

MountainTrue is proud to announce and recognize our 2020 Award Winners! Please join us at our Virtual Annual Gathering on October 21 to honor and celebrate these deserving individuals.

2020 Esther Cunningham Award: Representative Chuck McGrady

MountainTrue presents this award annually in the name of Esther Cunningham, a Macon County resident whose concern for our region’s environment prompted her to found the Western North Carolina Alliance (one of the organizations that merged to become MountainTrue). The award is presented to a MountainTrue member who has demonstrated outstanding community service in conserving our natural resources, and we are beyond honored to recognize a lifetime of service to environmental conservation and protection to this year’s awardee Representative Chuck McGrady.

2010-2020: Served in the NC House of Representatives for the 117th District
2004-2010: Served on the Henderson County Board of Commissioners
Served as the national president of the Sierra Club
First Executive Director of ECO, the Environmental & Conservation Organization of Henderson County
Longtime member and supporter of ECO and then MountainTrue
Spearheaded passage of the nationally groundbreaking 2014 coal ash bill that has since resulted in the excavation of every coal ash basin in North Carolina
Consistently the strongest Republican voice for funding the state’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund
Led efforts to create DuPont State Recreational Forest and advance state trail legislation
Secured renewed funding for the landslide hazard mapping program for Western North Carolina and new funding for hemlock restoration and environmental education

Central Region Volunteer of the Year: Maureen Linneman

Longtime Steering Team Member for the Creation Care Alliance
Leader and Co-Founder of Creation Care Eco-Grief Circles
Leads hikes and other experiences for CCA supporters
Has raised CCA’s voice at climate protests and rallies
Lifelong climate activist

Southern Region Volunteer of the Year: Suzanne Hale

Founder of Creation Care Alliance Leadership Team in Hendersonville
Serves on both the Friends of the Oklawaha Greenway and the Hendersonville Green Drinks Steering Committee
Supports various MountainTrue and Creation Care Alliance events through promotions, event planning, on site volunteering, and fundraising

High Country Region Volunteer of the Year: Craig Weaver

Volunteers supporting clean water through both our VWIN and SwimGuide programs in the High Country
Has been actively engaged through advocacy on the Beech Mountain Water Grab Campaign

Western Region Volunteer of the Year: Joan Parks

Connected MountainTrue with the Tuckasegee River Alliance for a meaningful partnership on developing the riverside park in Bryson City
Longtime supporter of all MountainTrue’s various programs
High engagement point earner for submitting many action alerts, attending multiple events and volunteering

A Black Naturalists Journal

The serenity of nature is like the hug from a friend we all desperately need. The glow and warmth it leaves me with brings me in touch with this land, our planet, not as we have made it, but as it is.

September 23, 2020. Justice was outright denied for the young, lively, human being Breonna Taylor. September 23, 1955. Justice was spit on in the case of poor, young Emmett Till. It is the morning after the ruling in Breonna’s case, I’m sipping coffee, paying mind to how I really feel.

(For context, I’ve recognized my tendency to have physical reactions to the cuts of trauma. It’s not uncommon in BIPOC, to experience chronic pain, exhaustion, fatigue, all of which being any combination of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. My particular flavor is chronic pain (CP) in my cervical spine, with a heavy dash of mental exhaustion. Watching bodies pile up due to violence and sickness, an uncoincidentally high amount of black bodies, can do its damage.)

It’s raining, forcing me to reschedule a field day. On one hand I don’t mind, as this CP flare up probably means I need to rest. On the other hand, I find myself looking at the dozens of photos I’ve taken over the last weeks. Photos of deep forest, leaves, flowers, mushrooms, caterpillars, rivers, and of course mountain views. A video of a little red salamander (Pseudotriton ruber) shimmying itself under leaf litter, trying to hide itself from danger. I want to be outside, where the birds tune out the noise of society, even if only for a while.

Nature therapy, for me, has become a means for coping with the daily trauma we have collectively been witnessing, and disproportionately been experiencing. I have a kind of survivor’s guilt for having that opportunity (let alone for that opportunity to be my work), as well as the opportunity to graduate from college, live in my own apartment, and have support systems, rather than being obligated to support. Injustice takes many forms.

Yet no amount of love for nature will convince me to explore the outdoors alone, not as a young woman of color in western North Carolina. Especially within days of a bizarre, racially intimidating vandalism of the entrance sign to Foothills Parkway. In fact, when I’m hiking I practically always have the company of a white man. In a way that makes me simultaneously feel shame, it makes me feel safe.

But I daydream often. I have a deep love for folk rock, songs that give me ambedo (a ‘feeling you can’t explain,’ n. A kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details- raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee- briefly soaking in the experience of being alive, an act that is done purely for its own sake). There are many ways to connect with nature.

Visions of life illuminated by the tranquility of my environment, accompanied by the soundtrack of that movie I play in my head. In that movie, I go for long drives and get lost in the woods by myself, and I always come home. There are many ways to connect with nature, to pay respect to the greater, the smaller, to the strange fruit we bury like seeds of a bountiful forest.

The world, not as we have made it, but as it is.

The Soundtrack: The Bottom of It / Fruit Bats; Dark Days / Local Natives; Willy’s Song / Rayland Baxter; Louise / Mipso.

Tamia Dame is MountainTrue’s AmericaCorps Forest Keeper Coordinator. She is a graduate of UNC Asheville and a native to the Appalachian foothills of Lenoir, NC, where she spent much of her childhood exploring the outdoors and longing to live in the mountains.

On Division, Communicating the “Inflammatory”

A hot word: “Divisive.” Here in the United States, we talk a lot about how divided we are. But how do we become divided? Before our divisions are philosophical, they are linguistic. Ask any Facebook user what it’s like to use that platform to engage with others on any important issue or hot topic, and their head just might explode. We all see what’s happening around us objectively: we are in a pandemic, nationwide protests happen almost daily, it is an election year, first Australia was engulfed in flames, then the Western US coast. We are living through the same objective events, and most of us are likely seeking similar outcomes: we want health for ourselves and our loved ones, we want as little loss of life as possible by the end of this pandemic, we want our nation to serve justice, we want our planet to be habitable for future generations. Above all, we keep hearing how important for Americans to once again be united as a people, how we’re all so tired of the division. While we all originate from different backgrounds, cultures, family structures, and we have lived different lives, had different experiences, and possess different goals, I like to think that we’re not as different as we think we are.

When it comes to planning our future as a collective nation, it seems as if all of our similarities might have never even existed. We tend to get direly lost in translation, emotionally driven to react to whatever triggers the perception of threat or judgment. We have a terminal addiction to placing our differences ahead of our similarities. In today’s social media age, it seems to be a victimless infraction. We have the right to free speech, the right to our own opinion, and the right to agree or disagree with our government and with one another. This is true. The more I talk with folks, the more I realize that we exist in the same physical universe but live in vastly different worlds. We fundamentally, truly, do not understand each other.

American passion, a historically critical quality of the trailblazers that have brought us from history to here, is our own weakness. The diverse nature of American society has long been prohibited from simultaneously taking up space, until now. Legal gay marriage in the US is younger than Netflix. My 2011 Toyota Camry has existed for longer than Black Lives Matter, the organization. The status quo is being challenged, as it has been before us, cloaked in a different disguise with each passing generation. Have we forgotten that we are history in the making?

“Connect before you correct,” I hear the voice of Ms. Roberta Wall carefully advise. This is one of the basic principles of nonviolent communication (NVC), as I’ve learned it. It means to establish the space to both recognize and be heard, before addressing the issue at hand. It is a practice of empathy, driven by a desire for mutual understanding. I’ve come to realize that this applies to both interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict. When we become fired up at controversial speech, at its core, it’s often because we’re feeling a need be unmet, threatened, or disrespected. We humans are emotional animals. We just care so much! I challenge you, dear reader, to remember that next time you’re in this situation. We have no right to shame ourselves for our passion, but passion, too, is a skill, and developing any skill takes practice.

Step one: hear/read/see controversial speech, action, or decision. Step two: get fired up, think of all the ways the other party is SO wrong. Step three: thank yourself, your brain, for reminding you that you’re not a bad person for caring. Step four: remember that we exist in the same universe, but different worlds. Step five: realize that the other party cares too, in ways we may not be able to understand. Step six: identify any shared needs (safety, health, to be heard). Step seven: choose how to proceed.

These steps, for me, help cool the flames of what I find inflammatory.

Working on these skills restores our power and ability to communicate effectively. I seek to take back the power of my passion, and not let it be threatened by that which and those who I simply don’t understand. My threshold for reactivity has risen, and I spend more of my passion on making a difference. I’ve been able to reach across the aisle, while standing firm in my personal morals and beliefs.

Dear reader, if you identify as an ally of the underrepresented, I challenge you to identify your own reactivity threshold. If you wince at notions of defunding law enforcement, or support black lives matter but don’t appreciate dialogue on white supremacy, if you feel like discourse on social issues has a tendency to just go too far, and you don’t understand, but you believe in unity; I share this as an act of empathy. It is our right to stand true to ourselves, and it is also our right to soften our edges just enough to let our perspectives broaden. When issues drive our emotions and our emotions drive our opinions, we don’t come to understanding by explanation alone, we have to want to understand.

When we give our power of reactivity away, when we expect that others adapt their adopted language to appease those who otherwise would withdraw their support, we continue to perpetuate systemic oppression. By this form of censorship, we force those who have been neglected justice to do more emotional work as they actively fight for equity.

Before our divisions are philosophical, they are linguistic.

Same universe, different worlds.

Passion is a natural reaction to tragedy, yet it takes many forms. We don’t have to be lost in translation. Let’s talk better.

Tamia Dame is MountainTrue’s AmericaCorps Forest Keeper Coordinator. She is a graduate of UNC Asheville and a native to the Appalachian foothills of Lenoir, NC, where she spent much of her childhood exploring the outdoors and longing to live in the mountains.

Why MountainTrue Must Fight Racism

When MountainTrue was formed through the merger of the Western North Carolina Alliance, the Environmental Conservation Organization and the Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance in 2015, the organization inherited a broad scope of programs focused on protecting our rivers and public forests, reducing our region’s dependence on fossil fuels and encouraging smart growth to improve the health of our communities and reduce the impacts of development on our natural environment.

In the five years since the merger, the organization has been working on addressing issues of racism and equity: all MountainTrue staff members enroll in the Racial Equity Institute, the Building Bridges program or both; we’ve taken strides to diversify our board and staff; and we’re working to build partnerships with communities that are fighting for equitable access to resources and power.

That process has been coalescing and transformational. If you had asked us five years ago, two years ago or even just a few weeks back about our priorities and responsibilities on race and equity, you would have gotten different answers than today. We’ve been evolving toward a wider focus. Yes to protecting forests and rivers and advocating for better public transit, more greenways, clean energy, and dense development for the environmental benefits, but we are also thinking more broadly about how we can help foster communities where people are truly healthy. And this means communities that are free from racism, and where there is equity in the social determinants of health — housing, transportation, education and jobs.

Racial segregation and poverty are outcomes of bad policy.

Poverty and racial disparities have been sustained through bad policies that have disproportionately impacted people of color. This is clearly evident in the histories of Redlining and Urban Renewal. Redlining was the systemic denial of services, especially home loans, to people in Black communities established by the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 and replicated by private lenders and local governments that established racially-restrictive local zoning ordinances. Through a combination of redlining, deed restrictions, exclusionary zoning and leasing practices, and racism on the part of local governments, Black people were relegated to the poorest neighborhoods with the least public services. And because Black people could not get loans to improve or fix their homes, the quality of housing and other structures in these neighborhoods deteriorated and property values fell such that homeownership for Black families did not allow for the accumulation of generational wealth.

Despite these restrictions, Black communities in Asheville like Hill Street and Stumptown, the East End and the South Side were vibrant, thriving centers of Black life. City planners, however, saw only pockets of urban decay ripe for redevelopment under the guise of “Urban Renewal.” In the years after World War II, the federal government funded a massive building boom through the passage of the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954, and the construction of a vast network of highways through the Federal Highway Act of 1944. With federal dollars flowing to municipal coffers, cities like Asheville were free to redevelop their urban cores, and it was poorer Black neighborhoods that were targeted. Much of the East End was razed to make way for South Charlotte Street and MLK Drive. In the Southside neighborhood more than 1,000 homes, 50 businesses and seven churches were demolished to make way for more upscale housing. In the Hill Street neighborhood, entire street grids were erased from the map to make way for Asheville’s Cross-Town Expressway.

In towns and cities across the country, vibrant communities of color were destroyed and their residents displaced. Some were forced to live in public housing communities that became pockets of concentrated poverty. Many others had to find cheap housing in the least desirable areas near highways, factories, refineries and landfills.

A View of Eagle Street

A view of Eagle Street looking east from the intersection with Biltmore Ave. This was the vibrant business center of the historically African American East End neighborhood. Photo by Warren Guggeheim circa 1950, courtesy of North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina.

HOLC Map of Asheville

After the Great Depression, the U.S. government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation set out to evaluate the riskiness of mortgages. Their infamous redlining maps are a portrait of the racism and discrimination that has shaped American housing policy. Source: the Mapping Inequality project at the University of Richmond. https://dsl.richmond.edu/

Displacement for Crosstown Expressway

This photo from Dec. 29, 1958, shows the demolition of buildings for the construction of the Asheville Crosstown Expressway. Asheville Crosstown Expressway. © Asheville Citizen Times via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Construction of the Crosstown Expressway

Aerial photo looking east over the construction of the “Crosstown Expressway” (I-240) in the early 1950s. Photo by Ernest Hamill, courtesy of North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina.

Pollution disproportionately affects the poor and communities of color.

These neighborhoods where the air is thicker with automobile exhaust, smog and fumes, and the soil and water are more likely to be poisoned with lead, heavy metals and other industrial pollutants have been dubbed “sacrifice zones.” The higher concentrations of pollution in these areas have an enormous effect on human health and childhood development and perpetuate the cycle of poverty. For instance, generations of poor kids who grew up near highways breathed air thick with the exhaust of leaded gasoline, and, even now, children in these neighborhoods are more likely to have high blood lead levels because the soil near these roads is still contaminated. Lead has been linked to reduced IQs, attention problems and aggressive behavior, and has been identified as a possible cause of the crimewave that besieged the nation from the mid-sixties through the early nineties.

It would be a mistake to reduce this oppression to simply matters of historical mistakes, market demand and geography. Redlining was explicitly racist, as was the targeting for destruction of poor and communities of color by mid-twentieth century urban planners. Similarly, proximity does not fully explain why Black and Brown communities suffer higher levels of air pollution. The National Center for Environmental Assessment finds that Black and Latino people are exposed to about 1.5 times and 1.3 times more particulate matter, respectively, than White people and that emissions are generally higher from factories located in communities of color than those located in wealthier White neighborhoods. Decisions are being made to site more polluting factories in poor neighborhoods than rich neighborhoods, and then to run the factories in Black and Brown neighborhoods dirtier. This is more than economic oppression. It’s environmental racism and it’s a dynamic that has been repeated time and again — famously in the financial decisions that lead to the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the state’s negligent response. Poor people are exploited for profit, and Black and Brown people most of all.

Protesters Demand Clean Water for Flint

Flint residents protest outside of the Michigan State Capital in January 2016. By Shannon Nobles / Amsterdam News

No zone should be sacrificed.

The society that we now inhabit is one where Black and Brown people have fewer opportunities, are more likely to live in areas that are polluted and dangerous, and are more likely to be trapped in cycles of poverty. To make matters worse: layered on top of this structural racism is a brutal criminal justice system, a broken healthcare system, an anemic educational system, crumbling infrastructure and growing food insecurity. In each and every regard, the consequences of these systemic failures fall heaviest on poor Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

Set to topple all these fragile civic institutions is the leviathan threat of Climate Change, which, if left unchecked, will flood our lowlands and mountain valleys in wet years and burn our mountaintops in drought years. Already, the outlines of this dystopia are clear: people and communities with resources will be better positioned to adapt, fortify and recover from disasters. Poorer communities will be sacrificed, largely abandoned by our federal government like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the American citizens of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, the Black neighborhoods of Houston that were flooded by industrial pollution during Hurricane Harvey, or the towns in Eastern North Carolina where homes were flooded with water tainted by millions of gallons of animal waste during Hurricane Florence.

But acting on climate change is not simply altruism, because the security of wealth will be fleeting. Climate Change is proceeding at a pace that has taken scientists by surprise and contributes to a wide spectrum of related maladies such as water shortages, crop destruction and the spread of diseases such as COVID-19. The climate challenges laid out in the October 2018 IPCC report will be insurmountable for a nation that is depleted and divided. Time is running out: to avoid climate catastrophe, we must stop sacrificing our most vulnerable populations, unite and act now.

Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy ravaged large portions of the Northeastern United States, damaging homes in poor, working class and wealthy communities, illustrating that no one is immune from the effects of climate change. Photo Courtesy of Marine Expeditionary Force by Cpl. Bryan Nygaard. (2012)

Our conscience demands action and unity.

The wider movement needed to repair our country, protect our environment and take on climate change must be multicultural and firmly committed to dismantling racism and all systems of structural oppression. This was the strategic rationale of Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign — which he described as “the beginning of a new co-operation, understanding, and a determination by poor people of all colors and backgrounds to assert and win their right to a decent life and respect for their culture and dignity” — and later of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition. Both civil rights leaders understood that an anti-racist movement in which White participation is based only on notions of altruism of charity will exhaust itself and fail to create the mass politics needed to win lasting systemic change.

It’s been two years since the 2018 IPCC report was published warning of dire circumstances of not taking bold, swift action to curtail climate catastrophe. It has been nearly 40 years since Professor and NASA scientist James Hansen gave Congressional testimony about the threat of global warming. In that time our elected leaders have failed to meet the challenge head on. Worse, they’ve scoffed at proposals of the magnitude needed to address the climate crisis head on.

Poor People’s March at Lafayette Park

Demonstrators participating in the June 18, 1968 Poor People’s March on Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D.C Courtesy Library of Congress.

We have our work cut out for us. MountainTrue and its members must commit to the work of dismantling structural racism and uniting our communities in the fight for justice and survival in the face of climate change. Neither cause can succeed on its own; all are interconnected. We know that we don’t have all the answers, but we’re ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with communities fighting for justice.

As an organization, MountainTrue is committed to fighting racism and economic inequity, because meeting our core mission of protecting communities and the environment requires it. This means we must be ready to take on fights that are beyond the scope of traditional environmentalism. We will live our values and use our influence and institutional power to win a more equitable future, and we invite you, as a MountainTrue supporter, to join us.