While residents and environmentalists urge Duke Energy to clean up its coal ash pits, North Carolina’s biggest utility — and the governor’s former workplace — just got another pass from the legislature. Duke will likely not have to clean up seven of its unlined coal ash pits, where the byproduct of coal-fired power plants is stored. Instead, the company can opt to simply...
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The Wilderness Society’s mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. They contribute to better protection, stewardship and restoration of our public lands, preserving our rich natural legacy for current and future generations. They are a leading American conservation organization working to protect our nation’s shared...
Learn MoreA day at a national park with your family and friends might be priceless to you, but these natural treasures have a quantifiable value to the U.S. government: $92 billion, according to a new report from the National Park Foundation. To put that in perspective, that’s greater than the annual GDP of Ukraine or Sri Lanka, which are $90.52 billion and $82.1 billion,...
Learn MoreBoyan Slat was just 16 when he realized he wanted to rid the oceans of plastic. It all happened after he dove into the problem in the most literal way while snorkeling in Greece and finding more drifting plastic than fish swimming. “I thought, that’s a real problem. How can we come up with a solution for that?” Slat recalled. Indeed, the problem is real and large. Around...
Learn MoreThe Marcellus Shale has transformed the Appalachian Basin into an energy juggernaut. Even amid a recent drilling slowdown, regional daily production averages enough natural gas to power more than 200,000 U.S. homes for a year. But the rise of hydraulic fracturing over the past decade has created another boom: tons of radioactive materials experts call an “orphan” waste...
Learn MoreE pluribus unum — out of many, one — has been an official motto of the United States since June 20, 1782. Writ large, it could be the motto for climate action. There have always been two poles representing how the world might respond to the increasingly painful reality of climate change (or indeed any global scale problem). At one pole is unity driven by our moral...
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Cold Mountain is a Western North Carolina peak so beloved and romanticized, there are even a best-selling novel, Hollywood movie and microbrew bearing its name. But even though the 6,030-foot summit is protected as part of the Shining Rock Wilderness of Pisgah National Forest, and the state Cold Mountain Game Lands protect land on the western slopes, large chunks of the...
Learn MoreClimate change is devastating wild lands and the wildlife that thrives inside them, according to findings of a government study. The National Climate Assessment had some alarming findings that have direct impact on our wild lands. Climate change is already affecting some of our most prized natural resources and it’s only getting worse. The report was written by...
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Have you ever gotten a postcard from a national park? Chances are the picture that comes to mind—maybe the powerful eruption of Old Faithful spouting up in Yellowstone or the rocky depths of the Grand Canyon—is the same shot that people across the world have seen. There’s a reason for that. The idea of America’s national parks that’s ingrained in the collective...
Learn MoreA few months ago, when Mongolian national park director Tumursukh Jal was on an official visit to the Grand Canyon, one of his hosts asked a simple question: “How many national parks do you guys have there in your home country?” When Tumursukh mentioned there were 99 of them, his US colleagues seemed a bit nonplussed. “That many, really?” The issue that worries Tumursukh...
Learn MoreFrackers across the country — in places like Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, and Oklahoma — are spewing millions of tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, nullifying any climate impacts of cleaner-burning natural gas. The biggest names in natural gas, including ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Exxon, are responsible for more than half the methane...
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The Cradle of Forestry in America will offer a Junior Forester program for boys and girls ages 8-12 years old. This outdoor-oriented experience will be held every Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. from June 22, 2016 to August 11. The Cradle of Forestry Junior Forester program combines learning new skills with discovery and reflection. Each youth receives a Junior...
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The U.K. government has backed plans to create a new national forest in England in an effort to improve the natural environment over a 25-year period. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will publish the details of the plan by the end of 2016 or by early 2017 at the latest. Millions of trees—including oak, beech, ash, birch and lime—will be planted in...
Learn MoreDemocrats from the House committees on Natural Resources and Homeland Security this week held a joint forum that focused on the steps that need to be taken to confront violent extremism on America’s public lands. The forum comes five months after Ammon Bundy and a group of anti-government extremists took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon...
Learn MoreOne by one, the observatories sounded the alarm in the past few years—from the peak of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, and the top of the Greenland ice sheet—as the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere crept above 400 parts per million (ppm). The last alarm bells went off this week, when scientists announced that the Halley Research Station in Antarctica, as...
Learn MoreGlobal warming is chasing plants and animals, forcing them to head uphill or north to find suitable habitat. Scientists have considered migration corridors — restored, healthy natural areas that connect current habitats with likely landing spots — as a way to help plants and animals stay a step ahead of climate change. New findings published in the Proceedings of the...
Learn MoreThe woman who defaced sites within several national parks in 2014 pleaded guilty June 13, 2016 to seven misdemeanor counts of damaging government property. Casey Nocket, age 23, was ordered by a federal judge to serve two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. She is also banned from all lands administered by the National Park Service (NPS), US Forest...
Learn MoreNuuk, Greenland’s capital, soared to 75 degrees (24 Celsius) Thursday, June 9, 2016, marking the warmest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic country during June. Nuuk sits on Greenland’s southwest coast, where the country’s warmest weather typically occurs. It was warmer in Nuuk than it was in New York City, where the high was only 71 degrees. The Danish...
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Last month the National Forest Foundation gathered with partners, friends and collaborators to celebrate the culmination of years of effort on the Deschutes National Forest. Part of their Treasured Landscapes, Unforgettable Experiences campaign, “The Tale of Two Rivers” site leveraged more than $4 million to restore Whychus Creek and Metolius River. The event took...
Learn MoreEach year, around 15 million people globally suffer from strokes and it is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. Scientists have long known that behavioral factors like diet, smoking, and exercise all contribute to those statistics, but now, a new study names another leading contributor: air pollution. The study, funded by public health groups in the U.S. and New...
Learn MoreHistorically, many oak forests across the eastern U.S. experienced frequent low-intensity fires that promoted the establishment and growth of oaks. “However, fire and other disturbances have become less common,” says U.S. Forest Service scientist James Vose. “Red maple, tulip poplar, and other mesophytic, fire-sensitive, and shade-tolerant trees are increasing in many...
Learn MoreLast month saw the biggest year-over-year jump in atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide on record — 3.76 parts per million. And that, reports NOAA, took May 2016 to the highest monthly levels of CO2 in the air ever measured — 407.7 ppm. At the same time, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reports the warming-driven death spiral of Arctic sea ice hit a...
Learn MoreAs the summer season begins, the National Forest Service reminds visitors that all fireworks, exploding targets and other pyrotechnic devices are prohibited on all National Forest land, year-round, regardless of weather conditions or holidays. Forest Fire Management Officer Riva Duncan emphasizes that, “Fireworks can and will cause wildfires because they burn very...
Learn MoreEven if being a scientist isn’t your day job, there are lots of ways to contribute to scientific research about the natural world. From counting monarch butterflies to studying plant growth and tweeting earthquake locations, citizen science empowers the public to help scientists conduct and inform research. And it’s making a huge difference. Monarchs are an iconic...
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“It’s inspiring to me to look out over these lands we protected,” Marquette Crockett said. “There’s a lot of love poured in here.” Crockett, the Roan Mountain Stewardship director for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, works for that reaction – to protect the thousands of acres of land in the viewshed of Highlands of Roan and the Appalachian Trail, which...
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The Cradle of Forestry in America will celebrate National Get Outdoors Day, June 11, 2016, with outdoor skills demonstrations, activities and crafts. Admission to the site and all activities are free. The National Get Outdoors Day campaign encourages Americans, especially youth, to pursue healthy and active outdoor lifestyles, connect with nature, and embrace public...
Learn MoreNorth Carolina’s biggest utility has 14 different coal ash storage sites in the state, and none of them are safe. That means the chemicals and heavy metals — including mercury and arsenic — in coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal for power generation, can leach into local water supplies. The safety issue was demonstrated in dramatic fashion a few years ago, when a coal...
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So, if you participated in the glyphosate test project launched last year by the Detox Project and Organic Consumers Association, you probably failed. A staggering 93 percent of Americans tested positive for glyphosate, according to the test results, announced on May 25, 2016. What makes that figure even more alarming is that many of you who sent in urine samples for...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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