Waterkeeper Alliance and Sound Rivers have discovered a large coal ash spill into the Neuse River from the Duke Energy H.F. Lee facility, 10 miles upstream of Goldsboro, NC. A substantial but undetermined amount of coal ash was found floating on the surface of the river in a layer over one inch thick.
The spill came from at least one of three inactive coal ash ponds containing more than one million tons of exposed coal ash. The ponds had been submerged by Hurricane Matthew flood waters for more than seven days until flood waters receded over the weekend. Fly ash coated tree branches as much as seven feet above the river surface, indicating the spill began no later than last Tuesday, when the water level reached a record flood stage.
Independent microscopic analysis confirmed the white material is fly ash particles known as cenospheres, a waste product of coal combustion.
Matthew Starr, Upper Neuse Riverkeeper, said, “This spill is easily visible to anyone in a boat. The area looks like a winter wonderland of toxic coal ash as it has coated the water and trees. It is hard for me to understand how both Duke Energy and state regulators failed to notice such a large area of coal ash contaminating the Neuse River when they claim to have inspected these very ash ponds on Saturday (Oct. 15).”
One thousand years ago, clusters of pueblos teeming with activity dotted what are now the piñon, juniper and sage forests atop Cedar Mesa. Men tended to hundreds of acres of electric-green fronds of corn, beans and squash. Women ground corn and shelled beans on rooftops, while turkeys gobbled in nearby pens and domesticated dogs roamed village plazas.
Groups of runners followed wide, carefully constructed “roads” from here to Chaco, perhaps the political and cultural center of the Pueblo world. Near the solstice, Kachinas emerged from canyons, danced slowly across plazas and descended into great kivas to summon the sun or the rain.
Near the end of the 12th century, after the Ancestral Puebloans had built and lived in villages in the region for more than 800 years, shaping religion, culture and societies, trouble arrived. Someone or something threatened the people, pushing them to cluster into bigger, more easily defended pueblos. And by the middle of the 13th century, the Puebloan communities of the Bears Ears region were empty.
After a journey every bit as epic as that of the Israelites, the people had moved on to place their footprints elsewhere, ultimately fulfilling the covenant and settling in their respective homelands, today’s Hopi, Zuni and Eastern pueblos. “We have earned the right to be earth stewards,” says Kuwanwisiwma. “That’s why emotions run deep on these issues, and why we’re trying to get the Bears Ears monument enacted.”
Last month “was the warmest September in 136 years of modern record-keeping,” reports NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
This follows a record-setting July and August, which were so hot, they tied each other for the “warmest month ever recorded.”
Indeed, it now appears 2016 will crush the previous record for hottest year, set in 2015, which itself crushed the previous record for hottest year that was set in 2014 — a three-year run never seen before in the 136-year temperature record.
And this means the recent bouts of extreme weather “will be routine all too soon, but then even worse records will be set,” says climatologist Kevin Trenberth.
There’s only way to stop this chain of ever-more extreme and dangerous records: slash carbon pollution ASAP.
Nearly 200 nations have agreed a legally binding deal to cut back on greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a major move against climate change that prompted loud cheers when it was announced on October 15, 2016.
The deal, which includes the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China, divides countries into three groups with different deadlines to reduce the use of factory-made hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases, which can be 10,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as greenhouse gases.
“While diplomacy is never easy, we can work together to leave our children a planet that is safer, more prosperous, more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us,” the White House said in a statement on the deal.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal was “a monumental step forward” as he left the talks in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
Under the pact, developed nations, including much of Europe and the United States, commit to reducing their use of the gases incrementally, starting with a 10 percent cut by 2019 and reaching 85 percent by 2036. Many wealthier nations have already begun to reduce their use of HFCs.
Two groups of developing countries will freeze their use of the gases by either 2024 or 2028, and then gradually reduce their use. India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and the Gulf countries will meet the later deadline.
Somewhere in America, a wild animal is about to die.
A leg trap has been set. Bait laced with poison has been laid out. A cage that no one will check for days is open and inviting with food inside. A little-known division of the federal Agriculture Department called Wildlife Services kills about 4,000 animals every day. Many of them are invasive species that don’t belong in the United States, but to the dismay of conservationists, native animals such as beavers, bears, wolves, bobcats, alligators, prairie dogs, otters and owls are also being snuffed out.
Last year, 3.2 million animals were killed. Over the past 10 years, the toll surpasses 35 million. But a recent settlement reached at a federal court in Nevada might one day dramatically lower these numbers. A small animal rights group, WildEarth Guardians, argued in a lawsuit that the science in an analysis that Wildlife Services uses to justify its kills in state wilderness and wilderness study areas is out of date, and the agency settled by agreeing to an update that will probably take two years.
Until the new analysis is drafted, debated in public forms and finalized, Wildlife Services will not operate in 6 million acres of Nevada wilderness — remote areas where no roads exist. “They will send instruction to everyone who works for them that they can no longer use that assessment,” said Bethany Cotton, the wildlife program director for WildEarth. “They will post that commitment on their website. That’s why this has much broader implications than just Nevada.”
“I think it’s a significant shift in how the program operates, and my hope is that officials will embrace the science and the modern ethics around the treatment of wildlife,” Cotton said.
The scenic view from the popular Bear Den Overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway is now permanently protected thanks to Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina.
Foothills Conservancy moved swiftly to acquire 208 forested acres along 1.6 miles of the parkway between mileposts 323 and 325 in McDowell County. The conservancy purchased the tract on September 20 from the Moody family, who own the popular Bear Den Campground.
The land trust’s acquisition was made possible by a generous gift of $898,000 from Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury, a $22,000 grant from Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC), and a $590,000 loan from CTNC’s Mountain Revolving Loan Fund, which is also underwritten by the Stanbacks. The loan fund enables land trusts to respond quickly when critical conservation properties become available.
“We are very pleased to protect spectacular vistas at the Bear Den Overlook, one of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s most loved vantage points enjoyed by countless visitors each year,” said Tom Kenney, land protection director for Foothills Conservancy. “The land’s protected source streams that feed Honeycutt Creek and its natural habitats at 3,000 feet elevation add great value to and buffer the adjoining parkway.”
Foothills Conservancy plans to transfer the property to the National Park Service for addition to the Blue Ridge Parkway lands after raising additional public and private funds to retire the loan.
Last summer, Colleen Boll was doing some work around the house when she heard her dog barking from a different room. “It was an interesting kind of bark,” she says, “so I looked out.” Right smack in her yard, pacing around inside her chain link fence, was an enormous, glossy black bear.
Boll watched the bear puzzle out how to hop the fence. “Eventually, it grabs the trunk of a tree and climbs over,” she remembers. “And I see the pipe at the top of the chain link fence bend way down under the weight of this huge bear. And then I realize, oh—that’s what all those little bends are, in all my fences all around my house.”
Boll doesn’t live deep in the woods. She lives in Asheville, the 11th most populous city in North Carolina, and increasingly well-known as both a hip travel destination and a great place to live. Over the past decade, Asheville has racked up all kinds of accolades: according to one list of fawning headlines, it’s “Fantastically Yoga-Friendly,” “One of America’s 12 Greatest Music Cities,” “The Biggest Little Culinary Capital in America,” “#1 Beer City USA,” and “America’s #1 Quirkiest Town.”
Somewhat more quietly, it’s also one of America’s Best Cities for Bears. They hang out near the local hospital, and at the storied Grove Park Inn. Mailmen regularly run into them on their routes. Last August, a bear broke into an Asheville man’s home and stole a stick of butter out of his kitchen trash. “I never saw a black bear until I moved to the city,” Boll says.
The U.S. Forest Service will temporarily close the visitors lobby in its Asheville office on Zillicoa for renovations during the week of October 24, 2016.
The office is expected to re-open October 31. During the closure, visitor services will be available at other U.S. Forest Service offices including:
Appalachian Ranger District
632 Manor Road
Mars Hill, NC 28754
(828) 689-9694
Grandfather Ranger District
109 Lawing Drive
Nebo, NC 28761
(828) 652-2144
Pisgah Ranger District
1600 Pisgah Highway
Pisgah Forest, NC 28768
(828) 877-3265
The location and contact information for other U.S. Forest Service offices in North Carolina is available here. For more information please call the National Forests in North Carolina at 828-247-4200.
The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old.
For most of its life, the reef was the world’s largest living structure, and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. In total area, it was larger than the United Kingdom, and it contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined.
It harbored 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of mollusk, 450 species of coral, 220 species of birds, and 30 species of whales and dolphins. Among its many other achievements, the reef was home to one of the world’s largest populations of dugong and the largest breeding ground of green turtles.
The reef was born on the eastern coast of the continent of Australia during the Miocene epoch. Its first 24.99 million years were seemingly happy ones, marked by overall growth. It was formed by corals, which are tiny anemone-like animals that secrete shell to form colonies of millions of individuals. Its complex, sheltered structure came to comprise the most important habitat in the ocean.
As sea levels rose and fell through the ages, the reef built itself into a vast labyrinth of shallow-water reefs and atolls extending 140 miles off the Australian coast and ending in an outer wall that plunged half a mile into the abyss. With such extraordinary diversity of life and landscape, it provided some of the most thrilling marine adventures on earth to humans who visited. Its otherworldly colors and patterns will be sorely missed.
The U.S. Forest Service and the North Carolina Forest Service are warning the public of increasing fire danger in western North Carolina.
Last weekend’s rainfall was not widespread and not enough to alleviate the dry conditions and persistent drought that has resulted from low rainfall in the past few months. Fuels in the forest will readily burn if ignited. Fire danger is predicted to remain high for the rest of October and into December.
Both agencies would like to remind the public to use caution in any outdoor burning. Even when burn-bans are not in effect, conditions may not be advisable for outdoor fires. The public is discouraged from burning yard waste during periods of low humidity or high winds.
For people who choose to burn debris, the N.C. Forest Service offers the following tips to protect property and prevent wildfires:
* Always consider alternatives to burning.
* Obtain a burning permit at an NCFS office or online
* Check the weather – don’t burn on dry, windy days.
* Know your local burning laws.
* Be prepared with water, a shovel and phone.
* Stay with your fire until it is completely out.
Studies have shown that taking these and other measures can greatly reduce wildfires and the loss of property associated with them. Take time now to prepare your home against wildfires. Tips on protecting your property can be found at www.firewise.org.
Additionally, campfires can be a source of wildfires. Follow these guidelines to help prevent wildfires:
* Allow the wood to burn completely to ash, if possible
* Pour lots of water on the fire, drown ALL embers, not just the red ones
* Pour until hissing sound stops
* Stir the campfire ashes and embers with a shovel
* Scrape the sticks and logs to remove any embers
* Stir and make sure everything is wet and they are cold to the touch
* If you do not have water, use dirt. Mix enough dirt or sand with the embers.
* Continue adding and stirring until all material is cool.
* Do NOT bury the fire as the fire will continue to smolder and could catch roots on fire that will eventually get to the surface and start a wildfire.
Learn more about fire safety at http://ncforestservice.gov/fire_control/fc_firesafetyoutdoors.htm and www.smokeybear.com. Remember…only YOU can prevent wildfires.
The National Park Service was created to protect and preserve the United States’ natural wonders. But what happens when climate change starts to alter these sites?
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced a new report revealing that three-quarters of 276 national parks are experiencing an earlier onset of spring. Half of the parks studied are experiencing “extreme” early springs.
The report authors discovered this by looking at historical data dating back to 1901.
For the parks in the “extreme” category, they found that “the onset of spring is earlier than 95 percent of the historical range,” says Jake Weltzin, an ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the authors of the report. “And we’re talking on the order of weeks.”
“Biological invasions are a really big deal in the national parks,” he says. In Saguaro National Park, Arizona, near where Weltzin lives, one of the invasive species that park staff struggle with most is buffelgrass.
“The warmer the winter and the warmer the spring, the sooner it can start growing,” Weltzin says of buffelgrass. “And so a lot of the other native plants are sort of sequestered in place.”
Another problem that earlier springs present for parks is a mismatch between plants and pollinators.
(Ed. note) I volunteer as a citizen scientist in Great Smoky Mountains National Park recording statistics for this very thing. The ranger scientists who are monitoring the data say the mismatch between plants and pollinators is becoming a problem in the Smokies. Look for more issues of this nature in the future if more is not done to stifle the onset of climate change.
Hurricane Matthew swept across the southeastern seaboard of the United States this weekend, bringing intense rainfall to North Carolina and triggering record flooding across much of the state. But as the rains subside and clearer weather rolls in, some environmentalists are raising alarm bells about the potential for yet another environmental disaster.
Over the weekend, Hurricane Matthew — which had been downgraded to a tropical cyclone by Sunday — brought as much as 18 inches of rainfall to parts of North Carolina, causing rivers across the state to reach dangerously high levels. The record-breaking floods have already damaged thousands of homes and left thousands of residents stranded. The state also suffered the highest number of causalities in the U.S. from the storm— nearly half of the 23 people killed lived in North Carolina.
As of Tuesday, the rains have stopped and forecasts look clear, but North Carolina residents could see more repercussions from the record-high water levels: Environmentalists in the state are warning that cresting rivers have the potential to flood facilities storing animal waste or toxic coal ash, potentially sending those waste products into rivers and groundwater.
Aerial imagery released by Waterkeeper Alliance show some inactive coal ash ponds currently underwater, with others very close to rivers that are expected to crest in the coming days.
The aviation industry, long known for eluding emissions standards, will for the first time offset its pollution through carbon credits or funding green projects, the result of a United Nations-sponsored deal approved this week.
Delegates at the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal sealed the historic plan that some environmental advocates have deemed weak, but the industry and countries overwhelmingly favor.
Under CORSIA — short for Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation — the industry will voluntarily (at first) offset its emissions through the purchase of credits, or the funding of still unspecified projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.
CORSIA applies only to international flights, which make up about 60 percent of aviation-related emissions, according to the Associated Press. Domestic flight emissions fall under the Paris Accord, a global agreement that just passed the threshold to enter into force in early November.
Important airport hubs will fall under the plan, as some 65 countries — including the United States, Mexico, the European Union, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore — agreed to participate.
A move Superintendent Kate Cannon believes will lead to better management of visitation to the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park has drawn the ire of guiding businesses and a member of Congress, who see the changes as unnecessary and economically crippling to the guides and damaging to the unique geologic niche of the park.
A red rock maze of fins, arches, and canyons in the heart of the park, the Fiery Furnace long has been a highlight for many visitors to Arches in southeastern Utah. Up until 2008 or 2009, according to the superintendent, 125 people were able to enter the Fiery Furnace each day: 50 went with ranger-guided tours, and the remaining 75 were individual parties that succeeded in landing a permit (currently $6 per person 13 and older, $3 for those aged 5-12). But then, 25 permits were taken away from the general public and distributed to commercial guiding services, explained Superintendent Cannon.
Since that option was added, the number of guiding businesses holding Commercial Use Authorizations (CUAs) for leading hikes in the park rose dramatically, to nearly 90 today, she said.
“When you get that many people with the potential (to seek permits), there gets to be competition between the different companies. And it gets pretty hard to manage. There’s not really a good way to manage it,” she said. “We’ve just manufactured an untenable management scheme. I don’t think when the decision was made to start with CUAs we ever thought that it would get so large that there’s no reasonable way to fairly distribute those few spaces.”
National parks offer a variety of powerful place-based learning experiences including the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps. Through this program, youth and veterans work in parks learning technical and leadership skills while also protecting, restoring, and enhancing our national parks.
The unique initiative exposes corps members to training as they contribute to conservation and restoration work on national park lands, waterways, and cultural heritage sites. Participants often reflect on their work as being rewarding and formative; as they work to protect our national parks, they simultaneously develop valuable skills and a lifetime passion for parks.
This summer, the National Park Foundation supported several youth corps across the National Park System.
The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps program is a valuable program that provides unique skills, career opportunities, and inspires stewardship of our national parks. You can help support programs that encourage youth and community members to get outside and inspire the next generation of stewards for our national parks.
Humans are enmeshed in an ancient and intricate relationship between forests and water, and as the impacts of climate change are felt across the globe, the relationship will become increasingly important.
A special issue of the journal Forests, titled Forest Management and Water Resources in the Anthropocene, examines the interactions between forests, water, climate change, and humans. The issue was developed and edited by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists Ge Sun and Jim Vose, and covers topics such as soil moisture, wildfire, streamflow, land use, and modeling studies. The special issue includes an article Sun and Vose wrote on how emerging global threats interact with forest water resources and ecosystems.
“Decades of research has provided a depth of understanding on the relationships among forests and water,” says Vose. “However, the rapid changes in climate, disturbance regimes, invasive species, human population growth, and land use expected in the 21st century are likely to create substantial challenges for watershed management.”
The changes have been so swift and sweeping that a number of scientists agree that Earth has entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene. The proposed epoch is dominated by humans, and characterized by human impacts to the environment, including drastic increases in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide and subsequent changes in climate.
American cities from Boston to Baton Rouge are getting hammered by hurricanes, torrential downpours, and blizzards amped up by climate change. Maybe that’s why Americans are coming around to the idea that the climate is actually changing. But are all the floods, heat waves, and other disasters spurring cities to prepare for our overheated future?
Sabrina McCormick, a sociologist at George Washington University who once investigated how cities cope with disasters for the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, set out earlier this year to find out. Her study, recently published in the journal Climatic Change, breaks down 65 in-depth interviews with city officials and experts in six cities — Portland, Boston, Los Angeles, Raleigh, Tucson, and Tampa. It seeks to answer the etiquette question from hell: How does a city go about preparing for something that its residents would rather not think about, or even believe in?
In a recent interview, McCormick said she learned that many city officials believe the key to getting everybody on board to battle climate change is to avoid uttering the words “climate change.” It’s “a poisonous term to use,” one said.
The Cradle of Forestry invites people of all ages to celebrate the heritage of western North Carolina and the Centennial of the Pisgah National Forest during the annual Forest Festival Day on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016 from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. This is the Cradle’s largest event of the year.
This activity-filled, family event commemorates the traditions of mountain living and craft in the Cradle’s unique and beautiful setting, while celebrating the creation of the first National Forest in the eastern United States. More than 100 forestry students, traditional craftsmen and exhibitors will be on site during the celebration. During the event, ten colleges will compete for a trophy in the 21st Annual John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet, organized by Haywood Community College in Clyde, NC.
Festival-goers can cheer as college forestry students compete during the Woodsmen’s Meet that has the flavor of an old-time lumberjack competition. The students test their skills in a number of events including archery, axe throwing, crosscut sawing and pole felling.
Participating colleges are Haywood Community College, Penn State Mont Alto, Montgomery Community College in Troy, NC, Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC, North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, Dabney Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge, Virginia, Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA, Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and West Virginia University in Morganton, WV.
The Woodmen’s Meet is held in the open field at the Pink Beds Picnic Area. This area allows for safety of participants and spectators while at the same time providing opportunities to see all the action. Spectators are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket for comfort. Limited bleacher seating is provided.
The Pink Beds Picnic Area and Pink Beds trailhead will be closed to non-event use for the day. The Pink Beds Trail can be accessed from FS Road 1206 via the Barnett Branch Trail and from the South Mills River gauging station area off Wolf Ford Road FS 476.
Traditional crafters and exhibitors will congregate along the Biltmore Campus Trail. These include demonstrations of whittling, wood carving, turning and burning, blacksmithing, soap making, candle making, primitive fire building, and creating corn husk dolls. Exhibitors include the Hemlock Restoration Initiative, the Forest History Society, the Transylvania Heritage Museum and the Pisgah Conservancy.
Festival goers can learn to cut a tree “cookie” with a cross cut saw to take home. They can see a Wood-mizer portable sawmill in action turning logs into lumber and learn the fine points of cutting and properly drying wood.
Falconry demonstrations will be from 11:00 to 3:00. Old fashioned wagon rides will be offered from 11:00 to 2:00. For a complete list of activities, exhibitors and demonstrations during Forest Festival Day call the Cradle at (828) 877-3130.
Accents on Asheville will provide a shuttle between the Forest Discovery Center and the Pink Beds from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
The Cradle of Forestry is the birthplace of modern forestry in America. Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck, forester for George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate from 1895 – 1909, founded America’s first forestry school in 1898 and used the present Cradle of Forestry area as its summer campus. This land was the nucleus of today’s Pisgah National Forest, established in 1916. Forest Festival Day celebrates this heritage and our forest lands today.
Visitors are encouraged to add their memories of Pisgah National Forest through the years to a timeline exhibited in the Forest Discovery Center. Take a selfie by a special Centennial commemorative sign. Keep an eye open for Smokey Bear around the Center.
Admission for this event is $6.00 for ages 16 and older; $3.00 for youth ages 4-15, and holders of America the Beautiful and Golden Age passes. Children under 4 years old are admitted free. The Cradle of Forestry is located four miles south of Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 412 on Hwy. 276 in the Pisgah National Forest, or six miles north of Looking Glass Falls.
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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