News – Page 14

Smoky Mountain News: A mile-high view: State-level squabble stalls Jackson County conservation project:

September 20, 2018

By Holly Kays
September 19, 2018

To call the view stretching out below the 5,462-foot bald “spectacular,” “impressive” or even “jaw-dropping” would be an understatement.

It was as clear a day as had been spotted in the mountains this rainy year, skies blue and cloudless ahead of the slowly moving remains of Hurricane Florence. The sun shone on Cherokee to the west, Bryson City visible just a couple folds of land beyond it and the Nantahala Mountains rimming the horizon south and west of the small towns.

In front of me, but so, so far below, Skyland Drive undulated on its way into Sylva, where smoke from Jackson Paper puffed gently into the air and the mountains bordering Catamount Peak barely hid Cullowhee and Western Carolina University. Sylva’s Pinnacle Park covered mountainsides immediately to the east, Waterrock Knob rising up just beyond that and the Blue Ridge Parkway hugging the Plott Balsams between Cherokee and Maggie Valley, which was invisible behind the mile-high mountain range.

Read the entire article here.

The Laurel of Asheville: Land Protection Organizations Rally to Preserve Federal Funding

August 27, 2018

By: Emma Castleberry
August 21, 2018

If your summer activities have included a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a camping trip in the Pisgah National Forest or a hike in the Highlands of Roan, you have (perhaps unknowingly) benefited from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF provides federal funding for conservation projects that protect the lands that Americans use for recreational outdoor activities. “The LWCF was established by Congress in 1964 to address the alarming loss of wild and natural land due to the rapid spread of suburban sprawl,” says Jay Leutze, president of the board of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC). “Conservation leaders were worried that we were losing our collective ‘backyard’—the places where Americans camp, hunt, fish and get away from the stress of modern life.” As part of its design, the LWCF was assigned a portion of revenues from off-shore drilling. No taxpayer dollars are used for the fund.

Read the full story here.

The Cherokee Scout: Bird Organization Monitors Welch Farm

August 8, 2018

By: Kelsey Richardson
August 8, 2018

Mist settled over the Valley as Mark Hopey and Kathy Gunther walked through the tall dewey grass of Welch Farm, monitoring birds to put toward the station’s last set of data for the year.

Hopey and Kathy, who work for the Southern Appalachian Raptor Research, travel to four stations across western North Carolina every summer. For the past four years, the organization has gathered research at Welch Farm.

For 10 days, Hopey, Kathy and other members of their team have taken measurements of mostly songbirds to send to the Institute of Bird Populations. Welch Farm is one of about 500 stations nationwide that gathers such information.

“Our goal is to collect data in different habitats to see what’s breeding and what’s surviving,” Gunther said.

She said the four stations her organization monitor encompass different habitats. Hopey describes Welch Farm as relatively “feral.”

Owned by Mainspring Conservation Trust, the farm is not managed for agriculture. The undeveloped land’s thick brush and river allow for birds to thrive and return every year.

Hopey said unlike the other three stations, Welch Farm’s habitat provides a home for Louisiana waterthrush and willow flycatchers. This year’s most common species of bird found at the site included the gray catbird.

Hopey and Kathy catch the birds through setting up 10 nets around the farm. Each year, the nets are placed in the same locations.

Once removed safely from the nets, they take the birds’ measurements, then release them back where they were found. If the bird has a numbered band on its leg, they mark down its identification. If not, they usually place a band around the bird’s leg.

In addition to members of Southern Appalachian Raptor Research, volunteers contribute to the Welch Farm bird monitoring.

Trekking through the farm during the early morning hours on July 30, Bob and Lynn Appleget took their bird-watching to a new level. Lynn said she mostly watches birds from her property, but never receives the opportunity to get hands-on experience with them.

“It’s just cool,” she said. “I learned about the worm-eating warbler. This is a good reason to be outside.”