News – Page 22

Asheville Citizen-Times: Panthertown Valley to Grow; Improve Access

February 6, 2017

By Karen Chavez
[email protected]
February 2, 2017

CASHIERS – As president of the nonprofit Friends of Panthertown, Margaret Carton has worked for years to protect her beloved Panthertown Valley in Jackson County.

As the “feet on the ground,” the group has worked since 2005 to maintain trails, install steps around waterfalls to create safe footing, and give educational programs.

With a deal underway with Mainspring Conservation Trust and the U.S. Forest Service, the friends group will get to care for a bigger chunk of Panthertown.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Franklin Press: A Stream Saved

January 24, 2017

By: Ryan Hanchett
[email protected]
January 20, 2017

How many organizations does it take to save a stream?

While that may sound like the opening to a bad joke, the answer is several.

On Tuesday afternoon all of the stakeholders who have contributed to the Franklin Memorial Park revitalization got together to debut the park to the public after more than a year of hard work.

“Not only do we want to welcome everyone back to the park, but we also want to say thank you because everyone here had some hand in this project being completed,” Mainspring Conservation Trust Associate Director Ben Laseter said. “We feel like this facility is not only a beautiful public space, but also a site that can better educate visitors regarding water quality and wildlife habitat improvement.”

The focal point of the park’s revamp is a stream restoration project that Mainspring hopes will not only rebuild the stream bank, but also improve the water quality and the variety of species accessing Crawford Branch before the stream crosses under Palmer Street and travels underground toward the Little Tennessee River.

Mainspring has begun monitoring the stream to see both the short and long-term effects of the restoration effort, which included rebuilding portions of the stream bank that had eroded and adding native vegetation to shade the water during the summer months.

Crawford Branch post renovations, January 2017

“We did a water quality survey before and immediately after we finished the project and the results were almost instantaneous,” Mainspring Citizen Science Program Manager Jason Meador said. “The water quality went from poor to fair/good very quickly. The bio monitoring of course will take much longer, but we will keep track to see just how many different species are living in or near the stream.”

Because Crawford Branch is so shallow and runs underground for much of its journey through the Franklin area, Meador explained that their will never be large fish species in its waters, but the stream could support things like tadpoles, toads and lizards. By adding native plants to the banks of the stream project managers hope to attract multiple species of insects and birds to the park as well.

Meador supervised groups of students from Franklin High School during the spring of 2016 as they live-staked trees along the stream bank.

“The kids were really engaged and they were a big help,” Meador said. “So many groups pitched in funds or labor to this project it was really a cooperative effort.”

Duke Energy contributed funds for the effort via a $20,000 grant. Mainspring, the Town of Franklin, Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Macon County Soil and Water Conservation District all supplied money, manpower or both.

Town of Franklin Planner Justin Setser had town maintenance staff add a fence along the stream to prevent mowing and weed eating of the bank. Native trees line the fence, each with their own marker to educate visitors of the species. There is a custom sign near the park entrance detailing all of the habitat improvements that have taken place.

“We put some rock steps in and left a couple of openings in the fence so that children can access the stream when it’s hot outside,” Setser said. “Kids have been playing in Crawford Branch at this park for years and we didn’t want to eliminate that. We just wanted to manage the access better.”

Along with the stream restoration, the Town of Franklin board of aldermen approved $9,250 to resurface the basketball court and additional funds for four new basketball goals. Setser noted that new playground equipment could be in the park’s future, but no plans are finalized at this point.

“I can’t say enough about all of the town employees that worked on revitalizing this park,” Franklin Mayor Bob Scott said. “Everyone who drives past here can see just how much nicer it is now compared to the way it used to look.”

Macon County News: Read2Me Set to Unveil Second Story Walk at Parker Meadows

October 31, 2016

A photo that will be used on Mainspring's board along the Story Walk at Parker Meadows — A photo that will be used on Mainspring’s board along the Story Walk at Parker Meadows

October 27, 2016
Brittney Burns – Staff Writer

Macon County’s newest recreation park will be getting a new feature next week as Read2Me is set to unveil the nonprofit’s second StoryWalk at the Parker Meadows Recreation Complex on Friday, Nov. 4 at 10 a.m.

As part of an ongoing project, Read2Me set out to establish two StoryWalks in Macon County this year. The first walk was unveiled in May at the Rotary Loop along the Little Tennessee Greenway. Through a partnership with Macon County and Mainspring Conversation Trust, Read2Me’s second Story Walk is ready for the public and is featured on a stretch of the mile-long walking track that outlines Parker Meadows.

A StoryWalk® is a fun, educational activity that places a children’s story along a popular walking route in the community. Conceived as a way to inspire parents, teachers, and caregivers to take young children out of doors for physical activity and to learn, StoryWalk helps build children’s interest in reading while encouraging healthy activity for both adults and children.

“We want to invite the community to join us in celebrating our second StoryWalk,” said Diane Cotton, president of Read2Me. “We will have light refreshments for the community and are excited to have Maggie Kennedy, director of the Children’s Department at the Macon County Public Library leading a walk through the featured book, ‘Pond Babies.’”

Research supports an interactive and experiential process of learning spoken and written language skills that begins in early infancy. It is now known that children gain significant knowledge of language, reading, and writing long before they enter school. Children learn to talk, read, and write through such social literacy experiences as adults or older children interacting with them using books and other literacy materials, including magazines, markers, and paper. Early literacy research states that:

– Language, reading and writing skills develop at the same time and are intimately linked.

– Early literacy development is a continuous developmental process that begins in the first years of life.

– Early literacy skills develop in real life settings through positive interactions with literacy materials and other people.

While Read2Me members are excited to be unveiling another StoryWalk, they are already hard at work planning to install two additional StoryWalks in the coming year.

StoryWalks are interchangeable so the more stories, the more options to move the stories around so members of the community can enjoy them. Read2Me is currently looking at suggestions for locations for the next two StoryWalks as well as continued sponsorships and partnerships to make the walks a reality for the community.

Macon County’s first two StoryWalks were made possible through a sponsorship with the Macon County Public Library and the Franklin Health and Fitness Center, both recognizing the importance of early literacy and promoting healthy activities for families in the community.

Mainspring Conservation Trust also sponsored the StoryWalk and worked to develop a board that specifically educated readers about all of the native “bugliest bugs” and “pond babies” that can be found in and around Macon County. The project was funded through the sponsors and local businesses and organizations like The Franklin Press, Signs Express, Goshen Timber Frames, Russell Hawkins with Edwards Jones, and Rotary Club of Franklin Daybreak. Brett Murphy, owner of Arrowood Construction also volunteered his time and talents to donate labor and materials to have the story boards mounted and planted at Parker Meadows.

StoryWalk was created by Anne Ferguson in Montpelier, VT., when she worked for the Vermont Department of Health. Ferguson was thinking about ways to prevent or lessen the impact of chronic disease on adults and children by increasing physical activity. She also wanted to find something that was fun for families to do together in natural settings.

Read2Me will be hosting a celebration to unveil the new Story Walk at Parker Meadows beginning at 10 on Friday, Nov. 4. For more details, visit Read2Me on Facebook.