Macon County Commissioners decided last week to oppose Commissioner Paul Higdon’s push to eliminate environmental health fees, an initiative he put forth as a way to address the issue of affordable housing that plagues not only Western North Carolina but also much of the country. 

The Macon County Commission decided this month to delay consideration of changes to its watershed and floodplain ordinances until at least the new year, in part due to the organization of a Water Quality Advisory Committee and its new report on the state of Macon County waterways. 

Haywood Waterways is calling for volunteers to take part in a county-wide cleanup event that removes tons of trash from local waterways and roadways. 

At 3:30 p.m., traffic flows smoothly along U.S. 441 past the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. The 80-some elk living in this area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park are still invisible beneath the forest canopy as the sun shines bright and warm. 

Mainspring Conservation Trust seeks volunteers to participate in the annual Little Tennessee River Cleanup starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14. 

 In 1996, the Volunteer Water Information Network (VWIN) program was established as a water quality monitoring program for many Western North Carolina counties. In Haywood County, Haywood Waterways Association manages 25 sites on 19 streams. The program’s purpose is to provide long term water quality monitoring information to help leverage grant funding for water quality improvement projects. 

Learn about the challenges and success of mining resources related to our transition to clean energy at the WNC Sierra Club.

Randy Francisco of the United Steelworkers Union will discuss ways that “environmentalists and labor can work together to ensure that workers and their communities are protected from harm from this mining.

People can soon comment on an environmental justice initiative outlined in Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 292.

The order reestablished an Environmental Justice Advisory Council and calls on state agencies to develop and track goals to improve environmental justice in North Carolina. 

On Earth Day, April 22, members of the Haywood County Solid Waste Management team worked with a local environmental group to give away more than 600 reusable bags designed to hold recyclable material at four of the county’s convenience centers.

In the hours following the announcement that Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill property in Canton may have a new owner in the coming months, news came and fast and furious.