Outdoors
Walters hydro plant turns 100: Dam, powerhouse withstood Helene’s onslaught
Hurricane Helene’s torrential rains in September 2024 caused the Pigeon River to surge to record flow that ripped sections of Interstate 40 to shreds, but the nearby Walters Dam, and powerhouse 12 miles below it, withstood the devastating storm with little damage.
“The dam was in no way compromised. It functioned perfectly, just like it should. We opened it up to let water out,” Alan Stuart Jr., a senior project manager for Duke Energy, told a Haywood County audience last week during a presentation about the hydropower plant on the Pigeon River.
The Joyful Botanist: Time to smell the roses
Roses (Rosa spp.) symbolize love and beauty and come with a sharp reminder that often love and beauty can be painful. A rose by any other name will still prick your fingers, or so the old saying goes. Or does it?
Roses can be found blooming all around us in the late spring and summer in Western North Carolina.
WNC research forests avoid the axe: What the U.S. Forest Service’s restructuring means for WNC
Western North Carolina’s 12,000 acres of national forest land set aside for long-term scientific research will be spared from the current federal reorganization that has already put 57 similar facilities at risk nationwide, NC Local has learned.
In total, there are 2 million acres of national forest in WNC, much of which is enjoyed by outdoor enthusiasts, hikers and conservationists.
Meet the team that keeps the park’s water taps flowing
Every morning, Kimberly Baxter leaves her home in Pigeon Forge long before most of its residents have hit their first snooze button. She’s on the road toward Cades Cove by 5 a.m., reaching her first stop of the day in the Cable Mill area by 6:30 a.m.
“I feel like I’m doing something that’s important, you know?” she said. “I just feel like I’m helping people.”
Up Moses Creek: No Ode to Dejection
On the title page of “Walden,” Henry David Thoreau sets the tone for his book with this pronouncement: “I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.” “Chanticleer” is an old literary name for the rooster. Chaucer uses it in his rollicking “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.”
When invasive plants jeopardize the AT, this ‘strike team’ fights back
During the sunny mid-morning hours on the Tennessee border in Pisgah National Forest, a small group of volunteers at the Appalachian Trail’s rugged, remote Lemon Gap trailhead prepare for battle — not with litterbugs, poachers or vandals but instead with one of the many invasive plant species that threaten the region’s delicate natural ecosystems.
The Joyful Botanist: Bristling with excitement
I would never wish upon anyone a plague of locusts. Unless, that is, I’m wishing for you to come across a dense stand of bristly locust (Robinia hispida) shrubs in bloom along a trail or edge of the woods. Then, by all means, may this kind of pox be upon you.
At first glance, the stems of bristly locust look mean and dangerous, covered in what appear to be numerous spines and prickles. But they are actually soft, bristly hairs that give this plant both the common name of bristly locust and the epithet in the botanical name of “hispida.”
The Joyful Botanist: Flava Flave
The other day as I was sitting inside with cats on my lap, I heard the sound of a miniature helicopter go whooshing by the window behind my head. While it was the first time I had heard it this year, the sound was unmistakable. I knew the hummingbirds were back.
I wasn’t surprised though, as the plants I like to call hummingbird calendars had already announced that their return was imminent.
The Joyful Botanist: Oh Phacelia, You’re Breaking My Heart
A trip through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a beautiful, often nervous drive, as hundreds of thousands of tourists visit every year, and most do not know how to drive in the mountains. This is especially true trying to navigate winding mountain roads while looking at all of the long-range views.
