Open Space

Have you ever wondered what you might see if you spent a whole weekend outside just looking? How about if you could also bring a few expert field biologists and naturalists with you? Well, that’s what we were able to at The LandTrust for Central North Carolina’s first Uwharrie Naturalist Weekend in May. More than […]

Containment policies, such as Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs), are becoming more widespread as metro regions try to control sprawl and revitalize central cities. Mecklenburg County’s northeastern neighbor, Cabarrus County, has tried such an approach in hopes of preserving small town atmospheres and farmland. Disappearing farmland and mounting pressure from developers reached an apex in 2004. […]

Your average roadmap of North Carolina represents the Uwharrie National Forest as a large, green blob covering most of Montgomery County as well as portions of Randolph and Davidson. In fact, that’s simply the proclamation boundary. Look at a detailed map of the national forest, and you’ll see a crazy patchwork of light and dark […]

So, how did it go? When I thought about it the next day, it all felt like a dream. I had – with plenty of help – organized Charlotte’s second PARK(ing) Day event in recent memory. The first, also created by UNC Charlotte students, was in 2008 in an uptown parking lot. This year’s was […]

With three of the four indicators rated “fair,” Mecklenburg County’s land resources have room for improvement, according to the county’s latest State of the Environment Report. The 2012 report rates four categories of environmental Indicators for land resources: climate change and wildlife, nature preserves, greenways and facility planning. The report did rate climate change and […]

Who doesn’t prefer a park to asphalt or concrete? What would you rather see, a parking place, or a park? That’s the impulse at the heart of International PARK(ing) Day. The yearly event has artists and other citizens transforming parking spaces – temporarily – into more people-friendly places. The event began in 2005 when workers […]

Hiking the ridgelines and hillsides of the Uwharries, you pass through forests dominated by hickory, oak and sourwood. There are large patches of knee-high blueberry bushes, and the herbaceous layer is sparse. On occasion, an attentive and adventurous outdoor enthusiast might also run across natural areas that change abruptly and appear remarkably different from this […]

The Handy Sanitary District offered its plan to bring wastewater treatment service to the Badin Lake area more than a decade ago. Given concerns about leaking septic tanks, few disputed the need, but when people learned the proposal included a discharge into the Uwharrie River, the community rallied to oppose it. Scores attended community meetings, […]

Where are you going for the 4th of July this year? Hiking the western North Carolina Mountains, where you could go for a hike up Mount Mitchell (the highest peak east of the Mississippi)? Camping in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area of the Pisgah National Forest? You could plan on spending the day trout fishing […]