| Title |
Excerpt |
Author |
Date |
| The Green Scene |
Like many newcomers to Asheville, I moved here after being smitten by the area’s natural beauty: All it took was one invigorating late-summer dip at a swimming hole in Madison County about three years ago. But when people gush about Asheville’s unique sense of place, they’re referring to something more… |
Rebecca Bowe |
10/08/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Imagine sailing past the long gas lines in a 1980s Mercedes wagon without a trace of stress about the price of fuel, the availability of fuel, or the valuable time that could be lost waiting at the pump. Grease is the word: Local author Greg Melville brings his story… |
Rebecca Bowe |
10/01/08 |
| A green light for jobs |
The day is winding down, and members of a small work crew are putting the finishing touches on a cob oven they’ve constructed in the Burton Street Community Peace Garden. Artisan Builders’ Collective co-founder Tony Beurskens—his hands covered in red, earthy grit—is there to supervise the group in working with… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/24/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Filmmaker David Huff might seem like an unlikely tree-hugger, trekking into the forest bearing a heavy load of high-tech recording gear. Then again, the subject of his documentary—hemlock expert Will Blozan, who spends a lot of time scaling old-growth trees in the Cataloochee Valley—could be considered an unlikely film star.… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/24/08 |
| Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in Asheville tomorrow |
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will visit Asheville on Friday, Sept. 19, to host a town hall meeting in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. She will appear at noon at Mountain Java, located at 870 Merrimon Ave. Sebelius will speak about Obama’s economic policy plans and how they… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/18/08 |
| The Green Scene |
The inspiration hit Asheville resident DeAnna Hatch at around 4 a.m. “I was laying in bed about two-and-a-half years ago, mad about the war and mad about the price of gas,” she says. “And I thought, surely I can think of some way to create a gasoline. It’s just a… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/17/08 |
| A postcard from the climate frontier |
Editor’s note: Xpress reporter Rebecca Bowe was part of a team of journalists invited by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism to travel to Alaska Aug. 13-16 to view the on-the-ground effects of climate change. Her experiences there provided some of the material for this article. Click the image above… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/17/08 |
| The Green Scene |
The Blue Ridge Forever coalition has just released its “Conservation Vision for Western North Carolina,” a report spotlighting 28 areas in North Carolina’s 25 western counties deemed to be in critical need of protection. A different point of view: Fairview resident Francois Manavit speaks out while Jim Anthony, CEO of… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/10/08 |
| Making noise about a silent crime |
“The worst part was the way that my family wanted to pretend that it never happened. After i slit my wrists, after i came home from the hospital, after my parents found out the truth ... it became the official skeleton in the closet that no one would ever ever… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/03/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Asheville hasn’t seen a lot of gully-washers this summer, but the heavy rains that pummeled the mountains Aug. 25 and 26 pumped new life into a long-running controversy concerning erosion-control problems at development sites on steep slopes. Mapped out: RiverLink’s new Web page charts hot spots for polluted storm-water runoff.… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/03/08 |
| It’s the bark, not the bite |
Living in a bark house never seemed so cutting edge. As green building surges in popularity throughout Western North Carolina, a new book titled Bark House Style: Sustainable Designs From Nature (Gibbs Smith, 2008) highlights the rustic aesthetic of bark shingles, a traditional building material that’s making a comeback as… |
Rebecca Bowe |
09/03/08 |
| Moving experiences |
Accem Scott and Michael Clark are working hard to get people moving—literally. When Xpress caught up with Scott recently, he was in Ohio, between stops on the Tao Brothers Tour: Conscious Movement Across America, which so far has brought free conscious-movement instruction to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago. An acupuncturist, and… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/27/08 |
| The Green Scene |
It’s late August in Western North Carolina, and the trees are drooping due to lack of rain. The French Broad River is at a record low level, gas prices are higher than ever and the skies are stained with smog. Pedal power: The Southern Energy and Environment Expo offered bright… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/27/08 |
| Vandals hit Buncombe Dems’ headquarters to protest “oil drilling and war” **UPDATED 5:15 p.m.** |
***Updated with comment from a Democratic Party spokesperson at 5:15 p.m.*** An e-mail message sent to Xpress this morning announced that the Buncombe County Democratic Headquarters had been “trashed in opposition to oil drilling and war.” The e-mail, sent in the name of a group purportedly called Citizens Hoping Against… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/25/08 |
| Utilities Commission to take a look at NC SAVE$ |
The North Carolina Utilities Commission opened a docket on Aug. 20 to consider a statewide energy-efficiency program which would be established independently from utility companies. Opponents of Duke Energy’s Save-a-Watt program, which is still under consideration by the Utilities Commission, say an independent push for statewide energy conservation would be… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/21/08 |
| S.E.E. and be green |
Question: What do the Southern Energy and Environment Expo and President George Bush have in common? Answer: They’ve both been around for eight years. The S.E.E. Expo draws thousands of environmentalists to the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center annually to learn about sustainable technology and green living. But to hear… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/20/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Every year for the last five years, a ribbon of runners, bikers and walkers has navigated a 100-mile route from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park all the way to downtown Asheville. More civil-rights march than sporting event, the Relay for Clean Air was created as a protest against poor… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/20/08 |
| Study finds no cancer clusters near CTS site |
An analysis by the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry has found no evidence of cancer clusters in the immediate area surrounding the former CTS of Asheville site. But the small sample size places sharp limits on the reliability of the conclusions, researchers caution. And other types of studies being undertaken… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/13/08 |
| Asheville’s black history honored on Burton Street |
Last year, Leicester resident Valeria Watson-Doost submitted a letter to Mountain Xpress about an historic building in West Asheville’s Burton Street neighborhood that was slated for demolition (see “Wrecking Ball Swings Toward Asheville Black History,” Letters, May 15, 2007). “I did research on the building ... and found out that… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/13/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Asheville and environs are used to gathering national acclaim: America’s favorite highway. Top 10 greatest places to live. Best place to retire. Home of a world-famous ecovillage? Earthy all around: A gathering at Earthaven Ecovillage in Black Mountain. Courtesy Joshua Canter According to Joshua Canter, co-leader of the Asheville Communities… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/13/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Anyone making a conscientious effort to scale back, consume less and live “green” has probably met with an irritating setback: It’s not that easy. Advertisers may portray earth-friendly living as a kind of Zenlike simplicity, but the questions people must confront when attempting to make the greenest choices are often… |
Rebecca Bowe |
08/06/08 |
| CTS contamination attracts attention in Washington, D.C. |
Two leaders in the push for a full cleanup at the former CTS of Asheville site traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with Rep. Heath Shuler. Barry Durand, the citizen activist who brought the issue of CTS ground-water contamination to the attention of Xpress more than a year… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/31/08 |
| Surviving steep-slope development |
There are few local issues more deserving of the title “hot-button” than steep-slope development. Complex concerns like landslides, watershed conservation, property taxes and mountain views are all wrapped up in it; neighbors living downhill from steep-slope-developments-in-progress have no shortage of opinion on the subject. But rather than fan the flames… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/30/08 |
| The Green Scene |
On the evening of July 22, more than two dozen neighbors gathered at the Spring Mountain Community Center amid Fairview’s green mountains and winding country roads to consider how best to communicate with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Several weeks earlier, The Cliffs at High Carolina—a 3,000-acre gated community… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/30/08 |
| Pac a punch for Southern forests |
Attention, slacktivists: Your day has arrived. Thanks to the Dogwood Alliance and Top Floor Studio, you can now save the environment by playing a video game. Here’s the premise: Paper company executives are gobbling up all the trees. Packaging Man must stop them! (Hint: If you were a child or… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/27/08 |
| Downwind |
Sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, mercury, ozone, acid deposition, ammonium nitrates, and an alphabet soup of acronyms. At times, the trial that began July 14 in U.S. District Court in Asheville sounded more like an environmental-chemistry class than a court session. After a two-year delay, the titanic lawsuit filed… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/23/08 |
| The Green Scene |
The list of inactive hazardous-waste sites documented by the state of North Carolina is 72 pages long. The inventory lists 47 sites in Buncombe County, but the actual number is probably larger, as not all the sites are documented. Among the ones that end up on this roster are things… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/23/08 |
| Another orange/yellow ozone day ahead |
“The evidence,” reads a trial brief prepared by the Tennessee Valley Authority, “will establish that North Carolina is not suffering any significant harm to its air quality — as required to establish a nuisance — no matter what the source of pollution in the State’s air.” That section of the… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/21/08 |
| Punching holes |
Frustration ruled the day at an informational session held by the state’s Division of Waste Management at the South Asheville Library yesterday concerning recent activities at the CTS of Asheville hazardous-waste site. Unhappy with the meeting format, which featured one-on-one discussions between agency representatives and affected parties, residents demanded instead… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/18/08 |
| The happy homosexual |
Exodus International, an Orlando, Fla.-based nonprofit promoting “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ,” is holding its annual International Freedom Conference at the Ridgecrest Conference Center, 15 miles from Asheville, from July 15 to 20. The event hasn’t gone unnoticed by Asheville’s queer community. But rather than employ… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/17/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Elk Mountain resident Kathryn Geitz watched warily last month as a pickup truck pulled up to Ciel, a high-end development site near her home, and people wearing protective suits set to work spraying an herbicide throughout the property. In the following weeks, patches of vegetation turned brown. “The spraying affected… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/09/08 |
| TVA trial to begin |
A lawsuit with significant implications for environmental health will be heard in Asheville beginning Monday, July 14. The U.S. District Court will consider a case brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. Dirty smokestacks: A lawsuit brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority by North… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/09/08 |
| The Green Scene |
As summer sets in, visitors are once again flocking to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 500,000-acre attraction, which straddles the North Carolina/Tennessee border, boasts half the remaining old-growth forest in the East, more than 2,000 miles of streams, 850 miles of trails and a wealth of biodiversity. But… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/02/08 |
| Oh, the places they’ll go |
At the outset of the Asheville City Council’s June 24 meeting, Mayor Terry Bellamy and Council members formally recognized the 29 graduates of the city’s 10-week Citizens Academy. Lawrence Waller, a rising ninth-grader who completed the course with his mother as part of his home-schooling education, delivered an address that… |
Rebecca Bowe |
07/02/08 |
| Monitoring Council challenges CTS cleanup plan |
The current plan for addressing ground-water contamination at the former CTS of Asheville plant would cap the amount the company could be required to spend on the cleanup at $3 million—even if the ultimate cost were much higher. So says the CTS Citizens Monitoring Council, a group of seven residents… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/25/08 |
| The Green Scene |
As the weather gets warmer and gas prices creep upward, the buzz of motor scooters sailing up and down Asheville’s streets is becoming more common. Far more fuel-efficient than cars and trucks, scooters, which are best suited for short trips, offer motorists some relief from the pain of $4-per-gallon fuel.… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/25/08 |
| Ashevillage: activated |
Mountain Xpress staff photographer Jonathan Welch made the rounds last Saturday, capturing images from Ashevillage in Action, the hands-on component of the Ashevillage Building Convergence (see “Village People,” June 11 Xpress). From mosaic-making to music-making, the weekend’s activities were meant to promote sustainability and deepen community connections. Click here to… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/24/08 |
| Tales from the Longest Walk 2 |
For more than four months, some 100 Native Americans, Japanese Buddhists and other participants in The Longest Walk 2 have been making their way from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. on foot. Some walk, some run and some follow in support vehicles, but all of them are making the journey… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/18/08 |
| A new Custom on Haywood Road |
Sprouting up in the storefront beside Harvest Records on West Asheville’s Haywood Road is Custom: Hers and Home Boutique, an independently owned business started by sisters Michelle and Tammy Goñi. Custom, which opened in May, seems to fit the fabric of the surrounding area: A 20-something to 30-ish clientele with… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/18/08 |
| A road map for unknown territory |
It’s common these days to hear cries for a massive shift in the way electricity is produced, in order to stave off the worst consequences of climate change. What’s less typical is for an organization that’s clamoring for a carbon-free future to offer a thorough answer to one key question:… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/18/08 |
| The Green Scene |
In a place the size of Asheville, sometimes it doesn’t take much to make waves. Several weeks ago, for instance, a writer in the Xpress letters section turned up his nose at the idea of green building. “I guess what I’m getting at is the whole concept is a bunch… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/18/08 |
| Wild and free |
With all the hoopla surrounding green products these days, it’s easy to believe that in order to become one with nature, all you have to do is don some organic-cotton yoga pants, bike to an eco-friendly grocery and stroll the aisles, armed with a reusable canvas tote and a keen… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/18/08 |
| Jane speaks |
Academy Award-winner Jane Fonda will deliver the keynote speech at Time for Our Power!, a women’s conference in Asheville, on Saturday, June 21. Best known as an actress, Fonda is also an author, political activist and a fitness leader. At the conference, she’ll speak to why “Our Leadership is Needed”… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/17/08 |
| Residents living near CTS of Asheville to meet tonight |
A core group of residents living nearby the former CTS of Asheville plant, a hazardous-waste site known to be contaminated with high levels of an industrial solvent that may cause cancer, have organized an informational meeting for this evening (Wednesday, June 11) at 6:30 p.m. at the Skyland Public Library,… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/11/08 |
| The Green Scene |
As mass-scale biofuels come under closer scrutiny in the face of rising food costs, Asheville author Forest Gregg has come out with what’s been called the definitive work on using straight veggie oil as fuel. A fool for fryer fuel: Circus traveler-turned-author Forest Gregg can teach you how to run… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/11/08 |
| Village people |
The seeds for the Ashevillage Building Convergence were sown a dozen years ago when a small group of people in Portland, Ore., transformed a run-of-the-mill intersection into an attractive public gathering space. They built an earthen teahouse, planted gardens, erected a kiosk for fliers and poetry, painted a vibrant design… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/11/08 |
| The Green Scene |
Ever since gas prices spiked, the phone lines at Altech-Eco Energy Corp. have been burning up. “I do not have enough time to field all the calls,” says Par Neiburger, who works in sales and customer relations for the company. As he speaks, a phone can be heard ringing in… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/04/08 |
| Swimming free |
Students at Asheville’s Francine Delany New School for Children got an up-close look at local water quality during their final month of classes, thanks to a hands-on lesson that culminated with a trout release. With guidance from the Buncombe County Soil and Water Department, funding from the Pigeon River Fund… |
Rebecca Bowe |
06/01/08 |
| Mountaintop-removal coal outlawed in North Carolina? |
State Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford County) has introduced legislation that would outlaw importation of coal that was extracted using mountaintop-removal, a destructive form of strip mining that levels mountains with dynamite to expose a coal seam. Mountaintop-removal sites are concentrated in eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and southern West… |
Rebecca Bowe |
05/28/08 |
| The works |
According to Asheville Sanitation Division Director Wendy Simmons, skilled garbage-truck drivers can guide the automated claw that grabs brush waste with enough precision to pick up an egg. Not a very practical skill, perhaps, but it serves to show what a $250,000 refuse truck is capable of—especially in the hands… |
Rebecca Bowe |
05/28/08 |
