Articles about Environment and Planning

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'No Mow May' Is Catchy But Is It a Good Thing?
   May 23, 2023
Ruth Ann Grissom

At first glance, ‘No Mow May’ seems like a winning idea to encourage people to delay their first mowing of the season so early spring flowers in the lawn will be available for pollinators. While I appreciate any approach to helping wildlife that requires...

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A Vision for Piedmont Roadsides
   October 27, 2022
Ruth Ann Grissom

Along the backroads of the Uwharries, the trees seemed especially brilliant this fall. Through the windshield, the blur of sourwoods, sweetgums, black gums and maples was a psychedelic kaleidoscope. But something was missing. Where was the riot of yellow and purple in the herbaceous layer?  There were no sunflowers. No goldenrods. No ironweeds, asters or liatris.

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Tracking nature in an unlikely place: Piedmont roadsides
   October 10, 2022
Ruth Ann Grissom

Becky Dill’s phone was full. After moving to Wadesboro from Pennsylvania, she’d started taking photos of all the pretty wildflowers she found along the backroads of Anson County. She needed to ditch some images. While searching for options to archive her photos, she stumbled across iNaturalist. It seemed too good to be true – the site would store her images for free, and experts would help her...

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This Charlotte planner thinks the city should scrap its transit plans
   October 3, 2022
Ely Portillo

Michael Gallis is a longtime planner with a big idea for Charlotte: Throw out the city's transit expansion plans and start from scratch. Gallis — who's been involved in some of the big plans guiding Charlotte's future, including the original five-corridor transit plan...

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Charlotte's tree canopy is under threat — and we all have a role to play in saving it
   September 26, 2022
Ely Portillo

Jane Singleton MyersCharlotte loves its trees. But are we willing to do all that we can to save them? 

That's the paradoxical question confronting Jane Singleton Myers, executive director of TreesCharlotte. The city's iconic tree canopy has shrunk from 49% to 45% coverage...

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Charlotte's changing climate, with Brad Panovich
   September 12, 2022
Ely Portillo

From seemingly endless heat waves in the west to catastrophic floods from Kentucky to Pakistan, a drumbeat of extreme weather has dominated the news this summer. In Charlotte, it can feel like we’re not on the front lines of climate change — we’re not on the coast watching sea levels...

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Unruly plants and passionate attraction in a Charlotte garden
   September 8, 2022
Ruth Ann Grissom

I love playing matchmaker in my garden. I introduce plants that will be compatible in terms of color, texture and form. As with humans, the best relationships achieve a balance of contrast and harmony. For example, I paired little bluestem and rattlesnake master because they share the same blue foliage, but one is coarse and strappy while the other is refined and upright. These arranged...

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What's the future of hip-hop architecture in Charlotte?
   August 11, 2022
Ely Portillo

Charlotte’s seen rapid growth over the past several decades, but many say that boom has come at the cost of inclusivity and, perhaps, even a bit of the city’s soul. With the loss of many historic buildings and without much of an identifiable design vernacular — aside, perhaps, from the profusion of five-story apartment buildings — Charlotte’s even been accused of looking and feeling bland....

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Milkweed for monarchs? The answer isn’t so simple
   August 10, 2022
Ruth Ann Grissom

The message seems to be getting out — monarchs need milkweed. The charismatic orange and black butterflies seek nectar on a wide variety of flowers, but their caterpillars feed on no other plant. And that appears to be where the clarity ends. Even after planting and managing for several of the 16 milkweed species native to North Carolina, I was still perplexed by the monarch’s preferences and...

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Try the ‘bucket of doom’ to eliminate mosquitoes without harmful pesticides
   July 15, 2022
Ruth Ann Grissom

Bucket of Doom. A slasher movie from the 1970s? The latest season of Fortnite? No, but for many homeowners, it might be something equally thrilling – an effective, inexpensive and safe way to control mosquitos. 

Five-gallon buckets are often a source of standing water where mosquitos can breed. This simple idea turns that around so the humble bucket becomes your ally in the fight for...

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