ENVIRONMENT

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is cosponsoring the fifth annual Urban Forestry Summit by the nonprofit group TreesCharlotte on Sept. 20 at UNC Charlotte Center City. The aim of the event is to share information and discussion about topics relevant to Charlotte’s urban forest. The event is free and open to the public but registration […]

Summer is winding down. Kids are heading back to school. Days will soon be shorter than nights. Labor Day weekend marks the end of peak season at the beach, but birders and fishermen flock to the coast in fall. If you plan to visit Kitty Hawk, Hatteras or Bald Head Island in the coming weeks, […]

Update: This survey has closed. The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is helping Mecklenburg County’s Land Use and Environmental Services Agency (LUESA) learn about county residents’ recycling practices and preferences. The institute has worked with LUESA on an annual phone survey for 11 years. This is the first year in which an online component has been […]

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, North Carolina ranks third in the nation in the amount of installed solar capacity, more than all other Southeastern states combined. At last count, 188 solar companies employed 6,000 people in our state. As a recent article in the Montgomery Herald noted, there’s now a 25-megawatt solar farm […]

A stop by the Eldorado Outpost one recent morning included a sighting of a barn swallow that had built a nest on a ledge of the building under the eave. Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) are fairly common, and you’ve probably seen them on your own property. A couple of years ago, kayaking on Mountain Creek, […]

From the woods surrounding her Lake Wylie home, Nancy Hayes watches turkeys, deer, raccoons and other animals, including a pair of bald eagles. The wildlife is threatened, she says, by a residential development proposed for more than 400 homes, and she’s angry about it. “It’s outrageous,” says Hayes, who moved to the area three years […]

Two years ago, over Memorial Day weekend, I witnessed a phenomenon in the Uwharries that has proven difficult to explain. I stepped out of the house after dinner and looked toward the grove of majestic oaks surrounded by our fields of native warm season grass. Thousands of lights were flashing in the canopy. It was […]

Lurking silently beneath the beauty of Charlotte’s tree canopy is a persistent problem with ailing trees. The issue significantly affects the city’s efforts to preserve and replenish its most treasured amenity. Major challenges include: Tree diseases The stresses of an urban, high-rise environment on uptown street trees The age of the tree canopy, particularly in […]

The trout lilies and trilliums are in full bloom, the turkeys are strutting, the smallmouth are biting, and the butterflies are flitting about in our fields and woodlands. One of the most common butterflies seen in our area is the Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Male Eastern tiger swallowtails are yellow with four black tiger […]

Just as trees can improve the air quality in our communities, plants can make the air in our homes and buildings cleaner. UNC Charlotte Associate Professor of Architecture Jefferson Ellinger and his partners at Fresh Air Building Systems have been working for years to develop the AMPS (Active Modular Phytoremediation System), a “probiotic” plant wall […]