ENVIRONMENT

On a blustery March day last year, Syreeta Kitchen-Dukes and her neighbors in the Applegate Community of east Charlotte gathered in rainy front yards to meet the neighborhood’s newest residents: 177 young trees. See more tree photos at article’s end. The would-be forest arrived with a crew from TreesCharlotte, a public/private collaborative whose goal is […]

Have you been seeing more turtles than usual on your morning commute lately? If you’ve been driving this spring on rural highways in North Carolina, you might have detected a surge in turtle activity, especially snapping turtles. Chelydraserpentina, or the common snapping turtle, is one of the more striking members of our state’s turtle clan. […]

Years ago, a friend in Uwharrie showed me a crooked tree on his family’s property. Its trunk was bent at two right angles, creating a horizontal span about 4 feet off the ground. He said they called it their “ducker-header” tree. Their clever terminology came to mind again recently when I learned about the Trail […]

The discovery of a new species conjures images of explorers in pith helmets hacking through remote regions of the Amazon and stumbling across something outlandish. The reality is generally much less dramatic. New species can still be found in our own backyards, even in the well-trod Piedmont. According to Alan Weakley, director of the Herbarium […]

A friend of mine recently rescued a snake from the parking lot where he works, and released it back into the woods. He sent me a picture asking for help identifying it. The coloration threw me off a bit, so I had to ask an expert. It was about four feet long with a mix […]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – On the day much of the Boston area stayed indoors for the manhunt of a Boston marathon bombing suspect, I was in town for a conference on “The Resilient City.” Like almost everyone in Boston, most conference attendees obeyed the April 19 “stay indoors” order. And the whole bizarre experience – seeing […]

In 1963, the General Assembly boldly proclaimed the official state tree of North Carolina would be – drum roll, please – the pine. What? You have to wonder why they didn’t bestow the honor on a particular species. Perhaps it’s typical of politicians who avoid taking a clear stand on an issue. In fairness, they […]

The LandTrust for Central North Carolina and staff from the North Carolina Museum of Sciences are hosting the Uwharrie Naturalist Weekend on May 4 and 5 – a weekend of nature exploration in the Uwharries. The focus of this inaugural event will be breeding birds. This naturalist weekend is the first of its kind in […]

Brightwalk is unique among Charlotte’s new developments. Part of that is size and location. It’s on 98 acres of redeveloped infill property along Statesville Avenue, about 2 miles from uptown. It will offer more than 1,000 single-family homes, townhomes and apartments – including senior housing and a day-care facility, all of it arranged around green […]

This winter’s pattern of hot and cold weather has made it challenging for people and animals to adapt. The recent wet weather and warmer temperatures must have been a cue for the upland chorus frogs that their breeding season has arrived. I heard them calling loudly from the small stream at my apartment complex. Their […]