LAND PRESERVATION

Seventh-generation farmer Bent Barbee of Concord’s Barbee Farms credits Cabarrus County’s Voluntary Agricultural District program as an important reason his 70-acre farm is still in operation after almost being lost to a road widening project in 2009. WHAT’S NEXT? Leslie Vanden Herik of the Mecklenburg Soil & Water Conservation District said a next step is […]

As the Charlotte region urbanizes, what changes will take place over time in the Catawba River basin near the smaller creeks and watersheds? Two UNC Charlotte researchers hope questions like that can be answered with information they’ll start gathering, thanks to a Duke Energy Foundation grant. The $76,521 grant from the Duke Energy Water Resources […]

[highlightrule]Choices made decades ago ruled out the preservation of large-scale green belts or farmlands in Mecklenburg. This is the story of how that came about. [/highlightrule] You can drive south down Dixie River Road beyond the venerable Dixie Grill & Grocery and for 2 miles you’ll see only woods, a few driveways and the scattered […]

Agriculture and agribusiness account for one-sixth of North Carolina’s economy and employees, and more than 17 percent, or $84 billion, of the $482 billion Gross State Product. It’s no wonder farmland preservation is viewed as important to the future of our state. One way agricultural lands in our state are being protected is through Voluntary […]

The song sparrow was tangled in a mist net stretched between a stand of big bluestem and a blackberry thicket. It flapped and flailed, but settled a bit as Alicia Bachman’s nimble fingers worked to extract it – first the tiny claws and legs, then the wings and finally the head. A volunteer and experienced […]

[highlightrule] One map shows that almost every unprotected woodlot in the N.C. Piedmont is at risk of being lost to development.[/highlightrule] There’s a difference between spending time in the woods and understanding the complex dynamics of a forest. For far too many people, even outdoor enthusiasts, nuances such as species diversity and forest succession are […]

In 1995, the year the Land trust for Central North Carolina was founded, our state’s population was 7.35 million. Remember those days? Back when we bought CDs by Coolie and Joe Diffie (really?) and drove to video stores to rent copies of Toy Story, Clueless and Braveheart? When we flocked to AOL for this newfangled […]

In the heart of the Piedmont, there’s a place apart – a far cry from the skyscrapers, highways, shopping centers and subdivisions of our urban areas. The 5,160-acre Birkhead Wilderness Area, at the northern tip of the Uwharrie National Forest, is designated as a place “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled […]

The Uwharrie National Forest sprawls across three counties with numerous access points, but actually getting out on the trails can be intimidating for locals and visitors alike. Many entrances consist of nothing more than a forbidding yellow gate. The U.S. Forest Service might claim foot traffic is welcome, but without additional signage to indicate where […]

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to spend a day in the field with two luminaries from the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Ornithologist John Gerwin has studied the special population of black-throated green warblers that breeds on forested peaks in the Uwharries, and he was eager to spend some time in our grasslands. […]