Streams

Tucked at the end of a dead-end street in an industrial area just north of uptown Charlotte, Mecklenburg’s recycling processing plant sits as a storyteller of the area’s challenges in figuring out how to reduce its dependence on landfills. KEEPING WATCH This article is part of the three-year KEEPING WATCH initiative. Learn more about the […]

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, in partnership with the UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture, has launched KEEPING WATCH, a three-year initiative designed to bring a higher profile to, and engage the public in, issues about the natural environment. The initiative will foster collaboration across various interest groups and disciplines. An exhibit opened Friday, […]

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute’s online publication, PlanCharlotte.org, has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Arts & Science Council for its “City of Creeks” project. “City of Creeks,” is envisioned as a way to combine history, environmental science and community engagement, all focused on Charlotte’s distinctive landscape of urban streams. It will feature online […]

On Nov. 11, 1957, a white separatist organization failed in its attempt to destroy Charlotte’s Temple Beth El, now the largest reform congregation in the Carolinas, with dynamite. Last month however, almost 56 years later, the building was finally destroyed – not as a malicious act but as part of Mecklenburg County’s floodplain acquisition program. […]

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute’s online publication, PlanCharlotte.org, has won a $12,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to boost a project that will look at Charlotte’s creeks. The grant from Knight Foundation Fund at Foundation For The Carolinas will pay a researcher in local history who will examine the role […]

After months of steady – and sometimes excessive – rain, we’ve recently seen a more typical pattern of precipitation. Autumn is our driest season. If this trend continues and we don’t receive a soaking from a hurricane or tropical storm, our total precipitation for 2013 could be deceptively average. It’s been a banner year for […]

Residents can help improve area water quality by picking up trash from local streams on Saturday during Mecklenburg County’s annual creek clean-up, Big Sweep. To register, click here. The Big Sweep will take place at six sites, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers can walk alongside or, if they’re adventurous, wade into local streams […]

Hiking the ridgelines and hillsides of the Uwharries, you pass through forests dominated by hickory, oak and sourwood. There are large patches of knee-high blueberry bushes, and the herbaceous layer is sparse. On occasion, an attentive and adventurous outdoor enthusiast might also run across natural areas that change abruptly and appear remarkably different from this […]

Several years ago, when we were planning to change the way we manage some of our land, I happened to meet Bob Askins, a biology professor at Connecticut College and author of Restoring North America’s Birds: Lessons from Landscape Ecology. As we discussed my projects, he encouraged me to do a baseline inventory before we […]

What better summertime activity for a kid in the country than playing in a creek? There is really nothing better than sticking your feet in a cool stream under the forest canopy where it feels 10 degrees cooler than in the sun. And whenever I walk in the woods and come up to a rocky […]