Help celebrate National Trails Workday

Crowders Mountain State Park in autumn is packed with hikers

Area parks will benefit from 2 weekend work programs and new grant for Thread Trail

May 31 – This Saturday, June 2, is National Trails Day. We have reason to celebrate and ways to show appreciation.

The reason to celebrate? The Carolina Thread Trail recently received at $52,600 grant from the Women’s Impact Fund to train volunteers on trail building and outreach. The Thread Trail's goal is to weave together our region with hundreds of miles of walkable, bikeable, roller-blade-able trails including a major river crossing within the Catawba River District. Parts of the trail system already existing including short trail at Mount Holly’s Tuckaseege Park. But more than 200 miles of future trails have yet to be built. This program is an exciting new way to get trails open at relatively low cost.

You can show your appreciation this Saturday, June 2, by taking part in trail maintenance programs at Latta Plantation Nature Preserve on Mountain Island Lake and Crowders Mountain State park – the Charlotte metro region’s only state park - in western Gaston County.

This is also an opportunity to enjoy some very special natural places. Latta Plantation Park is both the region’s largest nature preserve and the home to both the historic Latta Plantation and the Carolina Raptor Center. The Raptor Center helps restore injured birds of prey for release back into the wild. The center also cares long-term for birds whose injuries prevent them from being able to live on their own.

Crowders Mountain State Park includes both Crowders Mountain and Kings Pinnacle within its several thousand acres in western Gaston County.

You can show your appreciation this Saturday, June 2, by taking part in trail maintenance programs at Latta Plantation Nature Preserve on Mountain Island Lake and Crowders Mountain State park – the Charlotte metro region’s only state park - in western Gaston County. Crowders Mountain, at an elevation of 1,625 feet, is a registered natural heritage area that features sheer vertical cliffs ranging from 100 to 150 feet in height. The park also connects to Kings Mountain State Park and Kings Mountain National Military Park.

• Visit the Catawba RiverViews calendar to get details on trail maintenance.

• Not able to make the trail event? No problem. SUBSCRIBE to our e-newsletter to get reminders about upcoming events like this.

Schoolyard gardens seek a crop of volunteers - perhaps you?

Chris Hardin (blue shirt) discusses plans Tuesday for Whitewater Farms

Community meeting explains Whitewater Farms concept and need – people to tend gardens this summer

May 23, 2012 – The River District has spent months planting the seed for schoolyard gardens and community-supported agriculture. Children at Whitewater Academy recently began harvesting their first broccoli, cabbage and peas.

On Tuesday the garden organizers also had an important first harvest: a dozen survey forms and contact information from people interested in helping the gardens grow and thrive.

The names came from the first Whitewater Farms information meeting, held last night at Whitewater Middle School. Students there recently planted summer crops of tomatoes, peppers and squash and are tending the gardens daily now. But they leave in early June for summer vacation.

“We need people to sustain the gardens over the summer,” explained Jeffie Hardin of Rivendell Farms, who is overseeing the garden project with her husband, Chris. “Tomato plants will start to bear fruit in July. The kids won’t be here, but if we take care of the gardens they will have tomatoes and other produce ready to harvest when the kids come back in August.”

The River District hopes to gather dozens of volunteers in the next month to make that happen. Fifteen teachers have already volunteered to help.

Schoolyard gardens are just the start

Whitewater Middle students plant marigolds

The schoolyard gardens here and at four other River District schools are the first phase of a much larger River District effort to nurture locally grown food in our region.

Schools nationwide are finding that schoolyard gardens help even young children develop stronger math and science skills. “I have kids down in the dirt measuring how long an inch is,” Jeffie Hardin told the group.

Plus children are much more likely to eat fresh vegetables when they have helped grow them, she added: “If you get kids out there planting broccoli and picking bugs off the broccoli and picking the broccoli, you will see them eat the broccoli.”

The next phase of Whitewater Farms will create community gardens and a full working farm where adults can grow food for their families while learning how to develop their own gardens at home, Chris Hardin said. 
Whitewater Farms will use Rivendell Farms as its model, Chris Hardin said. People pay to receive fresh food from the farm but also spend time working in the gardens and tending chickens and cattle. The Whitewater Farms plots will go on land near the Whitewater schools, made available by ReVenturePark.

“My vision for Whitewater Farms is 50 to 100 raised beds, developed over several years, to build a real working farm that the community could benefit from,” Chris said.

Food hub will process locally grown food from many sources

The third phase calls for creating a food hub that can collect, process and sell food from many small farms in the area, including Whitewater Farms.

These ambitious goals will require financial support. Presbyterian Healthcare and Huber Technology, a clean-water company, are helping underwrite the schoolyard gardens. The River District is seeking additional corporate and foundation support.

But right now, the single biggest need is volunteers who’ll come to the gardens faithfully this summer to water, weed and harvest the first crops so our students can harvest them in August.

Stephanie Wade, principal of Whitewater Middle, hopes that the community will get behind the effort.

“The kids are so excited working as a team,” she said, “and so protective of their vegetables! I look forward to this growing and growing and growing.”

How you can help

• LEARN MORE: Visit catawbariverdistrict.org.

• VOLUNTEER: To learn how you can help our schoolyard gardens, EMAIL Edna Chirico or call 704-562-8847.

Deadline's Friday to join Catawba Canoe & Kayak-a-thon

Event features 7-mile "easy to moderate" morning paddle

June 2 paddle on Mt Island Lake raises money for conservation

One of the great canoe and kayak events on the Charlotte stretch of the Catawba takes place on June 2, and you have only until this Friday to register.

The  NC Wildlife Federation’s annual Catawba Canoe & Kayak-a-thon features a 7-mile “easy-to-moderate” morning paddle on Mountain Island Lake. These events draw dozens of paddlers and, more importantly, raise money for natural-resource conservation.

The minimum cost to take part is $50 per person and includes a T-shirt, lunch and special wildlife gift. You’re encouraged to get sponsors who will donate additional money on your behalf.

Several businesses have provided prizes and giveaways, including the grand prize: a Perception Sport Sound 9.5 Kayak, provided by the Great Oudoor Provision Co.

A certified biologist will also join the group to talk about local land protection, plants, animals, fish and birds – including osprey who nest along the lake.

Interested in taking part but don’t have a boat? A few may still be available to borrow. Contact Chris North, below, to find out.

Details:

• Time: 8:30 a.m.-noon June 2
• Location: Riverbend Steam Station (directions will be provided to people who register).
• Registration: CLICK to register and for more event details
• Questions? EMAIL Christopher North or call him at 704-332-5696.

Mecklenburg, Catawba lead NC recycling efforts

New state report finds Catawba County soars above rest of state in per-capita effort

Depending upon how you stack the numbers, both Mecklenburg and Catawba counties can claim they are tops among 100 NC counties in waste recycling.

Data released this week by the N.C. Department of Environment and natural Resources show that Mecklenburg County recycled nearly 90,000 tons of wastes in 2011, not including tires, yard waste and some specialty wastes.

That figure is 45 percent higher than total wastes recycling in the No. 2 largest county down east, Wake (home to Raleigh).

How does Catawba County come out on top, then? By counting the amount of recycled material per person. Sliced up that way, the trash count shows Catawba recycling more than one-third ton of waste per person – or more than triple Mecklenburg’s per-person total of 194 pounds. 

Recycling's up on several fronts

CLICK to view Mecklenburg guide

Regardless of which county you rank as No. 1, the good news, say state officials, is that recycling continues to rise across North Carolina despite the economic slowdown’s impact on demand for recycled materials.

“Plastic bottle recovery in particular has experienced significant growth since the state’s disposal ban became effective on Oct. 1, 2009, increasing 22 percent in FY 2009-10 and 23.4 percent in FY 2010-11,” the report said.

Curbside recycling programs grew for the third straight year, from 214 in 2009 to 283 last year.

Catawba County officials credit their recycling success on strong partnerships among various local governments and businesses. Catawba County also created the first curbside pickup program in the state.

The state report also praises the Catawba County Regional EcoComplex and Resource Recovery Facility, “an innovative and interactive network of companies and operations that tries to match waste streams with the need for materials in the manufacturing of new products and energy sources.” The on-site use of discarded materials in turn helps Catawba County achieve higher rates of recycling, the state report said.

Local efforts to reduce non-recyclable waste, too

ReVenture Park, in the Catawba River District, plans to help the region deal with non-recyclable wastes by turning them into energy.

The anchor project of ReVenture Park is a Waste To Energy facility that will take non-recyclable paper fiber and organic matter, shred it into fuel and heat it to produce a gas similar to natural gas. This gas is created through a gasification technology, not incineration. The gas is then used to create steam that powers a turbine to create electricity. This process exceeds the most stringent EPA air quality standards. The only byproduct, says ReVenture Park, is an inert ash that has beneficial uses.

 

Get all the stats

CLICK to read the report including county by county results.

CLICK for recycling tips.

Find outdoor fun on Facebook

The Latta Plantation Nature Preserve Facebook page is updated often.

Several park Facebook pages have listings of upcoming classes, events

Facebook is becoming the new public face for our local park and recreation programs.

McDowell Nature Preserve recently launched its Facebook page. Its sister nature preserve, Latta Plantation, has had a frequently updated Facebook page for at least a year. The City of Belmont also turns to Facebook to pump out the latest announcements about upcoming city activities, including park and rec programs.

Of course the beauty of Facebook is that it allows us to share our interest in these programs with the click of a keypad on our computer, smart phone or pad. And we can go back later and sometimes see photos and video of what took place; we may be able to share our own, as well. 

Check out these pages, and tell us what you think, at http://www.facebook.com/CatawbaRiverDistrict

Facebook pages with park programs

• City of Belmont
• Latta Plantation Nature Preserve (Mountain Island Lake)
• McDowell Nature Preserve (Lake Wylie)

Downtown Charlotte art will help clean the Catawba

Deanna Pindell installs a granite slab at the Trinity School project. Helping are Michael Haag, Pindell's assistant, and volunteer Graceanne Brown.

A downtown Charlotte art project several miles from the Catawba will help safeguard the river while teaching children about ways to protect our environment.

A rocky watercourse with etched black-granite-topped posts will eventually help remove automobile pollutants that might otherwise flow into nearby Little Sugar Creek and eventually into the Catawba just south of the state line.

The drainage area before Pindell's installation.

Artist Deanna Pindell is creating the installation on the grounds of Trinity Episcopal School. Storm water coming from the school’s main parking lot currently flows across a grassy swale to a rain garden that school staff built a few years ago.

City code requires builders to collect storm water from buildings and parking lots and release it slowly into nearby streams as a way to reduce soil erosion. The code says little about how these collection basins should look – and they often end up as weed- and litter-choked basins in a back corner of the property.

Through the McColl Center for Visual Arts’ Environmental Artist-in Residence program, Pindell is creating rock formations and a settling pond that are both functional and attractive.

The installation runs beside Garden District Drive.

Last Saturday morning, UNC Charlotte art student Michael Haag and volunteers mixed and poured concrete posts in the hand-dug watercourse while Pindell carefully topped the wet concrete with the etched-granite slabs. She expects to finish the project by late June.

Pindell said that the finished watercourse should help cleanse the parking-lot water by slowing the water and allowing time for heavy metals to settle out. The rain garden, filled with lily pads, duckweed and other aquatic plants, also helps slow and cleanse the water.

The new watercourse and existing rain garden beside Trinity School will provide attractive places for students and the community to stroll, learn and even observe wildlife.

The McColl Center program is funding another environmental arts project this summer, as well. James Collins and community volunteers are taking remedial action on tree preservation, runoff control and absorption, erosion control and pollutant cleansing along Little Sugar Creek in Cordelia Park.

Learn more

• READ Deanna Pindell’s blog about the project, “We all sharethe same water.”
• LEARN about the McColl Center Environmental Artist InResidence program.
• VISIT Trinity Episcopal School’s installation. The school is at 750 East 9th St. The installation runs between the school parking lot and Garden District Drive. MAP

You can help launch a food coop

Catawba River Market organizer seeks members and information for 2013 launch

Leigh Brinkley of the Mount Holly Farmers Market plans to launch a food coop here in spring 2013. Food coops provide special kinds of food, such as locally grown produce, but depend on members who pay a small annual fee to support the co-op's operation.

"For a nominal investment you will be creatng a vital, self-sustaining source of locally grown, healthy foods that nourish you and your community on many levels for generations," Leigh explains.

Leigh plans something similar to Asheville's French Broad Food Coop.

You can help Leigh launch the Catawba River Market by becoming one of its first members. CLICK on this link to go to CatawbaRiverViews.org, where you can download the membership application and interest survey forms. Complete them and mail them to:

Catawba River Market

P.O. Box 1074

Mount Holly, NC 28120

Want to know more?

CLICK to email Leigh about the coop.

CLICK to read Carla Linster's blog, Catawba River Women