by don | Jan 23, 2013
It may not have shaken the Richter scale like the stampede of Republican lawmakers and their realtor and developer lobbyists in Raleigh back in 2011, clamoring to cut funding for the State’s Landslide Hazard Mapping (LHM) program; but there were more than 50...
by don | Jan 19, 2013
I sit this morning being bathed in luxurious rain. The kind of life-affirming, life-giving rain the Smokies are noted for. A quick run to town watching the rain cascading down the asphalt, clear here and muddy red there, being sucked in circles down storm gutters or...
by don | Jan 9, 2013
Only you can apply the brakes to slow down the Courthouse Timber Sale and get everyone to take a closer look. This sale – scheduled for nearly 500 acres in the Pisgah National Forest near the foot of Devils Courthouse – has been through the various assessment...
by don | Jan 2, 2013
Friday December 28 was the date of the eleventh annual Balsam Christmas Bird Count (CBC) – 11 dates but 10 actual counts as the 2009 CBC was cancelled due to inclement weather (snow, high winds and temperatures in the teens.) This year’s weather was much better for...
by don | Dec 26, 2012
I wrote about wood storks, Mycteria americana, back in August of this year after a trip to Isle of Palms in South Carolina (www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/8361-stoked-for-storks). It was really cool to see these large prehistoric-looking birds cruising over...
by don | Dec 19, 2012
(You may need your children to help you read this) The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a great wilderness of about a half-million square acres. It has been the mission of the Park to preserve the thousands of species of plants and animals that live there...
by don | Dec 13, 2012
Ladies and gentlemen return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. Spaceship Earth will be screeching to a stop at 6:12 a.m. EST, December 21. After we’re stopped, feel free to unclick; go to the restroom; get up and stretch your legs; we will be stopped for awhile...
by don | Dec 7, 2012
First Mate McConnell: “Cap’n the ship is headed straight for that iceberg and there’s no way we kin stop her in time!” Boehner: “Don’t worry mate. I have a plan.” FM McConnell: “What kin we do?” Capt. Boehner: “Open all the bilges. We’ll sequester...
by don | Dec 1, 2012
An unusually warm autumn and a good hard mast crop, especially red oak acorns, may keep some Appalachian black bears on the prowl a bit longer than normal, but area biologists don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Dr. Frank van Manen of the University of Tennessee...
by don | Nov 29, 2012
Don’t know why but the last two birding trips to Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Macon County (last Nov. and last Sunday (Nov. 25) have been rushed affairs – allowing about two-and-a-half hours of birding from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon. Now, of course, two-and-a-half...
