Yesterday I attended  a meeting of the Asheville City Council. I was there to support  a proposal to implement a charitable contribution combined campaign for City of Asheville employees.

In English that means that I support the inclusion of EarthShare as another option for Asheville City employees to have when they give through their workplace. As of now, the only option they have is United Way. I had sent an email to each council member separately to voice my support for EarthShare. Only Cecil Bothwell and Mark Hunt replied. The others ignored it. I always remember who bothers to answer me.

So I went there with a written statement, planning to be able to read it in maybe, 30 seconds. I never got the chance.

Julie Mayfield of Western North Carolina Alliance was also there. She's very politically savvy and knew that no one would be able to speak. A resolution was proposed by Cecil Bothwell but no one seconded it. If the resolution doesn't get a second, there's no discussion. It was over very quickly.

I was very disappointed. This move was choreographed like a ballet. The council knew that it was not going to pass so they chose to not second it. Excuse me?? But what about those of us  who wanted to speak? If you're going to turn it down, turn it down legitimately. Let it come to a vote and stand by your vote. Don't blow off your own citizens.

The actual reason that there was not majority support is that they're concerned about competition with United Way. I'm all for United Way Campaigns; I gave to them for my 35 years of my working career. But this is 2012 and other concerns deserve money as well.

They moved on to Occupy Asheville. They wouldn't have dared to blow off Occupy Asheville; there were dozens of them. Maybe if we had had dozens, we might have gotten a hearing.

For this I missed my Zumba class?

The Carolina Mountain Club hike on Sunday was not at all routine. The area was in the news yesterday.

We started at the new trailhead at Florence Preserve in Hickory Nut Gorge - US 74A. I had scouted that hike in November for a new printing of Hiking North Carolina's Blue Ridge Heritage. At that time, the trail at the beginning went straight up.

But since then, the owners of the land, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, rerouted the trail to make it more friendly. They hired some mechanical help (read - a guy with a bulldozer) to switch back the trail. CMC trail crew put in several log bridges.

Once out of Florence Preserve, we walked on a road up to the top of Little Pisgah Mountain. I spotted several Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) signs. And also a bathtub on the side of the road - see the top photo. Where did that come from?

According to the Asheville Citizen Times, the Fisher family owns the property along with a summer home on Little Pisgah Mountain. SAHC, the conservancy, arranged for a conservation easement that is supposed to be valued at $1.5 million. The property remains with the family but the land can't be sold for development - ever. In return, they save on property taxes. Well, that makes sense. The land is now worth less if you can't develop it.

For some reason, they can still put six homes somewhere on the property.

Here's the full article in the Citizen-Times. Read it quickly because articles on the Citizens-Times website disappear after a week.

Still on the west coast of Florida with my son and his family.

We took our older granddaughter to J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. This is a birding paradise with a couple of short trails and a 8-mile driving tour. We walked the Indigo Trail for two miles and the road back for another two.

It was hot and humid but the birds were amazing. Anhingas were preening themselves on trees above large pools. Lakes attracted large numbers of pelicans, wood storks, egrets and herons. At one point, a whole group of horseshoe crabs had congregated, almost in military formation.

Then at the education center, we saw that children could get a badge for an activity at the Refuge. "Is there any recognition for a child who walked 4 miles and can tell you about the birds she saw?" I asked.

The volunteer explained that she could ride in a car and scan the stations along the way with a  GPS that they were willing to lend you. Or she could do a worksheet indoors in the education center. Both would get her a badge -  their version of a Junior Ranger badge. But for a child to actually walk several miles, that didn't get her any recognition from the Refuge officials.

They obviously have not heard of Michelle Obama's Let's Move program. And they certainly were not encouraging moving or walking. I was more outraged than Hannah, my granddaughter, was. She just had a good day with us.   

Merry Christmas! Today is our wedding anniversary. What to do on Christmas Day, if you’re on vacation on the west coast of Florida?

We went to Corkscrew Sanctuary, formerly known as Corkscrew Swamp. Located southeast of Fort Myers, the land is owned by Audubon. I was surprised that it was open on Christmas Day but they pride themselves on being open 365 days a year. Even the gift shop is open.

The site has a 2.25 mile boardwalk over the swamp. And this is where all the action is. We saw a snake, two baby alligators and several large “mama” alligators. Swamp lilies (to the right) stuck to the swamp. But this is Audubon and the area was full of birds.

Forest birds such as warblers, woodpeckers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers flittered from tree to tree. Anhingas and egrets preened themselves. Volunteer wardens helped us identify warblers high in the trees. These volunteers were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. They carried binoculars and birdbooks.

By midday, we reached the end of the boardwalk and visitors were starting to come out. Most were not walking "all the way" but just ventured on the boardwalk to see the baby alligators. 

I'm on a family vacation in Florida, about as far away from Southern Georgia as you can get culturally. But I just finished Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray.

"Cracker Childhood" was one of the first books I read when I moved to Asheville. It has nothing to do with the mountains but it was about the South and I was devouring anything. I reread it to study how a serious memoir can be a popular book.

Ray talks about her poor, religious childhood  but she also has serious discussions about the environment of the coastal plains. Every other chapter is about loss of some kind - longleaf pines, red-cockaded woodpeckers, wiregrass, bachman sparrow ... Loggers took out as many longleaf pines as they could and upset the balance of nature, all dependent on longleaf pines.

She describes her background as coming from Oglethorpe's debtor prison folks. I sat up and took notice. A few days ago, I didn't even know about that history. But now that I visited Fort Frederica, I knew what she was talking about.

There's nature everywhere, even on Miami Beach. Now residents and visitors may not notice the natural environment but it's there.

I took a walk on the beach today. People were sunning themselves, playing frisbee, strolling and of course, playing on their phones. A few hardy ones were in the water. Were they paying attention to the environment around them?

There were terns and gulls dive bombing on the beach. Sandpipers ran like wind-up toys. A few pigeons added to the mix. And the pelicans. Nothing says South Florida to me like pelicans.

Pelicans don't worry about people. They hang around the fishing pier, waiting to steal fish from fishermen. They fly around boats going deep-sea fishing, also looking for loot. And all of this is happening around a beach lined with high-rise co-ops.

Even Bal Harbor, the fancy shopping center in North Miami Beach, has "nature". It has several fish ponds with koi fish and turtles. People stare in the pond. trying to figure out if the turtles are real. They're real!   

Florence Preserve in Hickory Nut Gorge has had a new trailhead for a few months now. I finally got to rehike my loop in Hiking North Carolina's Blue Ridge Heritage because the book will be reprinted next spring. That was motivation to get down there.

The new trailhead is about a mile south of Kelly Hill Rd. I drove down, down, down, knowing full well that I'm going to have to get back up. The trailhead is very nice, at a chimney on the left side of the road. See above.

There's parking for several cars. There's even two sets of stone steps which lead up to the chimney but no indication about the origin of the chimney.

The trail starts left of the chimney, as you face it. It's well signposted with yellow diamonds and white circles - no relation to the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

The new trail is steep; it just goes straight up. I'm concerned that it will discourage marginal hikers who don't want to put out the effort to climb.

It's a short climb, a very short climb, but it starts at the beginning of the trail. As soon as the trail moderates, it passes an old cabin. After less than a half-mile, the yellow trail intersects the blue trail. If you make a right turn, you'll be back on the loop.

The new trailhead and trail were needed because Kelly Hill Rd. is a private road. Residents didn't want people driving or even walking up the road. So Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy which owns the land came up with this alternate route.

The new route (or should I say, current route) adds more than 500 feet of ascent and about 0.8 mile to the hike. Still a great, short hike.

Today we went to the Columbus Zoo. It may not be the biggest or the best zoo in the country but it's done very well.

My granddaughters got to feel a snake, look at a variety of fish close and personal.

They saw crocodiles, alligators and even a kiwi in the nocturnal section. And they got to feed lorikeets, an Australian parrot.

Where could they do this in the wild? Even if they went all around the world and found these animals, there's no way they could get that close. Will they say "So what. It's better at the zoo."

The conventional answer is that they will appreciate nature more if they are familiar with animals from a zoo or even a nature program but I wonder.

Sometimes I wonder if people are really concerned about the environment or if it's just hype and Ashevillians. Maybe not even Ashevillians.

Consider two cases.

Today I drove from home to New Bern, stopping at Moores Creek National Battlefield, a subject for another day. It's a long drive. I travel with a hot cup and a water bottle. My route took me to South Carolina where I stopped at a McDonald for coffee.

I handed my red hot cup to a sales assistant and asked for decaf. He proceeded to put the coffee into a disposable cup and said that I should pour it into my cup myself.

"But wait," I said. "Just give me the coffee into my mug and save a disposable cup."

"I can't do that," he said.

"Why not? Is it a McDonald policy?

"No,"he said. "Health department."

What!! I know it's not true in North Carolina because I get at Starbucks and local coffee shops with my mug all the time. They encourage it. On my way home, I'm going to stop in a NC McDonald and test it out.

Exhibit #2. Yesterday I took a good travel backpack back to REI.

"The pack is great," I said "but a buckle broke. Could you replace the buckle?"

After a lot of trying and looking, the clerk at REI could not find the same buckle. An 80 cent item but they couldn't replace it.

"You can return the pack," he said "and we'll give you a new one."

"A new pack for a broken buckle? It doesn't make sense."

So I took the pack home and I'm going to try to do without that particular buckle.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone really cares or thinks about the trash we're generating for no reason at all.

Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy is proud to announce that a new trailhead for the Florence Nature Preserve is now open to the public. Located directly on Highway 74A, the new trailhead offers convenient and scenic public access to the Florence Nature Preserve and the developing Hickory Nut Gorge Trail System.
 
The Florence Nature Preserve, owned by CMLC and located in Gerton, is a special treasure in the upper Hickory Nut Gorge. The 600-acre property was donated to CMLC in two phases (1996 and 2001) by Dr. Tom and Glenna Florence.
 
The new trailhead is now the only point of public access to the Preserve. When preparing for your trip to the Preserve, please plan on using this access because Kelly Hill Road and the trailheads off of it (red and blue) are now closed.

Located approximately 0.9 miles east of the Hickory Nut Gorge Community Center and Nita and Susan's Hickory Creek Market, the new trailhead allows for more vehicle parking and provides a much more scenic route of entry into the Preserve.

Look at the map for more information

The status of Dupont Forest is in question.

This beautiful forest between Brevard and Hendersonville will probably be transferred to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. And that could mean fewer opportunities for biking, hiking, and horseback riding and open the forest to more logging.

The entire Division of Forest Resources, including DuPont, will almost certainly be transferred to the Department of Agricultural & Consumer Services on July 1, according to the House budget adopted May 4 by a veto-proof majority. Forest Resources has mandates to prevent forest fires, conserve natural resources, and manage timber — but none for recreation. Compare what it's like to hike in Pisgah Forest vs. Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

But it's not all clear cut, if you'll excuse the pun.

Right now, Dupont Forest is open to multiple-use recreation such as hunting, fishing, mountain biking and horseback riding.

Over the past 10 years, the Division of Forest Resources was a part of the larger Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR), the folks who run the state park system. Several years ago, a proposal was floating around that would make Dupont Forest a state park. It was opposed by many groups because that would eliminate the little hunting that there was in Dupont. The state park would also bow under pressure to build roads to waterfalls that we now hike to.

The four past presidents of Friends of DuPont Forest, have come together to make a simple proposal: We hereby request that the N.C. General Assembly statutorily recognize recreation as a primary mission of DuPont, together with the protection of its natural resources.

They propose making Dupont a recreational Forest. See their website and contact your North Carolina state legislature.