outdoors April 10-16, 2013
A.T. license plate money awarded to local trail workers The Carolina Mountain Club has been awarded $2,200 through the North Carolina Appalachian Trail License Plate Grant Program to help buy safety equipment, rebar and tools for the club’s trail maintenance work along the Appalachian Trail. The club’s volunteers maintain 93 miles of the Appalachian Trail in the Appalachian District of Pisgah National Forest. Each week, volunteers go out to check on a section of trail Carolina Mountain Club and perform a volunteers perform work variety of on the Appalachian Trail. tasks from fallen tree removal with chainsaws and branch trimming to brush clearing in the summertime. The volunteers also undertake larger projects such as building trail steps and installing hanging cables to keep campers’ food stores out of the reach of bears. www.carolinamountainclub.org.
Scotts Creek in need of TLC In an effort to clean up Scotts Creek in Jackson County, a coordinated workday will be launched by volunteers from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 20. Local waterway group, Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River, and the Rotary Club of Sylva will be working together to cleanup Scotts Creek in preparation for its new designation as a Mountain Heritage Trout Waters. The designation is expected to bring more tourists and fisherman to the creek to fish. Volunteers will meet at Monteith Farmstead Park in Dillsboro and divide into small teams, each with a set of trash bags and a designated clean up spot. Participants are asked to register in advance and will receive a t-shirt. saesmyrl@hotmail.com or www.WATRnc.org or 828.488.8418.
Cullasaja Gorge clean up needs hands For a bit of environmental dirty work, a cook out and a free t-shirt, volunteers can join this year’s Cullasaja Gorge Clean up on Saturday, April 13, in Macon County. The Cullasaja Gorge is the steep and scenic route between Franklin and Highlands, a primary tourist corridor. The clean-up is sponsored by the Highlands Chamber of Commerce, the town’s Main Street
Committee, the Franklin Chamber of Commerce, Venture Local Franklin, and Stay And Play In The Smokies. Participants will meet at Pine Grove Baptist Church at 9 a.m. and then carpool different assigned sections of the Gorge for clean up work. Volunteers raft down the river in search of trash during the annual Following the Tuckasegee River Cleanup. This year’s event is set for April 20. clean up, the group will meet at the Cliffside University’s A.K. Hinds University Center. Lake shelter area for a cookout. Volunteers will be issued life jackets and pad828.526.2112 or 828.421.0535. dles, then will be transported to the river, where they will be set off down the river in rafts with trash bags. The event, sponsored by WCU’s Base Camp Cullowhee, will last several hours. It will be followed by a free cookout event at 5 p.m. with live entertainment and door prizes. All participants who ride rafts during Volunteers are needed to help remove the cleanup must weigh at least 40 pounds trash from Jackson County’s primary waterand wear shoes that will not come off in the way during the 29th annual Tuckasegee water. An alternative walker’s route is availRiver Cleanup on April 20. able for those who prefer to not raft on the Anyone willing to help clean up the river river. can register between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. April 864.906.7444. 20 on the lawn of Western Carolina
Rafters and walkers needed for large-scale Tuckasegee clean up
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Smoky Mountain News
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