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Some minority voters gain ground, others don’t

It’s no secret that North Carolina is growing, but as its population grows, the composition of its electorate is changing as well.

2023 A Look Back: ‘That’s so Metal’ Award

This one goes to the Pigeon River, due both to the actual metals found in a sampling site along its bank and to the very metal way its fish populations have rebounded after the Canton paper mill shut down in June. 

Study reveals the red wolf’s ecological impact

According to a study published last month in the scientific journal Animal Conservation, wild red wolves in eastern North Carolina had a significant ecological impact prior to their dramatic decline in recent years. 

Word from the Smokies: What we can learn from wild turkeys

If you plan to travel around Western North Carolina or East Tennessee to visit friends or family and eat turkey for the coming Thanksgiving holiday, there is a good chance you’ll spot a few wild turkeys along the way.

Purging the pigs: Pilot program aims 
to knock back feral swine populations

When Europeans first began exploring North America, they knew precious little about the land toward which they traveled — or what they’d find to eat once they arrived.

When the levee breaks: A perfect storm steers WNC toward a judicial crisis

Some catastrophes happen in the blink of an eye, while others develop so slowly they’re imperceptible, like a crack in a levee propagating below the waterline.

Here it comes; we better be ready

“Both the median sales price ($325,000) and the average sales price ($379,003) rose 26.5 percent and 20.3 percent year-over-year respectively [in Haywood County], while the average list price rose 21.4 percent compared to last year, to $429,042.”

With a little help from hunters, wildlife officials hope to curb the exploding bear population in the mountains

out frNorth Carolina has a bear problem, and wildlife officials hope hunters can help.

The population of black bears has been on the rise for decades — it’s more than doubled in the past 20 years alone — and needs to be reined in, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. The obvious solution is getting hunters to hunt more of them. The trick, however, is getting the formula right.

SEE ALSO: The bait battle: paw-lickin’ good

The case of Haywood’s missing students: a cause-and-effect story

coverHaywood County Schools have been losing students slowly but steadily over the past decade. Despite high academic performance, the school system has 500 fewer students.

Where did they go? Why? Will the decline continue?

Case #1: The homeschool factor
Case #2: Recession drives working families to leave Haywood
Case #3: Private schools only a minor league player
Case #4: New charter school makes a trial run in Haywood
Haywood Schools grapple with enrollment wildcard

Macon as a case study of the exurban population shift

Exurbanites are invading Macon County, and the rest of Appalachia for that matter. Don’t be alarmed, they’re generally docile, but the ramifications of their settlement could mark, and to an extent already have marked, a permanent change in the region’s social, natural and ecology landscape.

The exurbanites — a name coined by former Playboy editor A.C. Spectorsky and used as a title for his book — are a group of people who choose not to settle in the city but rather in the country.

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