Western North Carolina is a hiker’s paradise.

With so much land protected by national and state forests and parks, those who live in the Western North Carolina area have endless hiking opportunities.

Balsam Mountain Trust announced its seventh-annual Bird Festival celebrating World Migratory Bird Day. 

Spring has fully sprung across Southern Appalachia, as we are awakened daily to birdsong and the bustling morning activity of bees and butterflies.

I’ve become fascinated with studies and lifestyle changes focused on longevity and biohacking. A few recent “revolutionary health and wellness suggestions” made me realize our cave dwelling ancestors already had everything figured out.

Award winning author Mark Warren will discuss his book, “Survival Tricks of the Trail,” at 6 p.m. on April 11 at the Macon County Public Library on Siler Farm Road in Franklin. 

By the third week of April, spring is in full bloom throughout the picturesque valleys of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

With my eyes closed, I can’t see the patchwork of brown leaves and fallen twigs covering the forest floor before me, the pale green lattice of lichen peppering the trunks of upward-reaching trees, or the waters of Fisher Creek rushing over a bed of weathered rocks.

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. 

Performer. Writer. Director. Instructor. Photographer. 

A severe drought. A moderate but steady wind that’s coming from the north and very dry. Parched leaves swirling everywhere.