For four decades, Western Carolina University has participated in a daylong effort of cleaning up a portion of Jackson County’s Tuckasegee River. 

Join Haywood Waterways to clean up Richland Creek in Waynesville. 

The Benton MacKaye Trail Association is looking for volunteers to adopt six trail sections in North Carolina, taking ownership of their regular monitoring and maintenance. 

Help keep tabs on water quality in Western North Carolina by joining the Volunteer Water Information Network. 

Help MountainTrue plant more than 2,500 new native plants at Bryson City Island Park during volunteer workdays 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, and Wednesday, Feb. 14.

Help care for conserved lands by participating in a string of upcoming stewardship volunteer workdays with Mainspring Conservation Trust, held 9 a.m. to noon every other Thursday at various locations in Macon County. 

Keep the hemlocks of the Pisgah National Forest safe from the invasive hemlock wooly adelgid during a volunteer workday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, at the Old Fort Picnic Area near Old Fort. 

Neglected or abused children who become involved with the state’s courts or social services agencies often find themselves with nowhere to turn — or worse, torn between two parents.

Friends of Panthertown will host a trail workday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, meeting at Salt Rock Gap Trailhead.

Many years ago when I was an educator, my school was tasked with reading a book titled “The Cycle of Poverty” by Ruby Payne.