In February, Sylva’s town board gave its enthusiastic support to a plan that would bring 35 miles of multi-use trail to 2,000 acres of forest owned by the town and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. But during their most recent meeting , members heard from a biologist who urged them to slow down before approving any construction. 

The first students moved into The Husk at Western Carolina University last August, but nearly a year later the companies responsible for developing, designing and building the environmentally disastrous  Millennial Campus student housing development are embroiled in a complex lawsuit that has left at least one local subcontractor facing a six-figure deficit until the situation resolves. 

After 16 years and one week on the job, Mike Fitzgerald is officially retired from Dillsboro’s town board— but not from his place as owner of the only remaining shoe repair shop in North Carolina's seven western counties. 

The 200-acre piece of land that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is developing along Interstate 40 in Sevier County will be soon be home to the world’ largest convenience store. 

A bear has been euthanized and a backcountry site closed in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after a 16-year-old girl was attacked and injured while sleeping in her hammock near her family around 12:30 a.m. Friday, June 18.

A temporary ban on tents and soft-sided campers at Mount Pisgah Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway has been extended through Thursday, July 1, due to ongoing bear activity. 

ArborEvenings is back at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville, offering opportunity to spend Thursday and Friday evenings strolling through the gardens through Oct. 1.

The boards governing Sylva and Jackson County both passed budget ordinances this month that feature a change in tax rate, but the rate adjustments and levels of consensus differed considerably between the two. 

After flying into town and renting a car for their Memorial Day Weekend visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, three adults visited Cades Cove on Saturday, May 29. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will partner with two other Native American tribes and a developer to build a 200-room hotel in Pigeon Forge, expected to open in summer 2023. 

As the pandemic continues to recede, Western Carolina University is planning for a fall semester that “will look more like fall 2019 around here than fall 2020,” Chancellor Kelli Brown told trustees during a June 4 meeting. 

By unanimous vote during their Tuesday, June 1, meeting, Jackson County commissioners passed a resolution  that “calls upon the North Carolina General Assembly and the United States Congress to use all their powers and authority to protect our citizens’ freedom under the Constitution.”

A portion of the Appalachian Trail in the Pisgah National Forest is closed to camping due to bear activity.

A wall of wind hurtles through the asphalt-covered mountain gap as I exit my car, popping open the trunk to rummage through the sea of stuff for any last-minute additions to the loaded backpack lying atop the mess. 

Volunteers are needed to help with the upcoming Special Olympics season on the Qualla Boundary. 

Mainspring Conservation Trust has hired two new positions, expanding the regional nonprofit’s staff to 12 people. 

Learn more about Made X Mtns, a new regional brand for Western North Carolina, at 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 15, at Fire Mountain Outpost in Cherokee. 

The N.C. Department of Transportation’s crews, contractors and volunteers have collected more than 6 million pounds of litter from roadsides, more than the total weight collected during all of 2020. 

Brandon Light, a student in Haywood Community College’s Forest Management Technology Program, has been named the college’s Academic Excellence Award winner. 

Every month, the Tribal Council agenda starts the same way. The chairman calls the meeting to order, and then there’s a prayer, a roll call, a call for requested changes to the agenda and a unanimous vote to deem the ever-present list of new proposed ordinances read and tabled. That’s not how the June 1 meeting went. 

Blue Ridge Parkway rangers will host a new outdoor interpretive series dubbed “Fridays at the Folk Art Center” at 7:30 p.m. every Friday this season at the Folk Art Center in Asheville. 

A partial solar eclipse will be visible across the northern hemisphere on Thursday, June 10, hitting Western North Carolina around sunrise. 

Of North Carolina’s 100 counties, 84 are currently abnormally dry or experiencing drought — but the far western region is so far exempt. 

After multiple work sessions and a public hearing, Jackson County commissioners may designate an additional $444,000 in the 2021-22 budget for law enforcement and emergency response salaries. 

Tribal Council incumbents fared well in Thursday’s Primary Election, with all six representatives who faced primary contests sailing easily toward the Sept. 2 General Election. However, the General Election ballot will feature only one incumbent Cherokee Central Schools Board member between the three school board races underway this year. 

Visitors to the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness on the Nantahala National Forest should take extra precautions after recent reports of bear encounters in the area. 

The 2021 Assault on Blackrock trail race raised $4,100 for the Southwestern Community College Student Emergency Fund. 

Tribal Council incumbents fared well in Thursday’s Primary Election, with all six representatives who faced primary contests sailing easily toward the Sept. 2 General Election. The General Election ballot will feature only one incumbent Cherokee Central Schools Board member among the three seats up for election this year.

After five years heading the agency, Jennifer Abshire will retire as director of the Jackson County Department of Social Services on July 1. Following a closed session discussion June 1, county commissioners unanimously approved the social services board’s decision to hire Graham County DSS Director Cris Weatherford to take her place.

The morning fog is barely lifting at 8 a.m. when a group of five women meet outside Kathy Odvody’s home in Waynesville. I add my fully loaded backpack to the pile accumulating in the rear of Outdoor Mission Community’s lumbering 15-passenger van, and after a brief exchange of names we buckle in for a 36-hour wilderness adventure. 

Sarah Dearmon was the only person who spoke during the May 27 public hearing for a proposed Sylva town budget  that calls for an 18 percent increase over the general fund from 2020-21. But her comments directly addressed the main debate board members and town citizens have grappled with during this year’s budget process. 

Tiffany Henry will be Jackson County’s next director of economic development following a unanimous vote from county commissioners May 18. The vote followed a 25-minute closed session discussion at the end of the board’s regular meeting.

Despite a raging pandemic, Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos’ revenues for October 2020 through March 2021 delivered a larger per capita payment to tribal members than the last June distribution based on pre-pandemic earnings. 

Western North Carolina teenager Evy Leibfarth will represent the United States in the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo this year after placing first in two Olympic Team Trials competitions in April. 

The first trails at Canton’s Chestnut Mountain Park will be ready to ride before the leaves drop this fall thanks to an overwhelmingly successful fundraising effort from Asheville YouTuber Seth Alvo. 

Rex Mann’s father was the kind of storyteller whose voice would make everyone in the room stop what they were doing, come and listen. 

During the Primary Election next week, Cherokee voters will decide which candidates vying for seats on Tribal Council and the Cherokee Central Schools Board of Education will progress to the Sept. 2 General Election. 

Note: The initial story published May 26 was based on incorrect budget documents from Jackson County that reflected a total budget of $87 million. However, the county later released corrected documents showing a total proposed budget of $78.9 million, representing a 6.27% increase over the 2020-21 adopted budget and a 2% decrease over the amended budget — not the 17.5% increase originally reported. 

Jackson County Manager Don Adams presented a proposed budget May 18 that represents a 6.27% increase in total spending over the 2020-21 adopted budget but a 2% decrease over last year's amended budget.

It would reduce the current tax rate from 38 to 36 cents per $100 of value, but most homeowners will likely receive a higher total tax bill. Due to increased values following this year’s revaluation, the revenue-neutral rate would be 34.47 cents per $100.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is appealing an April 16 decision from District Court Judge James A. Boasberg that paved the way for the Catawba Indian Nation to develop a casino in Cleveland County.

The pedestal of the Confederate soldier statue in Sylva will get a $14,000 makeover following a 4-1 vote from the Jackson County commissioners. 

Tiffany Henry will be Jackson County’s next director of economic development following a unanimous vote from county commissioners May 18. The vote followed a 25-minute closed session discussion at the end of the board’s regular meeting.

The outdoor industry has for years been on an upward trajectory in Western North Carolina, and a regional branding campaign unveiled May 18 aims to boost it even further. 

During a May 11 work session, Jackson County commissioners discussed a plan to use $400,000 from the general fund — previously allocated to the Cullowhee Volunteer Fire Department — to fund personnel and per-call pay at five other fire departments in the county. 

New COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are falling toward the lowest levels seen since the pandemic took root. 

Early voting is underway for the June 3 Primary Election in Cherokee, which will determine the final slate of candidates progressing to the Sept. 2 General Election. 

Cherokee scholar Thomas Belt received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Western Carolina University last week during commencement on Saturday, May 15.

“My name is Tommy Thomas. I’ve been fly fishing 30, maybe closer to 40 years now,” says the man wearing a reel of fishing line as a necklace, by way of introducing himself to the couple dozen people gathered for a morning fly fishing class May 7 at Lake Junaluska Dam.

Early voting is underway for the June 3 Primary Election in Cherokee, which will determine the final slate of candidates progressing to the General Election Sept. 2. This year, all 12 Tribal Council seats are up for election, as well as School Board seats for Wolfetown, Big Cove and Birdtown.

In a pair of actions taken during Tribal Council on Thursday, May 6, Tribal Council voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and to stop testing Housing Improvement Program residents and applicants for the drug. 

Carmaleta Littlejohn Monteith has worn an impressive number of titles over the course of her life.