H.R. 2768 Benton MacKaye National Scenic Trail Feasibility Study Act of 2025, as amended, has passed out of the House Committee on Natural Resources. The amendment requires the feasibility study to be completed within two years. (The Senate version required a one-year study.) 

For the past 11 years, Ricardo has spent nine months each year at Barber Orchards in Waynesville — and the other three with his wife and adult children in northern Mexico. 

“I wish [I could stay] only for six months, but now we are coming for some time — for nine months — because the orchards are being renewed. The big trees are being cut to put in smaller ones,” Ricardo said, adding that the duration of stay at his location is either nine or four-and-a-half months.  

With wrinkly skin that comes in various shades of brown, eastern hellbenders aren’t easy to spot. These giant salamanders, which average 20 inches in length, spend most of their lives nearly invisible under rocks on the bottom of cool, fast-flowing streams.

The Conservation Fund announced that a critical property in the Great Balsam Mountains is protected as forest and natural land.

The U.S. Forest Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) are temporarily restricting activities on or near several cliff and rock face areas in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests to protect nesting peregrine falcons and their fledgling.  

The U.S. Forest Service has issued a proposal that would amend all 128 forest land management plans in its jurisdiction with language aimed at better maintaining, improving and expanding old-growth forests. 

It was an eye-opener for me, that’s for sure.

A pair of land trusts has worked together to permanently protect 1,125 acres spanning parts of Wilkes, Alexander and Iredell counties.