More than 67,000 pounds of trout will be stocked in the mountain and piedmont regions of North Carolina between Nov. 29 and Dec. 21, including locations in Jackson, Macon, Buncombe and Transylvania counties. 

The campground at Gorges State Park in Transylvania County is closed through Nov. 16 after a bear attacked an RV last week. 

This year’s state budget process may have been one of the most discordant in recent memory, but Western North Carolina’s legislative delegation was able to secure record-setting funding for critical needs in a relatively poor region that sometimes feels overlooked when Raleigh gets to dishing out the dough. 

Champion Credit Union announced that Ecusta Credit Union, which has served Transylvania and Henderson counties since 1976, will formally merge into Champion Credit Union later this year, in a move a press release noted is aimed at enhancing financial services and member experience.

A $100,000 grant from the Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority has put a $2 million project to build a red spruce nursery past the halfway mark of its fundraising goal.

The Mountain Monarch Festival will return to Gorges State Park in Transylvania County for its second year 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, celebrating the monarch butterfly during its migration season.

A controversial law enforcement association that holds a fringe interpretation of the Constitution and has ties to white nationalism, the sovereign citizen movement, election denial and COVID-19 conspiracy theories will host a meeting in Cherokee County this weekend, but Western North Carolina sheriffs have been largely reluctant to say whether they’ll attend.