New design for the Interwoven. Note - no pond - that's wetlands - can they pave that over? This is 250 acres?

Update and Analysis Coming soon

Nice to see so many from the club attend this session. Everything looked really pretty on the electronic overheads. The colors used, the nicely drawn lines, and words like "green" and "sustainable" and "research incubator" were all there in abundance. Still, if you can't hear the grinding of rusty bulldozer treads beneath all of this, then you've fallen into UNC's trap.

...more soon

A series of 3 meetings begins tomorrow at UNC.

Details below.

And, please, regardless of how "reasonable" all this dialog sounds, just keep this image burned into your mind.


(This was the orignial "Master Plan" buildout for the "entire" Horace Williams Tract.)

If there are no assurances from UNC and the towns that they will halt development at some point, then they really have no credibility from the start.

Let us develop the forest, naturally. Please attend.

Details (from Carolina North HQ)

The information reviewed at both will be the same so attend whichever is most convenient for you. Both sessions will be on Tuesday, March 27th in room 2603 of the School of Government:

3:30 PM. Parking available in either the Hwy 54 Visitor Lot or in the Rams Head deck.
5:30 PM. Parking available as above or in the School of Government parking deck.


At the meetings, University representatives will present potential uses of Carolina North and three conceptual approaches to its development. Attendees will have opportunities to ask questions and share comments. The feedback will help the university as it develops a concept plan for the UNC-owned property.

The draft conceptual plans that will be presented draw on the guiding principles developed by the Leadership Advisory Committee for Carolina North, an ecological assessment of the property and sustainability strategies.

Gov. Mike Easley announced today that the state will spend $24 million to buy privately owned Chimney Rock Park in the western part of the state. (remember that scene in Last of the Mohicans?)

The tract is about 1000 acres and is adjacent the new Hickory Nut State Park.

The state has spent considerable sums to secure privately held land in the past, including the lovely waterfall section of DuPont Forest. That tract was slated for development and a group of families engaged their community in a grass roots effort to save the falls. Their efforts resulted in the state of NC rescuing the land at a pricetage upwards of $25 million.

Who's to say the land in Chapel Hill and Carrboro is beyond rescue? Who's to say the entire Horace Williams Tract and Bolin Creek corridor should not be a park?

I know who's saying it and "they" want you to believe there's nothing you can do about it. Are you willing to leave it at that?!

When is anyone going to do a news article on "Carolina North," the "Satellite Campus" and "the vision of UNC" that is rigorous and critical?

Are we willing to rollover and play dead and say, "well, it's bound to happen...they'll pave it right out of existence, and there's really nothing we can do about it..."

Today's article in The Daily Tarheel fairly presents the development as a forgone conclusion. I'm sure I'm not alone in encouraging our local press, town and university leaders to start looking at the land from the ground up.

The DHT's article is posted here.

My response is posted below after the article and copied below....read more!

The University of Wisconsin at Madison's Arboretum. A wilderness within a state capitol.

If you look at universities around the country, you'll find numerous examples of restraint that does not invoke Carolina North's phrase: "Sustainable Development."

I'll try to feature more campuses in the coming months, but I'd like to begin with the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Here's an example of NO development.

Some things to consider. The UW arboretum consists of 1200 acres, roughly the size of the HWT.

"The Arboretum features many distinct ecological communities, several horticultural collections, effigy mounds, historic artifacts, a Visitor Center and more than 20 miles of a trail system composed of footpaths, boardwalks and fire lanes.. [Website].

Check out the map of the park, open year round to the public. Map

Also from their website, note the following statement - this community seems very proud to have saved this land for something other than research buildings, mixed-use residential plots, and a Starbucks on every corner:

"Recognized as the birthplace of ecological restoration, we heal the land and restore native species. Our exemplary research and land care practices support a beneficial relationship between people and the land."

I know there are a lot of people in our community who would say they are like-minded. I wonder where they are. What if we just all got together and said: "Hey Carrboro and Chapel Hill and UNC, do what they did up in cheddar land! Let's make this an arboretum - a park! Let's NOT develop it, let's restore its ecological communities, let them thrive and find a way to bring thousands of visitors from around the country to enjoy this sanctuary!"

It has been reported that UNC paid the way for Chapel Hill Town Council officials to visit UW recently. I'm behind in my reading and have yet to find a report on just what they did there, what impact it had, and how it might shape their thoughts about NOT developing the HWT.

Can anyone help on that?

Squonk

Horace Williams Tract (ie. Carolina North)

(Carolina North sketch from 2000 Master Plan)

[Click to enlarge image]

So, we're nearing the end of another year. Time to consider where we're going and where we've been. I know that many of us have been enjoying the trails along the Bolin Creek corridor and in the Horace Williams Tract. Both areas, slated for development, are likely to change dramatically in 2007, and while there is some current "progress" toward just how this development proceeds, I'd like to remind those interested (and that means you) of just where all of this is headed.

[2000 Master Plan for Horace William's Tract build-out]

[Click to enlarge image]

READ MORE...please

A lost Goofus is common.

A Goofus lost in our local trails with a camera is truly a wonderful thing!

Here are some photographs of our playground, brought to you by Goofus.

Thanks Goofus!

[Photos taken 11/4/06 - what a beautiful day!]

Carrboro and Chapel Hill Trails Photo Gallery Link

Dear Friends,

Send an email to: SRS_Land_Sales@fs.fed.us

Please inform the Forest Service that is it not in the best interest of NC to sell wild spaces for development.

Imagine the ridgelines of Nantahala, Pisgah, and Uwharrie cluttered with beautiful, executive homes, or pig farms... And imagine access to trails and wilderness spaces restricted and banned. It's an ugly thought.

We simply do not have enough time to run, camp, ride and hike and spike trees. Let's remove the latter as an option.

read more, then act, dammit...../squonk

The US Forest Service has proposed selling more than 300,000 acres of national forest, including the following in NC:

Nantahala - 3,835 acres

Pisgah - 2,780 acres

Uwharrie - 2,317 acres

Croatan - 895 acres

The Forest Service is soliciting public opinion, but Thursday is the deadline for doing so. If you would like to email your two cents' worth, here is the email address: SRS_Land_Sales@fs.fed.us

If you'd like to read more, check out the Charlotte Observer - Local Section. (Monday, March 27).

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/local/14195050.htm

Carrboro Mayor Mike Nelson has just issued the following proclamation.

Please read it and consider where we run and play, and see deer, and happy creatures, and trees and running water, rocks, and flowers...



WHEREAS, Bolin Creek is a Resource that snakes its way through the heart
of Carrboro; and...

[READ MORE]

I enjoyed a lovely trail run this morning and crossed over the lavaflow and Seawell and headed into the Wormhole.

After about 100 meters I noticed limbs down and some fairly big trees, mostly oak, felled beside the trail. Continuing on, I counted 6 to 8 1 to 2 foot diameter hardwoods on the ground in a pile of sawdust.

These were lovely trees. We've enjoyed their shade on hundreds of outings. They've stood beside us and hosted birds, Swooping Owl; they sprouted from nut and acorn.

But last month the tallest of these hardwoods and pines were defined as a "tree problem" and "impediment" and a "shield." They were cut so that flights coming into Horace Williams Airport could maintain an instrument approach.

It has been done based on FAA regulations. UNC vowed to keep the debris at a minimum and to keep the trails clear. They have done so. But, I wonder, couldn't they have been limbed? The power companies do this all the time, cutting sections of trees that obstruct power lines and such. Then some of these old lovelies could still be part of the canopy.

This brings back memories from The Two Towers and all the green and the good. The two hobbits thinking they could do nothing to prevent catastrophe, longing only to return to The Shire (which is now, by the way, westbound on 54 - a new development).

Still, didn't the Ent, Treebeard, say of the butchery of the forest: "There is no curse in elvish, entish, or the tongues of men for this treachery...many of these trees were my friends...they had their own voices."



We may live in the Shire, but things may not always be as they appear, and a tree may not be a tree if it grows tall enough to thwart progress.

- deerg -

"Nobody cares for the woods anymore. They come with fire, they come with hatchets - destroyers, usurpers."
[Treebeard]

UNC Community Announcement:
http://www.unc.edu/community/hw_airport_trees.html

PDF of cut zone
http://www.unc.edu/community/download/WilliamsAirportTree2005.pdf