AUDUBON NORTH CAROLINA LAND ENHANCEMENT OUTREACH INITIATIVE TO PROTECT GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER HABITATS

Press Release
by Mary Alice Holley, BC/DC Ideas

Eligible Private Landowners Will Have Opportunities to Receive Financial Incentives by Participating in Program

Audubon North Carolina (ANC) will soon reach out to 77 private landowners across Avery County to encourage them to protect and restore priority bird habitats, while simultaneously helping landowners enhance their property in cost-effective and sustainable ways. ANC staff will work to educate landowners on what they can do to enhance their land for Golden-winged Warblers, and work to enroll them in incentive programs with partner programs.

Western North Carolina, because of its elevational range and forested landscape, is an important destination for Golden-winged Warblers to nest each year. The warbler has been petitioned for listing as an endangered species due to its rapid range-wide decline, making the nesting areas in North Carolina crucial for protection and ongoing maintenance.  Audubon has mapped privately owned land in Western North Carolina that contains preferred habitats for the species, in hopes of working with eligible landowners to protect and maintain the area for long-term sustainability. Landowners who meet certain criteria to participate in the program will be notified with a letter from an ANC representative in the next few weeks.   

“As the bird people for our state, ANC has crafted an approach to forest management that protects and restores habitats for birds, while simultaneously helping landowners enhance their property in cost-effective ways,” says Audubon Conservation Biologist Erin McCombs

“We are excited to develop these partnerships with local communities and their citizens across Western North Carolina in an effort to sustain the Golden-winged Warbler and North Carolina’s beautiful landscapes.”

 

The program will offer training opportunities, management plans and demonstration sites in order to work with private landowners to support environmentally sound practices, especially those that benefit native birds. Landowners who have been identified will receive a letter in the mail in the coming weeks detailing how they can learn more about participating in the program, and how they can receive land management support that will create these specialized habitats. For more information about Audubon North Carolina and the working lands initiative visit our webpage.

About Audubon North Carolina

With a century of conservation history in North Carolina, Audubon strives to conserve and restore the habitats we share with all wildlife, focusing on the needs of birds.Audubon North Carolina achieves its mission through a blend of science-based research and conservation, education and outreach, and advocacy. Audubon North Carolina has offices in Corolla, Boone, Wilmington and Chapel Hill.

Top-5 Artist Randy Houser Headlines Beech Music Fest, Sept. 8

News Release
by Craig Distl

Randy Houser, a rising star in country music, headlines the inaugural Mile High Music Fest on Sunday, September 8th, at Beech Mountain Resort.

Houser is one of three acts performing at the first-year festival, which will transform the slopes of the ski resort into a natural amphitheater capable of seating several thousand people.

Organizers expect a big turnout because Houser is assured of rolling into Beech Mountain next month with one of the top singles and top albums on the Billboard country music charts.

His current hit, "Runnin' Outta Moonlight," is No. 3 on the latest country singles chart and received the most airplay last week of any country single in the U.S. It is the second Top-10 hit on the album, How Country Feels, which has been on the charts for 27 weeks and peaked at No. 3.

Houser, a Nashville resident and Mississippi native, is no stranger to the top of the charts. His 2008 debut album produced two Top-20 singles, while his second album, released in 2009, climbed all the way to No. 8 on the album charts.

Joining Houser at the Mile High Music Fest are two high-energy bands well known to followers of Americana and bluegrass - Donna the Buffalo and Sons of Bluegrass.

Donna the Buffalo is a five-person band fronted by Tara Nevins. The band has been at it since 1989, providing their followers - nicknamed The Herd - with feel-good, groove-oriented music all up and down the East Coast. The New York band features a soulful and electric Americana sound infused with elements of zydeco, rock, folk, reggae and country.

Sons of Bluegrass, heralded as one of the best up-and-coming bluegrass groups in the country, is comprised entirely of majors from the four-year bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., just over the mountain from Beech.

Tickets for the Mile High Music Fest, presented by the Beech Mountain Chamber of Commerce, are $30 in advance and $35 at the gate and available at www.ticketsoeasy.com.