Monday, July 15
Upcoming NC workshops for women in woodland stewardship
Three ForestHer NC workshops will be held across the state of North Carolina in August. The workshops are for women landowners and natural resource professionals interested in learning more about managing and conserving private lands. According to a news release, participants will learn about the state’s forest ecosystems, identify the types of forest they own or manage, and understand the role their land plays in the larger landscape. In North Carolina, 65 percent of private forestland is jointly owned by women, yet statistics indicate that women are far less likely to attend landowner programs and participant in managing the land.
The workshops cost $25 per person and will run from 9:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Pre-registration is required.
Aug. 8, 2019
Chatham County Center
Pittsboro, NC
https://aug8fhnc.eventbrite.com
Aug. 22, 2019
Lenoir County Center
Kinston, NC
https://aug22fhnc.eventbrite.com
Aug. 29, 2019
Burke County Center
Morganton, NC
https://aug29fhnc.eventbrite.com
Bear in Colorado takes Subaru on a joyride
A bear in Boulder County, Colorado found itself in over its head when it entered an unlocked car and climbed in. The car door then closed behind the animal, sending it into a panic. As it tried to claw its way out of all four doors the bear accidentally shifted the car into neutral with its hindquarters, sending the car careening about 100 feet down a hill. During its downhill cruise the car swiped a tree, leaving the car too damaged to drive. Luckily for the bear, the impact with the tree also popped a car door open and the bear escaped into the woods, assumedly unharmed but armed with a good tale to tell. The moral of the story? Keep your car doors locked in bear country, especially if you have something inside of the car that might attract the curious animals.
Hikers are trashing Australia’s sacred rock
It’s an iconic landmark in Australia: Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is a massive sandstone rock formation that rises out of the flat ground around it in central Australia. The indigenous Pitjantjatjara Anangu people consider the rock sacred and signs that decorate the entrance to Uluru-Kata Tjust National Park, where Uluru is located, have long asked visitors not to climb it. Nonetheless, Uluru has become a popular hiking spot for tourists. In 2017, the Anangu successfully secured a hiking ban on the rock, which goes into effect in October 2019.
In the months leading up to the ban, however, tourists has flocked to the rock in a last-ditch effort to climb it, boosting the number of hikers from an average of about 140 people a day to as many as 500. Local news outlets have documented an endless stream of hikers making their way up the rock. In their wake, the Washington Post reports they’ve left behind “trash, overflowing septic waste and illegal camping sites.”
