Alarka Expeditions

01/31/2025

🌲Thursday, Feb. 6🌞

Land of the Noonday Sun || Forest Bathing

February 6th 12 - 3pm

We invite you to join us for an afternoon at Fern Gully where we'll spend time along the Nantahala (translates to Land of the Noonday Sun) river, connecting to ourselves, each other, and the more than human wold through relational forest bathing.

Registration includes fireside tea and snacks.

https://www.alarkaexpeditions.com/blank-3

📍the ancestral land of the Cherokee people.

01/31/2025

Attn, western North Carolina Artists: The deadline to enter and win cash awards is swiftly approaching! 🏞️🎨📷🖌️🎨🏺🧵

Call for Artists! Fragments of Hope is a juried exhibition intended to depict the impacts of hurricane Helene on the lives of artists and artisans in western North Carolina, while conveying their strength and resilience as they move forward with their practices.
The impact contemplated in each entry can range widely. From the loss of a beloved human or pet to the destruction of a community, church, home, studio, artwork(s), or treasured parts of the natural environment.
Deadline to apply is February 15th. Please visit https://www.coweeschool.org/call-for-artists or email [email protected].
North Carolina Arts Council Center for Craft
❤️

01/02/2025

We love this collab!

In the ecotourism business you see sooooo much animal neglect. So many loose dogs in the roads and so this gives us great hope!







🐾🐾🦴🦴💛

It’s about collaboration to extend the reach of these dogs in need.
By raising the profile through our diverse trail community, we increase the potential for a loving home for dogs like Draco
Join us 11AM Friday Jan 3 at Big Bear Shelter at the in-town Bartram Trail to meet this handsome boy🐾

12/10/2024

December Alarka❄️ - https://mailchi.mp/348cc561e536/december-alarka

12/06/2024

So very much rides on state regs to protect our Little Tennessee River. Please do this, this morning, for the river's sake:
And PLEASE SHARE! 🚨

Contact Karl Gillespie and tell him to vote no on NC State Senate Bill 382 and to support the Governor’s override. He voted against it before and the bill ain’t no better now.

email: [email protected]
phone: 919-733-5859

We still have an opportunity to stop this bill. Karl Gillespie is our State House representative in Macon County, North Carolina. He has already bucked his party and voted against this bill in the State House. We need to ask him to stick to his guns and do what’s right for western North Carolina, hurricane victims, and NC voters. The State Senate over-rode the governor’s veto, but this over-ride must be confirmed by the House vote. Contact Karl Gillespie and tell him that we appreciate him sticking to his morals.

12/04/2024

Hands off Macon County's floodplain ordinance 🏞️

12/03/2024

🌲 𝘑𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘴! 🌲 This 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, Outdoor 76 is proud to support the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, a vital organization that is dedicated to preserving the beauty of the remote and challenging 110+ mile Bartram Trail.
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📅 Today Only: 𝟏𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 will be donated to the BRBTC to help protect and maintain the Bartram Trail for generations to come.
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💚 Shop in-store or online and know your purchase is making a difference in helping to support the Bartram Trail in Georgia and North Carolina.
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Let’s come together and show some love for the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy. 🥾✨ 👉 𝘛𝘢𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥.
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11/15/2024

Y'all!! Our beloved and locally famous (on IG) is leading a creative UpCyCLe patch/kit making tomorrow
Saturday Nov. 16 at Cowee School
F R E E to the public
10 - 2pm

Bring the fam! 🌎♻️

🪡🧵🧷✂️

10/29/2024

If you're lucky enough to be in charge of a piece of land.
Know this.

It's not too late.

This fall, that is. To leave the leaves in a sweet island that spans the dripline of your trees. You can encircle it with fallen sticks and branches.

If you MUST have lawn, have it outside the dripline, the space under the reach of the tree branches. The leaves under the tree will sequester moisture and sustain your tree's roots all winterlong. Pile the lawn leaves in the dripzone islands you've created.
Ask Alarka Expeditions what to grow under your trees if you like or wait to see what arrives in the spring. You'll have a delicious shade garden under them in time with Fall phlox to native ferns.
It's not too late for you to protect your trees from drought and disease. Ask us what mid-story species won't interfere with you powerlines. Ask Bigelow's Botanical Excursions and Winding Stair Farm & Nursery PLANT NATIVES.
It's not too late.
Leave your leaves.
x

10/25/2024

A fine red-tick lady needs us to help her.

Carrie is great with other non-aggressive dogs.

Who among us is her furever human? It's time for her to live with an Alarka Expeditions alum.

How easily her name coulher name could morph into Cairngorm - what a wonderful Hiker she'd be.

🐾🫶

10/19/2024

💯%💦

When we took on our natural floodplain restorations along the French Broad River, one goal was that they would help control floodwater. Now that we've all gone through a flood like no other, we can tell you how well they worked.

The idea is that with a natural floodplain, water has a place to spill over and soak into wetlands and pools. When we look at what happened during Hurricane Helene at just three of our larger restoration projects—Mud Creek, Pleasant Grove, and Kings Bridge—we find that these three sites contained 2,100 acre feet of water. Picture 2,100 acres covered by a foot of water. That’s how much floodwater was held in these floodplain restorations.

As we begin to move forward from this devastating storm, knowing that climate change is making extreme weather events more likely, we see a large role for wetlands and natural floodplains in making our communities more resilient.

Thank you to engineer Greg Jennings at Jennings Environmental for crunching the numbers for us! Greg also took this picture of the backwater slough at Pleasant Grove on Oct. 8, after the water had receded.

10/18/2024

Paddling the Little Tennessee should be on this list of "things to do" (while it's still warm enough)😉

Hurricane Helene devastated much of Western North Carolina, but that doesn't mean the entire region is off-limits for travelers. Find out which towns are open for business and ready to welcome visitors.

09/03/2024

🚣💦CULLASAJA RIVER TRIP + HONORING THE LONGMAN + OUR FLOODPLAIN UNDER THREAT - https://mailchi.mp/46de7f36f796/next-makers-space-at-cowee-school-17848180