Raven’s View

I remember thinking this time last year that there was no way in hell (or anywhere else) that an even harsher drought would take place in 2008.  Well I’m eating my words; this one’s a lot nastier.
I don’t truly know how to solve this problem; my best idea thus far is to get together everyone in Asheville & throw a huge rain dance rave on top of Black Balsam.  I’m not sure how the ceremonial gods will respond to techno though.  The one thing that everybody can do to help out is to cut back on water usage.  It’s not so bad if you just adopt my procrastinating college student mentality.  In fact, you could even think of it as a vacation from that state of professionalism that swallows us all up in the long run.   The best part is you get to do all this in the name of water conservancy.
1.   Wake up later.  Like, way later.  This way you’ll be rushed to take that morning shower.  Unfortunately, there won’t be enough time to sing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and rock the air-guitar solo with your shampoo bottle.  As long as you leave just enough time to brush your teeth, you’ll survive.

2.  Try to fade back to that Zen-like state of 5^th grade where mommy washed all your dishes (or in some cases that Zen-like state of 20 where you live with roommates who think still think detergent is an urban legend).  Just let them pile up & soak in soapy dish water while you’re out & about.  It’ll save some scrubbing time & a lot more water than it seems.  Besides, washing dishes by hand is a good stress-reliever.

3.  Jeans are good for like, four days straight; I promise.  Wash your

clothes sparingly.  They make hampers for a reason so why not let yours experience a full belly?  There’s no real need (other than perhaps compulsion) to wash everything like clockwork.  If you use that same college-aged dishwashing mentality I just brought up, you’ll see how nice it is to only run that washing machine when you need to.  (Your water bill will drop tremendously too.)

Well, whether or not you choose my method or a different one that makes more sense, the bottom line is that the drought is severe & we all need to actively make an effort to do what we can to keep WNC beautiful.  You can check out this article on the USGS site for more info on just how bad it is right now.  Just knowing that the French Broad’s stream-flow has never been this low since they started recording it 113 years ago gives me chills.

Here’s a picture I shot last summer at Lake Fontana; you can see how much lower the shoreline is than usual.  That’s last year, too; it’s currently a good bit worse.



While the residents of the Asheville area do tend to be more in tune with the environment than a lot of other places across the country, there is a general tendency within to population of the nation that has it all to forget just how important individual conservation is.  On behalf of the Nantahala Gorge, Slickrock/Joyce Kilmer wilderness, Panthertown Valley, the Davidson & the Pigeon, the Green River Gorge, & every last bit of gorgeous Western North Carolina that we all love, take it easy on the faucet.