The University of North Carolina at Asheville
05/08/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/08/2025 07:23
Community Takes Root
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UNC Asheville students had the opportunity to take their ecology knowledge out of the classroom and put it toward a great cause - helping repair the landscape of Asheville, their college home, after Hurricane Helene.
Experiential Learning in Ecology, taught by Lecturer Ashley Case, takes environmental science students into the field to apply their learning to local environmental issues like riverbank repair.
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The Swannanoa River, a major tributary of the French Broad River that flows from Black Mountain to the Biltmore Estate, crested at about 27 feet during Helene. The floodwaters did immense damage to the communities along the river, the surrounding vegetation and riverbanks.
Ian Miller, student and Asheville native, said doing work that connects his education to the local community means the world to him.
"Having that human connection and understanding how you're helping the planet truly is quintessential in our effort to aid society in any way that we can. This class absolutely helps me put faces to issues," Miller said.
"We're getting this beautiful network and connections with people that can get us deeper within affected communities. That's extremely important for the future."Group Title (Optional)
One group of students planted whips, bundles of live willow tree branches that will hopefully take root and provide stability to the stream bank. Another group used shovels and clippers to clear away tangles of long branches and exposed root systems, revealed when flood waters tore away the topsoil, and made way for new planting.
As students remove the debris, a stream bank in deep disrepair is uncovered. Instead of a gentle slope to the water, the land cuts away steeply, with no vegetation to hold the sandy riverbank in place.
Even above where the river bank was cut into, there's immense damage - downed trees with root systems exposed, still-standing trees with uncomfortably bent branches - all of it coated with dried down mud deposited by the flood waters. The dirt is visible on tree trunks as high as 20 feet up, marking the water level of the Swannanoa during the storm.
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Students clear debris from the riverbank.
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Students and a RiverLink team member haul away large peices of debris washed up by Helene.
The class partnered with RiverLink on this project. RiverLink is currently hosting two Americorps members and receives grant funding from The Community Foundation of WNC, The Center for Native Health, and the James G.K. McClure Education and Development Fund for their Adopt-a-Stream program.
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The area of the river the students are working on is about 75 feet long and right behind the house of Bill Punshon '71 and his wife, both UNC Asheville alumni. Punshon got into contact with fellow alum Renee Fortner '06, director of programs at RiverLink, a local nonprofit focused on the conservation of the French Broad River and its watershed.
Punshon said the river rose a lot faster and came closer to his house than he ever thought it could. He is incredibly thankful for the amount of work done by RiverLink and the UNC Asheville students in just an afternoon, but emphasized that the landscape is severely altered.
"Used to be, I had to stand in just the right place in my driveway to see the river but now, you can see it all the time. It was incredible just how much water was there," he said. "It's not going to be back to what it looked like in my lifetime, I don't think."Group Title (Optional)
"Environmental science, especially at UNC Asheville, is very much about the application of our current ecology knowledge to help current and future generations," Miller said.
The long-term effects of environmental repair underscores the importance of doing work like this now.
"If you don't do this, invasives come in. But a lot of non-native, invasive species have shallow root systems, they deplete the soil of nutrients," Case said. "It's important to get in here and do this proactively rather than having kudzu, bittersweet, or any others take over."
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Once the stream bank is cleared of debris, the students used shovels to reshape the bank into a gentler slope and spread a mixture of hay and native riparian grasses and flowers.
To hold the seed mixture in place, they rolled out coir, a woven matting made from biodegradable coconut fibers, and staked it down with hardwood eco-stakes. Repairing the riparian zone, the area between land and a river or stream, is crucial to preventing erosion, filtering pollutants and sediment out of the waterways and improving soil quality.
Throughout this process, students gain skills, hands-on experience, and the chance to learn from experts in the field - all part of preparing them to be career-ready after graduation.
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Students use shovels to reshape the bank from a steep drop off to a gradual slope.
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Coir, a woven mat made of coconut fibers, is laid to help keep the newly reshaped bank in place.
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A native wildflower and grass seed mix is spread with hay to help re-establish vegetation along the bank.
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Biodegradable matting is put over the seed mixture and hay to hold it in place.
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"It really does just feel like I'm getting kind of like a sample platter of a lot of different things I could do with my degree and with the knowledge I'm gaining," said student Zach Grady.
While they build up their community, students also get to build their network of professional connections, becoming familiar with organizations like RiverLink and Americorps as they partner with them on this project.
"It's incredible to work alongside Ashley and the people from RiverLink. They're just all these knowledge sponges," Grady said.
"For me, it shows there is a legitimate career in this field, going into restoration of rivers and wetlands."
The University of North Carolina at Asheville published this content on May 08, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on May 08, 2025 at 13:24 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at support@pubt.io