AWA, Riverlink and Blue Ridge RC&D members at site in Burnsville where Price and Cane creeks meet
By Emma Castleberry
The Appalachian Watershed Alliance (AWA) is a new collective working to restore the watersheds of Western North Carolina and implement regenerative practices across the region in the wake of Hurricane Helene and beyond.
AWA has rapidly become a hub for resource-sharing, community action and ecological expertise. “We feel grateful that we have been able to connect resources to those who need them,” says Heidi Zellie, director of operations, outreach and education for AWA. The organization connected a neighborhood in Marshall with a biochar kiln to help remediate its soils and has hosted multiple waterway clean-ups from Swannanoa to Burnsville. AWA is also planning an inaugural meeting in March with presentations by ecological experts, artists, scientists, politicians, grant writers and filmmakers.
From left, Wryn Magdalyn, Alanna Collins and Severan Johnson cleaning up Hominy Creek after Hurricane Helene. Photo by Heidi Zellie
Alyson Wade is the founder of The Farm Connection and WNC Grassroots Media, both of which are partners and members of AWA. “I know that no single organization can tackle the enormous watershed challenges ahead of us, and we will be stronger as a collaborative alliance,” Wade says.
“The alliance is leading the way into forward-thinking paradigms of abundance, where we don’t have to compete with each other anymore, and can instead realize that there is more than enough work and funding to go around for all of our organizations.”
Appalachian Watershed Alliance members after a clean-up of Hominy Creek.
Helene left our region with a number of environmental problems to solve, including soil runoff, landslides and pollutants from a variety of sources. While urgent needs abound in the wake of a natural disaster, the work being done by AWA can’t be pushed off to a later date. “There is an immediacy to the work of streambank restoration because the streambanks are ripe and ready for takeover by invasives,” says Wade. “If we can get to the streambanks before the invasives do, we can replant with natives instead.”
Sophia Rokhlin, an advisor to AWA, was drawn to the Alliance because of its commitment to collaboration. “Asheville is, in my experience, full of ecologically conscious individuals and businesses,” she says. “People live here by and large to appreciate the magnificent beauty of this region—its wilderness, its biodiversity and the communal values of its people. AWA offers us an opportunity to walk the talk and restore our watersheds through simple, humble, sustained collective coordination.”
Heidi Zellie. Photo by Alanna Collins
FASTROOTS, a technology partner of AWA, helped the organization set up its staff and volunteer communications as well as data collection for ongoing community engagement. They’ll continue to serve the organization with technology that will allow them to “publicly track their progress and utilize this data to facilitate consistent, individual, grassroots donations to further their mission to clean up WNC’s waterways,” says FASTROOTS co-founder Addison Fuller.
Zellie says the organization itself aims to mimic an ecosystem. “We wanted to be a place to weave people and projects together, and efficiently share these resources,” says Zellie. “We must recognize that everything is connected, a woven tapestry of mycelial networks, underground and above, aiding each other in health and bringing resilience. We are stronger together.”
Learn more and get involved at appawa.org.
