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Environmental theologian Julie Lehman is the MountainTrue Creation Care coordinator. Based in Asheville, she works with church congregations to improve their environmental stewardship. Creation Care Alliance

MountainTrue Creation Care Alliance fosters faith-based environmental stewardship

ASHEVILLE — Julie Lehman is shepherding positive change across the Southern Appalachians. 

“(Creation care) is a beautiful trend in faith communities, and kind of a new ministry in faith communities because it hasn’t been one of the staples of ministry work that churches do,” said Lehman, engagement manager for Creation Care Alliance. “People are really having fun with creation care, adopting it as one of the essential callings that faith communities have to do in the world.”

Creation Care Alliance (CCA) works to connect faith-based communities in the region to environmentalism through the religious concept of creation care. Creation care can be loosely defined as the practice of engaging in environmentalism through a religious lens – for example, planting a pollinator garden at a place of worship, or cleaning up a stream with a church group. 

In many rural or isolated American communities, churches are still the center of life. The Southern Appalachians are a strong example of this. Lehman is based in Asheville, where the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene opened doors to her modern ministry practices. The devastation waged on both land and lives marked a crossroads in the climate change debate for many who were affected.  

“Hurricane Helene really helped people to see that you can’t go to one place to be safe from the impact of climate change and that the climate change debate seems to be less (of) a debate,” Lehman said. “I’m sensing a real strong readiness on the part of the people of faith that I work with. People are fully engaged and wanting to tie in what they naturally want to do to help nature with their faith.” 

Paddlers observe contractors hired to clean up Hurricane Helene debris in a stretch of the Little Tennessee River that was largely spared the ravages of the storm.  Angela Martin/MountainTrue

Tell Army Corps, county officials to stop deforestation and river disturbance on the Little T

This editorial was provided by MountainTrue.

FRANKLIN, N.C. — The Little Tennessee River is home to 100 fish species alone — some found nowhere else in the world. The river and its adjacent greenway are also a beloved recreational resource for Macon County residents and tourists alike. But over the past few weeks, the banks of the river have been under assault by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors, removing hundreds of trees, many of which were still alive. Take action now to prevent further damage to the river!

While large-scale debris removal continues to be a high priority in many parts of Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Little Tennessee River did not experience those same impacts; it saw only normal flooding. Apart from a few localized areas, like the Cullasaja River across from Walmart, there is no need for disaster recovery-type debris removal in Macon County waterways. And yet, contractors started near Tryphosa Road in Otto and have been working their way down the river, removing trees and debris from the river channel and banks in areas where no flooding impacts occurred. 

EPA should take over water protections in face of hostile legislature

Gray Jernigan is deputy director and general counsel for MountainTrue.

RALEIGH — MountainTrue is committed to safeguarding the public water resources of Western North Carolina. Our mission to protect the health of our waterways and the well-being of our communities has never been more critical. However, the obstacles we now face have made it clear that the state cannot meet its obligations under the Clean Water Act. 

Therefore, MountainTrue has joined the Southern Environmental Law Center, Cape Fear River Watch, Environmental Justice Community Action Network and the Haw River Assembly in filing a formal petition asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw North Carolina’s authority to regulate water pollution. This action is necessary because the state legislature has crippled the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s ability to protect our waterways, drinking water sources and communities from harmful pollution.