Organic 101 Workshop Series

Each year the Watauga Cooperative Extension service offers Organic 101 a workshop series designed to help gardeners grow sustainably without the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Workshops are held at the Appalachian State University Teaching and Research Farm and Agroecology Laboratory located in Valle Crucis. Participants learn how to build and improve soils, design appropriate gardens for mountain landscapes and terrain, identify beneficial insects and pests and understand their dynamic interactions.

4-H Super Summer

4-H Super Summer kept us busy exploring the community as we dug into gardening, hunted for insects, explored science in the kitchen and more. We searched local farms for ingredients for pizza and made our own pizza from scratch (we did Not eat Alpaca pizza!). Playing in the river was one of our favorite things to keep us cool in the hot weather. We made our own lotion, experimented with homemade rootbeer, made seed balls, planted Tickle Me plants and many other fun things to keep us active and involved.

4-H Summer Camp

Watauga County youth attended 4-H camp at Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Center, near Reidsville, NC. They kept busy the entire week, canoeing in the lake, rock climbing, swimming in the new olympic sized pool, horseback riding and more!

Wetland Plant Walk

After a year of growing and the recent summer rains, the constructed stormwater wetland in Boone is starting to mature. Join us for a plant identification walk on Wednesday, August 25, at 6pm. We will meet under the pavilion and walk around the wetland discussing the benefits of wetlands and viewing the lovely blooming vegetation. Please email Wendy_Patoprsty@ncsu.edu to RSVP.

BigSweep River Clean Up 2010

Thank-you to all the volunteers who got stinky, dirty, and wet, picking up trash in the high country’s waterways in 2009. It is amazing what a group of people can accomplish in a few hours working together!

Volunteers set an all time record in 2009 with pounds of trash collected. 172 volunteers covered the river from Foscoe down to Guy Ford Rd in Bethel. Over 6,000 pounds of trash was extracted from the Watauga river and its banks. Everything from lawn mowers, car parts, bed springs, kids toys, construction materials, and of course a large volume of beer bottles and cans. Volunteers harvested 15 tires, some with the rims and hubcaps still in tact. The Riverkeeper and ASU Geography Club set up a Z-line to pull one of the tires out!

Watauga River Clean Up 2010 - September 25th
Contact Wendy Patoprsty at 264-3061 or Wendy_Patoprsty@ncsu.edu to volunteer!


The Watauga River is our playground all year long, from swimming and tubing to fishing, lounging, birding, wading, photography, boating, and much more. It’s disappointing to see so much trash every year, but it is awesome to see the volunteers getting out there and cleaning up.

The Watauga County Cooperative Extension would like to thank all of 2009 Watauga River Clean Up Sponsors, Partners, and Volunteers; River and Earth Adventures, Appalachian Angler, Watauga River Anglers, Foscoe Fishing Company, Upper Watauga Riverkeeper, Watauga River Conservation Partners, High Country Waste Solutions, GDS, PACT, Footsloggers, EarthFare, Mast General Store, Watauga County Sanitation, MountainKeepers, Watauga County DOT, Valle Crucis Community Park, ASU Outdoor Programs, ASU Geography Club, ASU First Year Seminar Students, Teaching Fellows, The Outdoor Residential Learning Community, The ASU ACT program, and many many more community volunteers.

Town of Boone Cistern

The Town of Boone Public Works Department (PWD) provides many services to town residents, including solid waste management, recycling programs, and street and facilities maintenance. Due to its high elevation, Boone is known for relatively harsh, cold winters and, on average, receives 102 centimeters of snowfall each year; therefore, snow and ice removal is a large component of the PWD’s responsibilities during the winter months. As part of their snow and ice removal process, the town of Boone applies a salt brine solution to roads before precipitation begins, which prevents ice from forming on the road surface. This brine solution is approximately 23% salt solution, or 6,000 lbs salt for every 2,000 gal of water. The PWD is responsible for approximately 80 mi of streets and 12 mi of sidewalk and uses an average of 50,200-60,760 gal of brine solution annually. In the spring and summer months, the PWD is responsible for maintaining town- owned landscapes, which includes irrigating flower beds and median strips, and periodic washing of vehicles and equipment is necessary for maintenance purposes. Approximately 30,115 gal of water is used for irrigation purposes during the non-winter months, roughly 35,900 gal is used for vehicle and equipment washing and about 59,970 gal is used for street sweeping and sidewalk washing.


The NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department received funding from a DENR, EPA 319 grant to install Rainwater Harvesting Systems (cisterns) as an innovative stormwater management practice in four cities across North Carolina. Boone was a recipient of one of the cisterns because of the collaborative efforts of Watauga County Extension and the Town of Boone. The cistern in Boone is buried about 5 ft in the ground for regulating temperatures and has a pump station to get the water where it needs to go. NCSU BAE has installed a data logger in the cistern to collect water usage data every 10 minutes.

This system provides water conservation, quantity and quality benefits for the Public Works compound. Over 31,000 gallons of stored rainwater was used in 2009 instead of potable water, saving approximately $242 per year. When this amount of water is captured instead of leaving the site as surface runoff, the amount of stormwater released to the drainage system is substantially reduced having a positive impact on local streams.