Over 65 Years of Reporting
INSIDE
CLAR!ON\
Issue 1 BREVARD COLLEGE’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER October 6, 2000
Student Conservation Association... page 3
Ani Difranco.... page 4
Campus Voice on Voting... page 5
Campus Calandar... page 6
Classifieds... page 8
Volunteers “SWEEP” the French Broad
By Jarvis Broom
On Sept. 8 at 8:30a.m., stu
dents from Dr. Jennifer Frick’s En
vironmental class at Brevard
College and members of the
Brevard College coalition,
lead by Linda Helms, em
barked on an all-day 8-mile
river cleanup along the
French Broad River. The
“Big River Sv/eep” was spon
sored and organized by
Headwaters Outfitters.
Approximately 24
canoes were provided, 12
from Headwaters Outfitters
and 12 from Brevard College.
Brevard students were not the
only participants in the clean
up. There were also students
from Hendersonville High
School and other residents
from Hendersonville,
Brevard, and Asheville. All of the ca
noes were dropped along the river
where Headwaters Outfitters is lo
cated.
After the first four miles, ev-
to dump their first load of trash, where it would be impossible to get it out of cleanup, there was a cookout waiting
students that walked along the river the water,” said Troy. Two smallertires ^^}^grn at the Headwaters Outfitters,
banks would retrieve the trash and dis- were also found in the river, one of ^ygj- 300 pieces of trash
pose of it. Brevard College students which caused a canoe to flip over. collected from the French Broad
River.
“ I was impressed at
how much trash was in the river
considering that it had been
cleaned previous years,” said Dr.
Frick, Professor of Ecology.
Wilderness education
students Nancey Hutcheson and
Perry Hughes swept behind ev
eryone in kayaks to make sure
that everyone was safe.
“It was good to see a lot
of people with little experience
on the water having a blast and
taking care ofthe environment at
the same time,” said Perry.
Overall the “Big Sweep” was
a safe and successful experience for
everyone!
Contact Broom at
broomjl@brevard. edu
Photo by G. William Rickman HI
Troy Mathers and Jarvis Broom were However, all the tr^h that spilled ftom
the last ones to pull up during the first the canoe was gathered again.
SM due to a gigantie industrial wheel The second spot was the pull^
Stop aue 10 d g g canoes and
1 saw the industrial the rest of trash that was collected,
eryone pulled up b^anMrby bridge wheel, I thought it was stuck’and that Once everyone had fintshe
Monarch Butterflies:
Appalachian Almanac for the 16'-’ of September
, T- Tanada and sustain them,
tagged near To , ’ wintering locations are
was found, some weeks later, at a
winter roost in Mexico. How long
would it take you, a thousand tinies
larger than a butterfly, to travel that
same distance under your own
By Dr. Jennifer Frick
That most regal of butter
flies, the monarch, is a common
sight this time of year in the south
ern Appalachians. They are heading
south, to Mexico. Those of us along
their migration route may see
power'
tulip trees of our mountains on a cool
migration evening,
unique habitats. Monarchs in the If you get a chance to look
eastern part of North America closely at a monarch, you can tell
winter in the mountains of Mexico, whether it is male or female. The
There the perfect combination of sexes are patterned differently from
moist and cool, but not freezing each other, but the differences are
Monarchs accomplish this
" on
• ^ i 1 111 1 ^ 1 fc* 1.1 V/j j 1. w. V — - V —- »
hundreds gliding silently overhead impressive feat by “fueling up’;
on any day between mid-September j^g^tar of flowers. Just a itt e
and mid-October. sugary sap sends them on their way.
It is nearly unimaginable that they reach their destinations,
a creature so small, so fragile, should eat again until the next
be able to fly to Mexico, but ^p^ing, and rely on a store of fat to
millions do. One monarch was
conditions, allows the monarchs to
slow their metabolism and survive
without eating. They neither dry-out
nor freeze. They usually huddle
together in huge groups of hundreds
of butterflies, and I’ve even seen
them cluster together high in the
subtle. The black veins on the hind
wings of male butterflies are thin
ner than the veins of females. The
male also has a black spot in the cen-
MONARCH Continues on Page 7