The Southern Appalachian Creature Feature is a broadcast partnership between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and WNCW, a public radio staton broadcasting from Isothermal Community College in Spindale, North Carolina, on the air at 88.7, and on the internet at www.wncw.org.

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Available podcasts

Muddy Sneakers program aims to get kids outside
A new program in Western North Carolina, Muddy Sneakers, is an effort to get kids outside throughout the school year to learn science, language arts, math and other subject by studying the natural world. Listen.

Botanists blitz area cliffs for rare plant
A team of botanists from across the Southern Appalachians join in an effort to document spreading avens, a rare plant found on some of the roughest terrain in the region. Listen.

Endangered Species Day
To mark Endangered Species Day this year, biologists with the Asheville Field Office joined students from Mountain Heritage High School on the Toe River in a search for the endangered Appalachian elktoe. Listen.

Toe River Valley River Trail
A local watershed group in the Toe River Valley is working to create a river trail that will give boaters easy access to rivers of the Toe River Valley in North Carolina's Yancy and Mitchell Counties. Listen.

Sicklefin redhorse conservation
State, federal, tribal, and private biologists have all come together in an effort to improve the plight of the rare sicklefin redhorse fish, hopefully keeping it from being listed under the Endangered Species Act. Listen.

Virginia spiraea search
A recent search along the Little Tennessee river for the threatened Virginia spiraea plant turned up a happy discovery. Listen.

Water Quality Woes
Recent incidents - one on the Cane River in Yancey County, the other on the Davidson River in Transylvania County, highlight the fragility of our water quality. Listen.

Kids outside
There's a growing conern in America that children are spending less and less time outdoors, and that this will have a negative impact, both on their health and well-being, and on how they view and value the natural world on which we all depend. Listen.

Goats aid in the conservation of one of the Southern Appalachians most important areas
Roan Mountian, on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, is home to a concentration of imperiled plants and animals and a conglomeration of every high elevation natural community found in the Southern Appalachians. However, some of those communities are threatened by the growth of woody vegetation, something a herd of goats might help change. Listen.

Dam removal in the Toe River Valley
The Cane and North Toe Rivers, each in the Toe River Valley of Western North Carolina, are both saddled with decrepit dams which are slated for removal. Listen.

Emerald ash borer
As the emerald ash borer, an exotic invasive insect that kills native ash trees, spreads around the Great Lakes, land managers in the Southern Appalachians take steps to safeguard their forests. Listen.

White nose syndrome
Bats are dying in the Northeast, struck by a mysterious affliction biologists are calling white nose syndrome for the tuft of white that often appears around the muzzle of the infected bats. Listen

Freshwater jellyfish
Commonly seen off Southern beaches, few realize that there are freshwater jellyfish in the Southern Appalachians, perhaps in your favorite swimming hole. Listen.

Saving, and improvinig, a Hendersonville wetland
Plans to build a retirement community in this Western North Carolina town touched off the ire of local wildlife enthusiasts, until the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service helped broker a deal that would improve and permanently protect part of the adjoining wetland. Listen.

New floodplain maps for Western North Carolina
The new maps of Western North Carolina floodplains have been unveiled. Listen.

Bringing water conservation into the home for winter
While many water conservation techniques focus on outdoor uses of water, such as watering lawns and gardens, many steps can be taken indoors to help ease the demand on strained water supplies. Listen.

Planning for growth in Haywood County
As many communities wrestle with development and its impacts to precious natural resources, Haywood County, North Carolina, is becoming proactive, looking into the future to help determine what their community will look like in the coming years. Listen.

Didymo
An algae long known from the northern latitudes is being found in places never-before seen, like New Zealand and the Southern Appalachians. Why is this algae spreading so aggressively and what does it mean for our streams? Listen.