Alair Homes announced a five-year environmental stewardship commitment with the Watauga Riverkeeper Thursday. To celebrate the launch, teams from both organizations worked together, planting native trees and live stakes in the wetlands on The Middle Fork Greenway. The Greenway, a multi-use recreational trail, is being developed to connect Blowing Rock to Boone.
“We have a unique opportunity to use our collective voices to influence others to create a cleaner, more sustainable environment,” said Whitney Brown of Alair Homes Carolinas. “This positive environmental impact, while seemingly small in scale, would be the first step to fostering better habits and, in turn, influencing others to live better. Change starts with us, as individuals, working together with local partners like the Watauga Riverkeeper.”
Brown shared that sediment pollution is one of the top reasons for poor water quality in North Carolina and construction sites are currently the number producer of sediment pollution throughout the southeast. “Alair Homes is working hard over the next five years to change that statistic and to help educate others on how they can better protect our waterways,” she added.
Live staking, using woody plants, is a method of repairing stream banks using native tree cuttings to revegetate the riparian buffer. The riparian buffer consists of trees, shrubs, and grasses alongside stream banks. “The trees we planted today will be three feet tall in no time,” said High Country Regional Director and Watauga Riverkeeper Andy Hill. “It is a supercharged really effective way to plant trees. This is a really great option when building a custom home. Often, during construction, many trees are removed. This is one way the homeowner can put a little local flair into a project while helping the environment,” he added.
“As builders, we take out a lot of trees,” Brown said. “I don’t know that many of us stop and think about maybe we should actually plant back some of the destruction that takes place in the construction industry,” she said. “It’s really important for us to know that so much of the pollution in the waterways comes from construction that we try to educate ourselves but we also take the time to actually correct part of the problem.”
The Watauga Riverkeeper is a program of MountainTrue’s High Country Office and a proud member of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Alair Homes High Country is a Custom home builder located at 109 Aho Rd #3, Blowing Rock, and is owned by Jeff Smith.
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