Volunteers needed for Kids in the Creek

Kids in the Creek is putting out a call for volunteers for events on Sept. 11-12.

Wish Haywood Waterways a happy 25th birthday

Help Haywood Waterways Association celebrate its 25th birthday with trivia and reminiscing 2-5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, at BearWaters in Waynesville.

Dialing down the risk: Haywood Waterways hopes to reduce future flood risk with grant

OO Over the next two years, Haywood Waterways Association will implement a $2 million grant aimed at protecting Canton, Clyde and Cruso when the next flood comes. The grant is by far the largest in Haywood Waterways’ 25-year history.

Help restore Allens Creek

Help make Allens Creek healthier with a stream improvement project noon to 4 p.m. March 29-30, and possibly Friday, March 31, in Waynesville. 

The project will take place at BearWaters Brewing’s new location in Hazelwood at 1940 Main Street. It includes two phases, the first of which is livestaking, which will take place on the work dates this week. Live stakes are branches of trees cut while trees are dormant and planted directly in the soil, where they develop roots and grow into new trees. 

The second phase, in May, will involve planting native plants and trees, helping create a more diverse ecosystem while also stabling the streambank and reducing pollution entering Allens Creek. 

Haywood Waterways Association is partnering with Spriggly’s Beescaping to complete the project. Volunteers are invited to come anytime, even just for an hour, and should bring a good pair of boots, hammers or rubber mallets, gloves and clothes that can get dirty. For more information, contact Caitlin Worsham at 828.476.4667, ext. 12 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Haywood Waterways director moves on

Nearly two decades ago, Eric Romaniszyn joined the nonprofit world as the new project manager for Haywood Waterways Association .

Winner announced for Kids in the Creek shirt design

Waynesville Middle School student Kate Clark is the winner of this year’s Haywood Waterways Association Kids in the Creek T-shirt design contest, meeting success at her first try entering an art contest.

Keeping the river clean: Adopt-a-Stream volunteers keep litter out of Haywood’s waterways

It’s a sunny, abnormally warm October afternoon, and Tom Anspach is ready to meet it with a canoe on the Pigeon River.

But Anspach, accompanied by 19-year-old Josh Arford, isn’t there to paddle for miles or fish for trout. He’s there to fish for trash.

Cherokees and rivers: Water a centerpiece of Cherokee culture

out frJust like Haywood County’s watershed, fed by springs that all have their start inside county borders, Cherokee mythology surrounding places in Haywood is all about beginnings.

“All of the Cherokee myths and legends here in Haywood County are about origins,” Barbara Duncan, education director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, told the crowd gathered at Haywood Waterways Association’s end-of-year banquet last week. “This is a fascinating parallel to me with the geography.”

All about the water: Adults get creek-splashing in inaugural waterways education event

out frThere’s excitement in the air as the class, its members scattered across the Pigeon River under cloudy skies in Canton, hunches over the water in an enthusiastic search. Slightly encumbered by awkwardly bulging, oversize wader suits, class members turn over rocks, shuffle their feet across the river bottom and generally stir things up to flush any nearby aquatic creatures into their waiting nets. 

Haywood Waterways Association has provided this education program year after year for eighth-graders in Haywood County, but on Sept. 24, the class wasn’t composed of over-energetic teenagers.

Turning away the invaders: Natural stream banks key to healthy waterways

out frTake a walk in mid-May, and you probably won’t get far before finding somebody bent over a garden bed, weeding. Eric Romaniszyn and Christine O’Brien were doing just that on a warm Thursday afternoon, but they weren’t in a garden — they were on a stream bank. Specifically, they were on the bank alongside Richland Creek at Vance Street Park in Waynesville. 

“We try to take every little piece out,” Romaniszyn said, yanking a clump of Japanese knotweed roots out of the dirt and stowing them in the trash bag by his side.

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