About Heather
Heather Rayburn of Asheville, NC, is an avid butterflyier and native plant gardener. In July 2024, she joined the board of the Carolina Butterfly Society and became the Western North Carolina chapter coordinator.
Heather is also a member of the North American Butterfly Association and a volunteer with the Carolina Butterfly Monitoring Project.
She's worked as a reporter, environmental advocate, and freelance writer. She also spent 10 years at a native plant garden. Heather is married to Ben Gillum and is also crazy for her wonderful nieces, friends, neighbors and dogs. This is her personal website and many of the pictures taken come from her own yard.


Heather earned her BA at UNC-Asheville (Mass Communication with a minor in Management, Mass Communication Student of the Year Award) and her MS from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (Public Relations with an emphasis on environment), Mass Communication Graduate Student of the Year Award.
As an environmental activist, she worked on the Save Our Slopes campaign to advocate for steep slope development policy; Save Asheville's Water, to stop a state power-grab of the Asheville water system; Solarize Asheville; Save the UNCA Urban Forest, to stop the university from paving a forest; and she helped stop Progress Energy (now Duke) from putting an oil-burning plant on the French Broad River. She also served on the steering committee of Mountain Moral Monday.
© 2024 Heather Rayburn all text and images