UNC-Asheville, the Asheville City Soccer Club, and the UNC Board of Governors want to destroy a rare 45-acre urban forest in North Asheville. This proposal is wrong and unconscionable on many different levels. In early 2025, a group formed called www.saveUNCAwoods.org, and we have been working non-stop to oppose the plan and advocate for a better alternative. (UNCA is my alma mater. I have lived next door to the university since 1994.)

I've started conducting butterfly surveys in the UNCA Urban Forest to record these magical creatures. We're losing insect numbers so fast that scientists have coined the phrase "insectageddon." I've seen it in my own yard and in the field. Insects make up the basis of our food web. Butterflies, in particular, captivate, charm and delight us as humans. Their numbers are dropping quickly and drastically. We're also losing urban forest faster than any other type of forest in NC.

Instead of leadership, UNCA and the Asheville City Soccer Club want to destroy something precious and irreplaceable. Friends, looking at butterflies is the best way I know to make my heart lighter in the face of so much meanness in the world. I wish I had learned to survey butterflies sooner in my life when we had more of them. What I can do now is record them and advocate for them to the best of my ability.

24 Butterfly species recorded in UNCA Urban Forest as of 9/23/25 (see table below):

Visit the iNaturalist project page for Biota of UNCA Urban Forest.

SAVE UNCA's URBAN FOREST