• When: Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m.
• Where: Reuter Center of UNCA, 300 Campus View Dr, Asheville, Room 102 or online via Zoom.

Please join us Aug. 5 as we host RiverLink's leadership for a lively conversation about our region's flood resilience and streambank restoration efforts as we approach the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene. 

Renee Fortner and Lisa Raleigh will discuss some of the opportunities and challenges we face on our journey toward environmental and economic recovery, including examples of what we're doing well and where we're falling short amid our region's ever-changing, dynamic climate and landscape.

Renee Fortner is the Director of Programs at local environmental non-profit RiverLink. As an avid river paddler, gardener, and naturalist, Renee is continually reminded how the environment around us and our daily lives are affected by access to clean, abundant water. Through her role at RiverLink, she builds collaborative partnerships to address the impacts of climate change and human activities on our waterways and adjacent communities. Recent collaborative projects include converting an underused asphalt parking lot into a thriving wetland ecosystem on A-B Tech's campus and completion of the post-Helene Middle Swannanoa River restoration plan.

Lisa Raleigh, PhD is the Executive Director of RiverLink, a conservation organization celebrating 40 years of dedication to the environmental and economic vitality of the French Broad River watershed. A hydrologist by training and passionate nonprofit leader by calling, Lisa brings a lifetime shaped by the West — raised in Montana and spending thirty years in Colorado's high country. For the past five years, she has been honored to carry forward RiverLink's mission alongside the extraordinary dedication of its staff, Board and supporters — serving the French Broad River watershed and the communities along its banks, particularly during our region's ongoing post-Helene recovery.