The Times-News of Hendersonville reported (http://bit.ly/o7UqFn) that about 30 people attended a steep-slope forum on September 26, 2011.

This year, the N.C. General Assembly discontinued a program that funded landslide hazard mapping by the N.C. Geological Survey "a really short-sighted and terrible decision" by lawmakers, said D.J. Gerken, an attorney with the nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center. Gerken spoke during the steep-slope forum sponsored by the Environmental and Conservation Organization (ECO) at the Henderson County Public Library. Henderson County was the fourth and final county to be mapped before the program was pulled.

ECO plans to post on its website, www.eco-wnc.org, a general map that highlights high-risk areas.

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