January 25, 2006
NC BEAUTIFUL ANNOUNCES ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH SCHOLARS

Four UNC Asheville Students Receive Research Funding for Environmental Stewardship

January 25, 2005 (Raleigh, NC) - NC Beautiful and UNC Asheville are pleased to announce that Ezra Cates, Erin Lee McDonald, Johanna Kate O’Briant and Dawn Reardon were recently named NC Beautiful Undergraduate Environmental Research Scholars. Each student designated as an NC Beautiful Scholar receives a $3,000 or $4,000 scholarship.

Students at UNC Asheville, each of the 2005 fellows are engaged in a research project with the potential to improve the environment of North Carolina.

“These are talented students in a field that supports the NC Beautiful mission of positively impacting the environment of our state,” says Jane Rogers, NC Beautiful managing director. “We are proud to assist in their education as well as where their environmental studies will take them next, whether to the professional world or graduate school, as they are our state’s future environmental leaders. Their research will discover new avenues by which we can make North Carolina a healthier, more beautiful place to live.”

The students and their areas of study include:
• Ezra Cates of Chapel Hill, NC is researching water pollution
• Erin Lee McDonald of Concord, NC is researching greenhouse gas emissions
• Johanna O’Briant of Brevard, NC is researching the effect of riparian zone width on soil microarthropods
• Dawn Reardon of Hudson, NC is researching the wooly alder aphid in the Wetlands Mitigation Bank in Graham County.

The NC Beautiful Undergraduate Environmental Research Scholars program is currently offered to Environmental Studies students at UNC Asheville, due to the strength of this department and quality of the teaching staff. The funds are designed to support a student’s tuition fees, room and board so they can more effectively concentrate on their area of study. This is the fifth year the fellowship has been awarded to UNC Asheville students.

ABOUT NC BEAUTIFUL
NC Beautiful is a non-profit environmental education organization interested in protecting North Carolina’s natural beauty and good environmental stewardship. Governor and Mrs. Dan K. Moore founded it in 1966. Governor Easley serves as honorary chair of the Board of Directors, which is comprised of volunteers from across North Carolina. NC Beautiful sponsors other programs to promote beautification and stewardship. It also provides $1,000 incentive grants to teachers and $10,000 research fellowships to graduate students studying environmental sciences at North Carolina universities, and manages a research-focused scholars program at the undergraduate level. For more information about programs in which your community, schools, and citizens can participate, contact NC Beautiful at PO Box 10155, Raleigh, NC 27605; call 919-828-3028; or e-mail ncbeautiful@bellsouth.net.