Ron Moser

Partial Transcript: My name is Ron Moser. I've lived here since '79. I moved up from eastern North Carolina. I worked for the US Department of Agriculture. I was District Director for what was Farmer's Home Administration and now is USDA Rural Development.
So that's my background as development and granting money as well as writing and observing what was going on in the community and try and help them go in the right direction as far as development.

Partial Transcript: Well because of my position, the Vice President from back then—CP&L came to Haywood County and said, "Look this is part of the licensing agreement. We're going to create the Pigeon River Fund."
And so he called me and several others together and said we need to form an organization or a group that will take the time and the effort to take advantages of this funding because it's a real opportunity for Haywood County.

Partial Transcript: Well, I—it started as just a loose group of people in about '95, and after a couple of years, the different members of the organization used their specific agencies whether it was an extension department or an RC&D Council.
And they did their little projects, but it soon became evident that we're going to have to have some kind of staffing, some kind of organization where somebody can really devote the time that was needed. So about that time, I had to retire from the Federal Government because of four back operations and I couldn't continue in my career. So I agreed to get more involved and eventually, I became the first hired hand. I was a project coordinator. Since I worked with a lot of non-profits in my job, I wrote the bylaws, and the articles of incorporation and basically took us to the next step.
Initially, it was just sort of a think tank, but it became evident to me that for us to secure funding beyond the Pigeon River Fund which they allowed to pass through grant, through the RC&D Council, but for us to really pursue funding in a big way we had to have 501c3 tax exempt status. So I did the paperwork to get us incorporated then wrote the 501c3 application, and we got it, and we took off running.

Partial Transcript: Well, you can hardly live here and not be pretty passionate about the environment. This place is glorious. I didn't get here until I guess I was around twenty-eight or it was twenty-seven, twenty-eight. But I love to fish, trout fishing, camping, outdoor activities, and there is no better place than Haywood County.
So I have a, I guess a personal interest in it. Plus, I think it’s a—I know water is a critical resource that we absolutely cannot take for granted as some people have. It used to be the sewer system. And that can't—and fortunately doesn’t go on much anymore, at least not legally.

Partial Transcript: Well, we work very closely with TVA, and I have to give them a lot of credit for helping me get going with the organization. I was very fortunate in that I had a terrific board of directors. Very—very talented people like (???) (Bill Acre) and several others who had the resource background that I didn't really have.
I had the management, the money management background, the numbers crunching so that sort of thing. I was a good manager, but they were the—the idea people. They had the ideas.
00:04:37 So TVA came in, and they really took a liking to us, and they helped us through our Technical Advisory Committee.
And it just seemed like we all just really worked well together. We respected each other, and we took off. The Technical Advisory Committee came up with quite a few different projects. One of our biggest—I guess the biggest dollar program was the Higher Creek Restoration.
And that was an effort to get that off the states 303(d) Impaired Waters list which fortunately we were able to do so. We got a little over half a million dollars, I believe from EPA.
And then there was some state money, and we partnered with the Soil and Water District. They did a lot of the technical stuff. Again, I did the money managing and the grant writing and that sort of thing. So that was a big project from the standpoint of getting something off the ground and making a real difference in water quality.
Kids in the Creek has always been one of my most favorite things that we do. We work with TVA. We brought it—actually, we brought it from North Carolina. We were the first people that did it and went over so well that I worked from '98 to 2008. So I worked ten years, and by the time I had finished up my stent as Director we had, I believe it was about sixty-five, sixty-six hundred kids that had been through the program for about twenty-eight thousand hours of construction.
So the educational aspect of it was important for us to develop a rapport with the people and the community. I think any kind of new environmental organization, the people were a little suspicious, to begin with, but they saw that our hearts were right, and we did not point fingers at people.
We knew from the Technical Advisory Committee and the people that were on it, what the major problems were. And I guess probably all of North Carolina it is sedimentation. So a lot of our on-the-ground projects were tailored for sedimentation reduction. And that was a big problem in Higher Creek plus Lake Junaluska has to deal with tremendous expenses to clean out sediment every year.
So the education, the projects, we also did quite a few publications. We did a twenty-seven-page newspaper magazine that went out through the local newspaper to fifteen thousand plus subscribers. And so we had a bunch of different articles. We also did a water—wrote a Watershed Action Plan for Haywood County that EPA used as a national model.
They invited us to Atlanta to present it. So we've had some really top-notch people. So maybe with some good luck, but we've had people that really—really cared. And they weren't in it for anything other than altruistic purposes of; let's protect our water, let's educate our kids, they are going to be the next leaders of the community. And let's work with people.
So the purpose of getting the money is not necessarily for us but to have it to help a community that does have a problem to help them resolve it. It's easy to tell somebody, "You need to restore the streambank," but it’s a whole lot harder to tell it to them when you say, "Well it's going to cost about $250,000 to do it."
So that's some of the major things that we've done. And I'd say, Kids in the Creek and the Higher Creek Project are two of the most important or had the most impact overall in Haywood County.

Partial Transcript: Well, development creates disturbed soil, and then mountain rains cause run-offs. So the combination of the disturbed soil before the project is completed. And then once it's completed, you have impervious surfaces.
So you have more run-off and addition the sediment that comes off let's say a building site or a collapsing streambank. When you increase the volume of water and the velocity, you can really damage and blow out a stream, and that's what I've seen.
And that was part of the problem at Higher Creek is tremendous streambank problems. So I'm lost on that question. Take me to the next one. (laughs).

Partial Transcript: Well, we've worked very—very closely with the Haywood Soil and Water Conservation District. Resource Conservation and Development Council, RC&D Council.
The extension services, Haywood Community College has been great to work with us, particularly the Kids in the Creek program. The fish and wildlife people, US Fish and Wildlife, TVA they've all been very—very supportive of us, and we've gotten tremendous coverage through the newspapers and television. The newspapers have been very—very good to us.
We've had very—very good media coverage. We've had a good working relationship with the newspapers and TV. And they've really supported us and supported our efforts. And we've tried to stay away from controversies and you know we're not bomb-throwers, and we're not looking to point fingers and create problems for people.
Our philosophy has been; well, if there is a problem, talk to the person. And most people want to do the right thing, they really do. And so then we tried to help bring money to the table and the technical expertise through the Soil and Water District and others in the community and help them get the job done. So it's not a huge financial burden to the family, because streambank, particularly streambank restoration is very—very expensive. And that is a big source of sedimentation.

Partial Transcript: Well one of the projects we did with TVA was, the acronym is IPSI, Integrated Pollutant Source Identification and so with that, we wrote a Watershed Action Plan for Haywood County. And as a result of that database, we were able to identify areas.
So we then went to see—we knew certain segments of the streambank were in really bad shape. And one farmer comes to mind, and he was thrilled to be helpful, so we went up to Fines Creek and helped him restore his streambanks and create an area that wasn't going to erode. Where his cattle could feed and not create a mud spot.
We also had stream crossings. A big section of this creek here, Richland Creek right above the golf course was eroding terribly into the fairway. So we were able to repair that with a variety of grant funding. So we've done a lot of projects that in my opinion have made a real difference beyond just talking about it.
It's important to raise public awareness, but it's also important to try to get some projects on the ground and make a difference.
But the bottom line is that the one thing that I think we're known for and everybody that's worked with Haywood Waterways has always been fond of is Kids in the Creek. When you see the excitement and you see the feedback that you get from these kids or I'm wearing one of my Kids in the Creek T-shirts somewhere and a kid comes up to me and says you know they're in their late twenties, their thirties and they come up to me and say, "Hey that was the coolest thing I ever did in school, was Kids in the Creek. I really loved that program".
It makes you feel good. You know you've done something, and we've literally talked to eight or ten thousand kids probably by now. It's grown a lot since I worked here.

Partial Transcript: Well, I just hope that Haywood Waterways can continue the success it's had as we increase awareness, people tell their neighbors.
We've worked with a lot of contractors. There's a (???) (Clearwater Contractor Program) that we helped sponsor for Haywood County and quite a few contractors I think are much—much more aware of erosion control on their construction sites.
So I hope we can continue to as we develop, do it wisely. To be mindful of staying off areas that shouldn’t be built on because of topography or landslides and things like that. And all that information was in that IPSI project. So I hope that we can continue to develop responsibly and keep teaching our kids that this is their water, and this is their future. And water is a precious—precious commodity.