Over the past couple of years, I've been reading news every now and then about the increasing importance of river cane conservation. The river cane in the Tennessee valley and western North Carolina in particular is being run out by the overgrowth of that invasive kudzu that is taking over the entire South. There are other factors too. It seems to be a slow process but its getting bad enough for ecologists to take active interest now. A lot of other life depended (already gone) or still depends on the river cane environment to survive.Here is a short article from last winter about what's going on. You'll also see an example of the uniquely beautiful river cane basketry on the same page.