By Si Cantwell, Star-News, Wilmington, N.C. Apr. 17--Tracy Skrabal keeps a pair of muddy boots perched in her office so she can grab them as she heads out the door.

By Wade Rawlins, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Apr. 13--Todd Miller spent his boyhood wading in Bogue Sound with a net, looking through the clear water for blue crabs skittering along the bottom.

By Kristin Davis, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. May 27--Science students at Manteo Middle School helped turn two rather unattractive detention ponds into rain gardens last fall. They planted flowers and bushes and trees with names like aster, silky dogwood, red chokeberry and seashore mallow.