Category Archives: North Carolina News

News about National Forest and other environmental issues in North Carolina

Changing recreational habits challenge forest service

Posted on by
Reply

Smoky Mountain News 3/27/2013
Excerpt:          “The painstaking process of outlining a clear mission for the U.S. Forest Service and how it will manage its expansive public lands in Western North Carolina and the varied — and sometimes competing — interests of the people that use them has begun. Once completed, the new plan will serve as a reference for the coming 15 years on any major decision made about the Pisgah and Nantahala forests in regards to protected wilderness areas, logging, mountain biking, fires, hiking, hunting and more.  …”
Read entire article at http://www.smokymountainnews.com/outdoors/item/10038-changing-recreational-habits-challenge-forest-service

Editorial: Burr right to be on bill to guarantee funding to conservation fund

Posted on by
Reply

Winston Salem Journal 2/24/2013
Excerpt:       “

In an era where bipartisanship on national issues is rare – particularly when it comes to the environment – it’s encouraging to see Sen. Richard Burr join with Democrats as well as Republicans to sponsor legislation to protect funding for parks, open lands and wildlife areas.

Sen. Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced legislation last week that would fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund was created 50 years ago by President Kennedy as a way to protect public lands, including national parks, forests and wildlife refuges.  …..”
Read entire editorial at http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/editorials/article_62ab51bc-7e1d-11e2-a271-001a4bcf6878.html

Trail triage? Tough choices ahead as forest service weighs 1,600 miles in trail plan

Posted on by
Reply

Smoky Mountain News 2/13/2013
Excerpt:        “For the past year, the National Forest Service has been taking inventory, collecting public input and meeting with outdoor interest groups to wrangle its expansive web of nearly 1,600 miles of trail in the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests into a better, more sustainable network.

This month, the forest service will share its preliminary assessment from the “Trail Strategy Initiative” with mountain residents.   …..”

Read entire article at http://www.smokymountainnews.com/outdoors/item/9840-trail-triage?-tough-choices-ahead-as-forest-service-weighs-1600-miles-in-trail-plan

Conservationists alarmed by Forest Service project

Posted on by
Reply

Hendersonville Times News 1/5/2013
Excerpt:       “A proposed logging project in Pisgah National Forest is raising red flags for local conservation groups and some recreationalists who say timbering threatens a significant natural area, scenic views, water quality and cultural resources.

The U.S. Forest Service wants to spend about $660,000 to log roughly 450 acres in the Courthouse Creek drainage of Transylvania County, reconstruct 15 miles of old roads and thin another 330 acres with herbicides and hand tools to favor the growth of young oaks and hickories.    ….”

Read entire article at  http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130105/ARTICLES/130109859?p=all&tc=pgall

Help plan future of national forests

Posted on by
Reply

Asheville Citizen Times 11/25/2012
Excerpt:     “ASHEVILLE— Chris Strout loves mountain biking the gnarly, speedy, single-track trails of the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests near his home.

But the president of Pisgah Area SORBA (Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association) wants to make sure those trails, and the rich and scenic forest resources surrounding them, will be there for his young children when they are grown.

To this end Strout, Pisgah Area SORBA and many others with an interest in plotting the future of Western North Carolina’s national forests, will take part in the first phase of the three-phase process of revising the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests Land and Resource Management Plan.  … …”

Read entire story at  http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20121126/OUTDOORS/311260014/?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|HOMEGARDEN

Public-private partnership helps restores hundreds of acres in Grandfather Ranger District

Posted on by
Reply

Mountain Xpress; 11/14/2012
Excerpt:     “Kristin Bail, forest supervisor of the U.S. Forest Service National Forests in North Carolina, today announced that a coalition of conservation organizations helped to restore hundreds of acres across the Grandfather Ranger District by treating invasive plants and performing other work over the past six months.

Partners conducted the work as part of the Grandfather Restoration Project, a 10-year project designed to restore 40,000 acres of the Grandfather Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest.    ……”

Read entire article at http://www.mountainx.com/article/46840/Public-private-partnership-helps-restores-hundreds-of-acres-in-Grandfather-Ranger-District

Forest leader spent life in woods

Posted on by
Reply

Asheville Citizen Times 9/26/2012
Excerpt:   “ASHEVILLE — With the official arrival of fall, new U.S. Forest Service supervisor Kristin Bail is in the throes of one of the busiest tourist seasons in the middle of some of the busiest forests in the nation.Based here, Bail, 46, began her position as the new supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service in North Carolina in May and is now in charge of overseeing 1.25 million acres of forest service land in four national forests — the Nantahala, Pisgah, Uwharrie and Croatan — and some 200 employees from the mountains to the sea.   …”

Read entire article at http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120926/OUTDOORS/309260026/New-Forest-Service-head-love-here-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage|s

Chattooga ruling draws anger

Posted on by
Reply

Asheville Citizen Times 3/17/2012
Excerpt:   ” In an angry and epic tug-of-water war, environmental organizations and a collective of boater groups filed appeals challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s decision earlier this week to allow limited paddling on the Upper Chattooga Wild and Scenic River.
After a 36-year boating ban on a 21-mile stretch of pristine river with headwaters in the Cashiers area of Jackson County, the U.S. Forest Service announced Tuesday that it would open the waters to non-motorized boating December through April at high rates of water flow……”
Read entire article at http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120317/OUTDOORS/303170033/Chattooga-ruling-draws-anger

Grandfather District gets $605K from USDA; Restoration project one of only 10 funded across country

Posted on by
Reply

Asheville Citizen Times; 2/6/2012
Excerpt:   “A surprise announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will allow John Crockett, Grandfather District Ranger, to speed up improvement of forest health by setting prescribed fires and beating back invasive plants and bugs.
The district in the northern reaches of Pisgah National Forest was one of only 10 forests in the country awarded a windfall late last week for restoration work.
The Grandfather Restoration Project will receive $605,000 through the USDA’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration program, which awarded $40 million in funding for forest and watershed restoration projects nationwide for the upcoming year……
Read entire article at   http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120206/OUTDOORS/302060032/Grandfather-District-gets-605K-from-USDA

Upper Chattooga River in N.C. now partially open to boaters

Posted on by
Reply

Ashevilel Citizen Times; 2/2/2012
Excerpt:   “ASHEVILLE— Boaters are back. At least for a few months out of the year.
A U.S. Forest Service decision decades in the making now allows canoeists and kayakers partial access to the Upper Chattooga River, where boating has been banned since 1976.
But the announcement Tuesday received little more than a lukewarm response from paddlers and other river users.
“This is a better bad decision, a variation on the same unjustifiable theme,” said Kevin Colburn, national stewardship director for Sylva-based American Whitewater. “I’m not impressed.”…….”
Read entire article at  http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120201/OUTDOORS/302010027/Upper-Chattooga-River-N-C-now-partially-open-boaters