Tag Archives: North Carolina

Smokies add 2 new beetles, canopy cages in fight against hemlock adelgid

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Knoxville News Sentinel 5/20/2013
Excerpt:      “COSBY, Tenn. — At the eastern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, not far from Cosby, Tenn., are three 25-foot-tall hemlock trees enveloped in nylon that appear out of nowhere like circus tents in the middle of the forest.

They’re called canopy cages. Six years ago the University of Tennessee and the U.S. Forest Service tested them at Blackberry Farm in Blount County, and now they’re being employed in the Smokies to help control the hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny, nonnative insect pest that has been killing the park’s hemlocks for more than a decade.  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/may/20/smokies-add-2-new-beetles-canopy-cages-in-fight/?partner=RSS

Changing recreational habits challenge forest service

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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

Public forest users flock to meeting on plan revision

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Hendersonville Times News 3/19/2013
Excerpt:      “BREVARD — More than 130 sportsmen, environmentalists, Boy Scouts and other forest users crowded into the Rogow Room of the Transylvania County Library on Monday to help the U.S. Forest Service map out a management plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests.
The meeting was the fifth — and best attended so far— of six district meetings the Forest Service is holding in ranger districts across the region to collect information about the current state of the public forests and what changes citizens want to see over the next 15 years.  …..”
Read entire article at http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130319/articles/130319813?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar

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

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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

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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

Tennessee mountains on top-10 endangered list

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Knoxville News Sentinel 2/7/2013
Excerpt:     “The mountains of Tennessee rank among the most endangered natural areas in the Southeast region, according to a report released Wednesday by an environmental organization.

The Southern Environmental Law Center’s annual list of the top 10 endangered places in the Southeast for 2013 cites mountaintop removal in Tennessee and Virginia as one of this year’s most pressing environmental concerns. Also on the organization’s list of trouble spots is the proposed Corridor K highway project that potentially would realign U.S. Highway 64 through the Ocoee River gorge in the Cherokee National Forest.   …..”

Neighbors fired up about Linville Gorge burn plan

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Winston Salem Journal ; 1/10/2013
Excerpt:      “Neighbors are aflame over a U.S. Forest Service plan to burn more than 16,000 acres in and around the rugged Linville Gorge Wilderness of Burke and McDowell counties.

The low-intensity fires would burn brush that could otherwise fuel a full-blown wildfire, the service says, and benefit native plants that rely on regular blazes. Lightning fires once struck the gorge every few years. Now they’re often human-caused and snuffed out.   ….”

Read entire article athttp://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/article_c25021ac-5b30-11e2-9fd8-0019bb30f31a.html

Conservationists alarmed by Forest Service project

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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

Forest farming key to saving wild ginseng from extinction

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Hendersonville Times News 12/9/2012
Excerpt:       “MILLS RIVER — For generations, Appalachian residents have harvested ginseng roots as a source of extra income. Often, whole families would search the woods each fall for the distinctive three- or four-pronged plant and the lucrative roots lying beneath its yellow leaves.

Today, ginseng is so prized in the Orient for its medicinal properties that poaching and overharvesting of the plant by collectors threatens to wipe out wild Appalachian ginseng from North Carolina’s forests, experts say.    ……”

Read entire article at http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/HT/20121209/ARTICLES/121209833/1187/news100?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar

Comment sought on proposed Linville Gorge burn

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Asheville Citizen Times 12/9/2012
Excerpt:       “ASHEVILLE— Hoping to avoid another catastrophic wildfire in the Linville Gorge Wilderness and improve overall forest health, the U.S. Forest Service plans to beat fire at its own game with a prescribed burn.

But some nearby homeowners and those who enjoy recreation in the gorge are rallying against the burning plan.   The Forest Service is now in a scoping period where it is seeking public comment for an environmental assessment through Jan. 15 for the Linville Gorge Prescribed Fire Project.     ……”

Read entire article at http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20121209/OUTDOORS/312090078/Burn-proposed-Linville-Gorge?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage|s