ASHEVILLE, NC.— More than 14,000 objections were filed against the federal plan for the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, marking the highest number ever received by the United States Forest Service for such a plan. .
This record-breaking number of protests highlights widespread opposition to a plan that seeks to quadruple logging in the most visited national forest while reducing protections for its most important conservation and recreational areas.
The forest plan is a blueprint for forest management for the next three decades. This is a map that determines which parts of the forest will be harvested and which will be protected. The Pisgah-Nantahala Forest Plan proposes to open more than 60% of the forest area to exploitation over the next 30 years.
“The Forest Service had an easy scheme, but they completely missed the perimeter,” said Dr. Jeffrey Graham, an Asheville physician and mountain biker who opposes the plan. “Fortunately, there’s still time on the clock to fix it.”
Many organizations and individuals, including thousands of forest users, more than 100 businesses and dozens of organizations, have raised their objections, including the Center for Biodiversity.
In addition, city officials of Asheville – the largest and most populous city in the Pisgah-Nantahala region – have opposed the plan because of its failure to protect the ancient forests and popular trails only 15 miles from the city center. Buncombe County also opposed the forest plan because it failed to protect the proposed Craggy National Scenic Area, which has a view and headwaters of the Ivy River, the city’s source of drinking water for the town of Weaverville.
Recently, the Center released a report card of the plan, which gave a bad score in most categories because of inadequate forest, wildlife and recreation protection.
“The public outcry has sent a clear and strong message that the Forest Service needs to protect this forest,” said Will Harlan, a senior campaigner for the Center. “Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest is worth far more than being cut down.”
Other forest plans have received only a handful of objections in recent years. For example, New Mexico’s Cibola National Forest Plan received six objections last year. Only one objection was leveled against South Carolina’s Francis Marion National Forest in 2017. Alaska’s Chugach National Forest received 46 objections in 2019.
In addition to the unprecedented number of protests, Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest also received a record 22,000 public comments as the plan was being drafted, with more than 92% in favor of strong forest protection measures. than. More than 10,000 of these comments supported full protection of the proposed Craggy National Scenic Area.
But the final plan issued by the Forest Service instead pursued its own agenda, quadrupling the timber harvest and weakening protections for the 1 million-acre forest – and places 4,000 acres of the proposed Craggy National Scenic Area in the highest priority mining designations.
The 60-day protest period ended yesterday and the Forest Service now has three months to resolve objections.
“This 1 million-acre national forest belongs to all of us,” said Emily Diznoff, a trail runner and one of 14,000 opponents of the forest plan. “The public has said loudly and clearly that they want to see more of the protected forests. We hope that the Forest Service is listening. ”
The Southern Environmental Law Center, Wildlife Defenders, Friends of Big Ivy, Wildlife Society, Keepers, Save the Ivy River and MountainTrue also oppose the plan. Student organizations from UNC-Asheville filed protests, as did hiking groups and coalitions of scientists and health professionals.
