Globe timber sale (NC)
SELC and partners continue fight to preserve special area
©Jerry Greer
The view from the Blue Ridge Parkway into the proposed national scenic area, which SELC is working to spare from logging.
The U.S. Forest Service has rejected SELC’s appeal to refrain from logging in the Globe forest, an ecological treasure in the Pisgah National Forest near the resort town of Blowing Rock, in western North Carolina. But SELC and our allies are not giving up in our years-long effort to permanently protect this special forest as a national scenic area.
The agency first proposed to log 231 acres in the Globe in 2006, including some trees 300-years old or more. Reacting to pressure from conservation groups and the local community, the Forest Service reduced the logging project, but only by 19 acres. SELC appealed the decision in November 2007 on behalf of Asheville-based groups Wild South, the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, and the Western North Carolina Alliance.
©Jerry Greer
Though not as big as redwoods and giant sequoias of the west, old-growth forests serve a vital ecological unction in Southern Appalachian mountains.
The Globe’s old-growth stands provide a vital link in a larger complex of old-growth forest between Big Ridge and upper China Creek. Many species depend on these mature native forests for habitat, including black bears and the fast-disappearing Cerulean warbler. SELC, working with a team of experts, conducted an extensive field study and confirmed the existence of several stands of old-growth, with trees ranging from 130 years to over 300 years old, and some reaching four feet in diameter. Yet the Forest Service plans include logging in and around several of these stands, violating its own requirements to check for old-growth and analyze the impacts of logging on the resource.
In addition, the forest, adjacent to Julian Price & Moses Cone Memorial Parks and near Grandfather Mountain, is a popular recreational destination for locals and visitors alike, and provides a breathtaking scenic backdrop along the Blue Ridge Parkway and from Blowing Rock. The Blowing Rock Town Council, the Boone City Council, and the Watauga County Commission have all passed unanimous resolutions opposing the logging and calling for the creation of the Grandfather National Scenic Area. Since the logging was first proposed, the Forest Service has received over 1,800 comments from citizens, the vast majority of whom are opposed to any logging in the Globe.
In rejecting SELC’s appeal in 2008, forest managers said they will work with the conservation groups to find a solution that will address their concerns and the community's concerns. We intend to hold the agency to its word.
