Logging in Southern Appalachian National Forests

The U.S. Forest Service has proposed timber sales and other logging and road building plans that threaten thousands of acres in the Southern Appalachians. Especially at risk are mature, hardwood forests that contain

• unbroken wildlife habitat;
• headwater streams that feed drinking water supplies;
• and places beloved by hikers, anglers, and others who enjoy backcountry recreation.

SELC is challenging these projects to protect ecological and scenic treasures that are vital to the Southeast’s tourism industry and to our region’s natural heritage.

Georgia (Chattahoochee National Forest)

Keeping Forest Restoration Projects in Bounds. SELC is working closely with Georgia ForestWatch to ensure that forest restoration proposals in the Chattahoochee are legitimate and are not harmful logging projects in disguise. For example, we helped shape a five-year restoration plan that consists primarily of thinning thousands of acres of pine plantations and largely avoids healthy mature forests.

With the help of independent experts, we also convinced the Forest Service not to characterize a logging and burning project on Brawley Mountain as “restoration,” which would have set a damaging precedent for ecological restoration efforts on the Chattahoochee. 

We persuaded the Forest Service to reduce the overall scale of the proposal by about half, to avoid sensitive streamside areas, and to spare a century-old stand of oaks and other mature trees. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure that forest restoration is genuine and appropriate, and that important natural resources are protected.

North Carolina (Pisgah National Forest)

Globe Timber Sale: Safeguarding an Old-Growth Forest. The Globe Forest is one of the few places left in the East where it is possible to walk among trees more than 300 years old. It also forms part of a breathtaking view from the Blue Ridge Parkway, stretching out from Grandfather Mountain. SELC is shielding this natural treasure from the Globe timber sale, a logging plan that threatens a stand of old-growth forest—a rare and vanishing resource in our region. SELC has appealed the timber sale and has drafted legislation needed to obtain congressional protection of the Globe as part of what will be the Grandfather National Scenic Area. [Read more at Globe Timber Sale.]

Tennessee (Cherokee National Forest)

Hogback Project: Defending a Premier Wilderness Area. We and our partners have secured major improvements to this project, which focuses on a section of the Cherokee south of the Ocoee River in southeast Tennessee. The Forest Service has agreed to drop plans to cut new roads and expand openings in a forest tract that serves as a hikers’ gateway to the Big Frog Wilderness, one of the premier natural areas in the East. Our conservation partners have long advocated adding this border area to the Wilderness.

Beaverdam Creek: A Watershed That Deserves Protection. In 2007, forest advocates from SELC and our partner groups joined Forest Service rangers and local community members in northeast Tennessee to explore the watershed of Beaverdam Creek. Our goal was to help the agency recognize the special character of the watershed, which is home to a thriving native brook trout population and to nearly a hundred rare plant and animal species, and to focus future management on ecological conservation and restoration. How did the Forest Service respond? It proposed some 700 acres of logging, including cuts in areas now largely free from roads and other intrusions.

Flatwoods and George Creek: SELC Stays Vigilant. As a result of SELC’s legal action on behalf of Cherokee Forest Voices, the Forest Service scaled back its Flatwoods and George Creek timber sales to protect streams lacing the sites and to prevent encroachment on a backcountry recreation area. We also secured an agreement to conduct joint inspections to verify that protective stream buffers are maintained as the logging proceeds. SELC and CFV have conducted several of these inspections, which resulted in corrective measures and improvements that help ensure streams remain unharmed.

Rough Ridge: Forest Service Scales Back Logging Plans. The Appalachian Trail overlooks the project area for this timber sale, which targets the Laurel Fork watershed east of Johnson City. Part of the Watauga Lake Recreation Zone and the Laurel Fork Black Bear Reserve, the project site is bordered by the Dennis Cove Recreation Area, the Pond Mountain Wilderness Area, and the Slide Hollow Roadless Area. Although the Forest Service has refused to cancel the timber sale, as we recommended, it reduced its scope from the 725 acres originally proposed to 267 acres. It also has agreed to close roads cut for the project after logging is completed and again to participate in joint inspections to ensure that headwater streams and trout waters are protected. Nevertheless, the timber sale sets a troubling precedent for the future management of forest resources.

Virginia (George Washington National Forest)

Marshall Run Timber Sale: A Threat to Pristine Forestlands. SELC is calling for the George Washington National Forest to drop the Marshall Run timber sale, which targets 185 acres for logging in the mountains west of the Shenandoah Valley in Rockingham County. SELC commissioned an independent survey of the area, which found that rare stands of old growth (including trees well over 200 years old) occupy nearly 30 percent of the logging sites. Marshall Run is also part of a 14,000-acre, largely undisturbed tract known as Beech Lick Knob, which was recently identified by the U.S. Forest Service as a roadless area. Such pristine forestlands should be off-limits to commercial logging and related road construction. We asked the Forest Service to put this timber sale on hold until it completes its revision of the long-range management plan for the George Washington National Forest, which is scheduled to be issued later this year. In the plan revision, the agency is reconsidering the appropriate future management of Beech Lick Knob. Fortunately, the Forest Service has not moved forward with this logging proposal. The agency also proposed another timber sale in Beech Lick Knob, the Rocky Spur sale. The Forest Service has scaled back that timber sale to avoid logging in the roadless area.