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Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Area (NC/TN): Factsheet
Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Area (NC/TN)
Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Area (NC/TN): Background
In October 2008, a federal judge granted SELC’s motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by ORV user groups against the U.S. Forest Service. As a party to the suit, SELC, on behalf of our partners, sought to ensure that the agency takes full and appropriate actions to protect water quality in the Tellico watershed.
Legal History
For many years, Trout Unlimited and others have met with the Forest Service to negotiate ways to protect the Tellico watershed while allowing for ORV use. By the agency’s own estimate, some 74,000 tons of sediment have washed off the ORV trails into streams over the years, a primary factor in the decline of native brook trout in the area. Nonetheless, the USFS failed to take necessary steps to achieve the right balance between ORV use and environmental protection.
In May 2008, the ORV user groups sued the Forest Service for closing trails. SELC, on behalf of our partner groups, filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit, which was granted in October 2008. The four-wheeler groups voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit the following month.
A Resource at Risk
Muddy runoff in the Tellico watershed is devastating one of the last, best habitats for brook trout, a native species in decline in North Carolina and Tennessee. The Tellico area, located in the Nantahala National Forest in the headwaters of the upper Tellico River, is one of the largest and most heavily used ORV destinations on public lands in the Southeast. Intensive use has turned many ORV trails into massive ditches, some more than seven feet deep. In wet conditions, these eroded trails send muddy water directly into nearby creeks and streams, degrading water quality and destroying habitat for brook trout and other aquatic life.