Tennessee Wilderness
Coalition Seeks Congressional Protection for Almost 20,000 Acres
Senate Panel Approves Tennessee Wilderness Bill
Case Summary
Encompassing 640,000 acres in the mountains of east Tennessee, the Cherokee National Forest is a natural treasure chest. Its clear-running streams support some of our region’s last, best strongholds of native brook trout, and its footpaths, including the Appalachian Trail and Benton MacKaye Trail, make it a hiker’s paradise. In addition, the Cherokee's rich and diverse forest ecosystems provide habitat for 43 species of mammals, 55 species of reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of bird life.
Yet only about 10 percent of the Cherokee is officially designated as wilderness—the highest environmental protection for our federal public lands. This means that some of the premier natural areas in the Southeast remain vulnerable to logging, mining, and road building.
Protecting Pristine Places
SELC and a coalition of partners, Tennessee Wild, have launched a campaign to designate almost 20,000 additional acres of the Cherokee National Forest as wilderness. It would be the first new wilderness in Tennessee in 25 years. Because this requires an act of Congress, we are working with allies on Capitol Hill to ensure that the Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2010 is signed into law.
The bill creates one new Wilderness Area, the 9,038-acre Upper Bald River tract in Monroe County, and includes additions to five existing Wilderness Areas:
- Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock Wilderness (1,836 acres, Monroe County)
- Big Frog Wilderness (348 acres, Polk County)
- Little Frog Wilderness (966 acres, Polk County)
- Big Laurel Branch Wilderness (4,446 acres, Carter and Johnson counties)
- Sampson Mountain Wilderness (2,922 acres, Washington and Unicoi counties)
All of the pristine forest tracts in the campaign are recommended for wilderness designation by the U.S. Forest Service, which currently manages them as wilderness.
What is Wilderness?
Under The Wilderness Act of 1964, areas that receive wilderness designation by Congress are forever protected as wild places, free from timber harvesting and other resource extraction and untouched by new road development. They are open to all of us for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, horseback riding, wildlife watching, and many other activities.