ROADLESS AREAS & WILDERNESS

SELC is keeping chainsaws and logging trucks out of Southern Appalachian roadless areas. These wild public lands―723,000 acres in all―are our last, best hope of permanently protecting unbroken stretches of native mountain forest. For eight years, SELC and its partners held the line against commercial logging in our region’s national forest roadless areas, despite unrelenting attempts by the Bush administration to roll back federal safeguards. Now we are looking to the Obama administration and Congress to shield these undisturbed forest tracts―and others that should be added to the roadless inventory― from commercial timbering and road building. We are also working with Congress to establish new Wilderness and National Scenic Areas in the Southern Appalachians, providing the strongest possible protection for forestlands that contain unfragmented wildlife habitat, clear-running headwater streams, and incomparable backwoods escapes.