SELC Keeps Threat to North Carolina Forest at Bay

SELC and its partners have successfully challenged the Thunderstruck timber sale, a U.S. Forest Service plan to cut 330 acres of mature hardwoods in North Carolina’s Tusquitee Mountains about halfway between Chattanooga and Asheville. The proposed logging sites, part of the Nantahala National Forest, include stands of cove forest more than 100 years old.

In response to our appeal, the agency agreed with our argument that it failed to give full consideration to the environmental impacts and long-term costs of the four miles of new and restored roads needed for the project. Among other points, we emphasized that the roads would send polluted runoff into mountain streams, fragment wildlife habitat, and disrupt forest ecosystems.