Lawsuit saves important area of North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest

Thanks to a lawsuit from the Southern Environmental Law Center and a coalition of conservation groups, the U.S. Forest Service scrapped plans to recklessly log an important area of North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. 

In January SELC, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Chattooga Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, MountainTrue, and Sierra Club, sued the Forest Service over the agency’s plans to log near the Whitewater River. The ecologically important area sits above stunning waterfalls, boasts towering trees, and shelters rare plants in a unique, wet microclimate.  

Because of the relentless efforts of SELC and its partners, the Forest Service itself had reluctantly recognized this area’s importance by designating it as a “Special Interest Area” in the recently published Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan. Destructive activities, like commercial logging and roadbuilding, are significantly restricted in Special Interest Areas. 

Yet despite recognizing its exceptional ecological value and stunning beauty, the Forest Service nevertheless decided to move forward with heavy logging in the area as part of its controversial Southside timber project. The Southside project conflicted with the agency’s own promise to protect the area, undermined one of the few things its new Forest Plan got right, and violated federal law. 

It’s a shame we had to take the Forest Service to court to achieve this outcome, but we’re glad this incredible place is no longer on the chopping block.

Patrick Hunter, Managing Attorney

The lawsuit prompted the Forest Service to abandon its logging proposal. In exchange, the coalition of conservation groups dismissed the lawsuit. The agency announced it stopped its logging plan for the area less than six months after the lawsuit was filed.  

“We have been pointing out problems with the agency’s logging plans for this area for years. It’s a shame we had to take the Forest Service to court to achieve this outcome, but we’re glad this incredible place is no longer on the chopping block,” Patrick Hunter, Managing Attorney of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Asheville Office, said. “Unfortunately, the new Forest Plan sets us up for more of these conflicts in the future. National forests in western North Carolina—and the people who enjoy them—deserve better.”