The Spotted Owl of the South

In the 1990s, the spotted owl helped protect ancient redwood forests from destruction in the Pacific Northwest. What species best speaks for the South—now the most heavily logged region of the country?

I nominate the brookie.

True, a slimy brown fish may not be as sexy as a broad-winged owl gliding through the forest, but it's no less important for the long-term health of our forests and communities. The brook trout has long symbolized the natural beauty and abundant outdoors recreation opportunities in the Southern Appalachians. The native species, which survives only in the cleanest, coldest water, is also a symbol of water quality in our mountains.

Protecting native trout--and the mountain streams they inhabit--is a priority for outdoor enthusiasts in the Southeast. Logging creates sedimentation and higher water temperatures, degrading the long-term health of our water resources.

While brookie populations have declined dramatically, some of the last, best habitat is found on our public lands, including the Nantahala National Forest in southwestern North Carolina.Here, it's not logging, but illegal Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) use, that is destroying brook trout habitat on the Tellico.

Fortunately, the Southern Environmental Law Center has joined forces with conservation groups to ensure the Forest Service, which manages these lands, takes the necessary action to protect brook trout habitat. In particular, the agency has failed to enforce limits on off-road vehicle (ORV) riding in the upper Tellico River watershed, one of the largest and most heavily used ORV areas in the South.

Years of intensive use have severely eroded the trails, some to a depth of six and seven feet. There are twice as many Forest Service-designated trails as allowed by law, not counting innumerable illegal trails. Further, many trails are within 100 feet of trout streams, in violation of state and federal law.

With ORV use growing rapidly in our region, Southern Environmental Law Center is making sure the Forest Service knows that the law is unambiguous - water quality and mountain trout come first.

For more information about the legal action recently taken to protect the brook trout and the clear, cool mountrain streams of the Southeast, visit www.southernenvironment.org.

-Will Harlan

Don't Jump...at Summersville Lake

In our current June issue we told you about the cornucopia of cliff jumping options at West Virginia's Summersville Lake. The scenic craggy cliffs around the stunning lake have long been used for diving and deep water solo climbing by regional recreationists. Well, it turns out it has recently become illegal to take any sort of plunge into the lake. On May 25, after we had already gone to press, the Huntington West Virginia District of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers sent out a press release banning cliff jumping/diving on all district managed recreational property. Unfortunately Summersville falls into the district.

Citing 69 water-related deaths in the Huntington District since 1993 and seven in 2006 the release said, "Cliff jumping/diving is a reckless and potentially very dangerous activity that has always been strongly discouraged on USACE recreational projects. Recent water-related accidents and fatalities have prompted Huntington District to take the lead in prohibiting this activity."

Failure to obey these warnings could result in a penalty of up to $5,000 or even federal imprisonment.

Blue Ridge Outdoors will explore this issue more in a future issue, as Summersville access is sure to become a hot topic of interest.

Thanks to reader Spencer Ingram for the tip.

-J.F.

Saving Mills River

Yet another chunk of Western North Carolina wildlands is being threatened by developers, this time from a Hummer-driving "outdoorsman” who wants to turn wild rivers and 84 acres of forest land in the Mills River Recreation Area into housing with a fly fishing lodge.

The Hendersonville County Commission didn’t go for it, causing developer Kent Smith to withdraw his plans, but he will soon be back with a new proposal. Smith is chief executive officer and director of Global Development Resources Inc. His company has also developed Somersby Park in Laurel Park.

Smith obtained the land for about $2.1 million at a bankruptcy auction. One group has appraised the area at $4.6 million, but Smith says it’s worth even more than that because he can squeeze 86 houses on to it and because it’s nestled into the Pisgah National Forest. What he is not taking into consideration is the damage that would cause the rivers, the trout, and the forest. These world-renowned wild fly-fishing waters would no longer be wild. The attraction would be gone. So would the trout. So would the serenity.

“There is benefit to us in not developing it, and it would be a good thing to not develop it,” he says out of the side of his mouth. “I would still like to work something out, but it has got to be reasonably close to what we would make.”

What he WOULD make. It seems to me that he took a gamble on this property, assuming he could develop it into a housing community. What if I bought it, assuming that I would develop it into an amusement park with shopping mall? Wouldn’t that make even more money? I guess that means I could sell it for $20 million. A housing development is not feasible, therefore he cannot sell the land as if it could ever be a housing development. He made a mistake. That’s what he needs to tell his stockholders. Instead, he is asking conservation groups to pay the cost of his mistake.

Groups like the Mills River Partnership and Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy say they have made an offer based on an independent appraisal commissioned by both the developer and conservationists. However, Smith is not interested in what they have to offer.

“The people who wanted it to remain natural did not outbid me at the auction,” he told the Hendersonville Times-News. “I would say to some of the people that are going to show up at planning and zoning in opposition, they should make a contribution to the acquisition of it.”

In other words, he cares about money. He won’t even consider what is best for the land unless he is paid to do so, and he doesn’t want to hear what anyone has to say unless they have money.

There is undoubtedly a large population who would buy or rent houses in such an area and pay for fly-fishing tours. Those people would not know the difference between a wild river and one that has pollution leached into it from a septic system and housing development. They would stand in the stream with their fly rods, not catching the trout that are no longer there, quietly assuming that their guide sucked.

The outdoor community must remain vigilant, informed, and involved if we want to keep the Mills River Recreation Area and Pisgah National Forest the beautiful, fun and serene place that it is.

—Bettina Freese, Blue Ridge Outdoors contributing editor

It's a Family Affair

The Jackson Family is at it again, still dominating the world of rodeo kayaking. According to the website Paddling Instructor (www.paddlinginstructor.com), the Tennessee-based Jacksons took three podium spots at the Teva Mountain Games this past Saturday in Vail, Colorado.

For the third year in a row, three-time World Freestyle Kayaking Champion Eric Jackson, the father of the family, won the men's title, while his daughter, Emily, 17, topped the women's competition. Dane, 13, took third behind his father.

"Unbelievable. Last year, Emily and I had a great round and I thought that was about as good as it gets," Eric said.

-J.F.

The most important four letters in the South

LWCF.

Most folks have never heard of the LWCF acronym, which stands for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Yet LWCF has been the single most important way of acquiring public recreation lands over the past 40 years.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was established by Congress in 1965. The Act designated that a portion of receipts from offshore oil and gas leases be placed into a fund annually for state and local conservation, as well as for the protection of national parks, forests, and wildlife areas (LWCF does not in any way encourage oil and gas drilling, but simply ensures that a portion of the profits is used for buying public recreation lands). From local baseball fields to Yellowstone National Park, LWCF has enabled federal agencies to acquire nearly seven million acres of land and funded more than 37,000 state and local park and recreation projects. LWCF project sites in the Southeast include popular recreational areas as Harper's Ferry in West Virginia and the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta.

LWCF is authorized at $900 million annually, a level that has been met only twice during the program's history. Under the Clinton Administration, the LWCF was funded at $600 million. The Bush Administration has drastically slashed its funding to $59 million, the lowest ever in its 40-year history.

LWCF is particularly important for the Southeast, where significant population growth threatens the 25 million acres of forested lands within national forest purchase boundaries. The U.S. Forest Service ranks the Southeast as the area of the country that is losing valuable open space at the fastest rate and whose forest resources are most at risk. Here are more startling stats:

• The Southeast experienced the highest growth of any region in the country in the 80s and 90s, losing 6.5 million acres to development
• Of the 15 watersheds with the highest projected housing density growth, nine are located in the Southeast
• The Southeast produces the most timber in the country and has 89 percent of its forests in private ownership
• The lush Southeast contains some of the country's greatest biodiversity, including 1,208 vertebrate species, of which 132 are “of concern” and 28 are critically imperiled.

Despite the urgent need for more public lands in the Southeast, the Bush Administration’s 2008 budget recommendations contain no Southeastern LWCF projects whatsoever.

Fortunately, a new Congress and grassroots organizations are working for increased LWCF funding. Contact the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition or visit www.safc.org for specific ways that you can support increased LWCF funding and more public lands in the Southeast.

-Will Harlan

The Common Path

On Saturday my wife and I hiked 17 miles on the Appalachian Trail, just South of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. After a few consecutive weeks of running and mountain biking races, it was refreshing to spend a little time outdoors in a different spirit. Ideal 65-degree weather meant that others had hiking in mind, so we passed about a dozen people on the trail. What I appreciate about trail culture is that it blurs social lines. Even though the 12 people we passed didn't look like the folks that we hang out with on a Friday night, everyone of them stopped to share a friendly word. To be rude or indifferent, like we all are everyday on city streets, is seen as strange on the trail. We chatted with an elderly couple, two African American women, and a businessman, who took a week off to backpack an 80-mile stretch. The conversations were comfortable and preconceived notions seemed nonexistent.

It's probably the vastness and vulnerability, but something about being in the woods allows us to drop our competitive urges and inhibitions and just see each other as equals. It's a simple, unspoken phenomenon, but it certainly can restore faith in humanity.

-Jedd Ferris

Finally, A Good Air Day

This past Monday, April 2, was probably the best day for air quality since the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act. Two Supreme Court decisions handed down on Monday will have long-term, far-reaching effects on the air we breathe, and a third decision in a small mountain town reaffirmed that people working together are still more powerful than wealthy corporate polluters.

First, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gas emissions—like carbon dioxide from automobiles and power plants—can and should be regulated. For the past seven years, the Bush Administration has tried to avoid controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The Supreme Court smackdown finally acknowledges the U.S. government’s responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The decision ultimately will change the way cars are built, coal-fired power plants are operated, and energy is produced in the United States.

Hours later, the Supreme Court ruled on a South-specific case brought by Southern Environmental Law Center against Charlotte-based Duke Energy. The unanimous Supreme Court decision prevents Duke Energy from continuing to operate old coal-fired power plants without installing modern pollution controls. Duke Energy’s coal-burning plants—many of which were built 40 or more years ago, and each of which emits up to 10 times more pollution than a new plant—are the nation’s single largest source of air pollution. With our heavy reliance on coal-burning plants, the Southeast is paying a particularly heavy price in terms of health and environmental problems. More appeals and court battles will follow, but this precedent-setting Supreme Court decision has placed the South—and the entire nation—on a path to cleaner air.

A third clean air decision took place on Monday—not in the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court, but in the small mountain town of Woodfin, N.C. Another coal-burning energy giant, Progress Energy, had bullied a proposal to build an oil-burning power plant past the county board of commissioners, and all it needed was the rubber stamp of the tiny outskirts town of Woodfin. Courageously, the little town stood up to the big corporation and rejected the power plant. Citizens from all political and socioeconomic backgrounds came forward to oppose the plant, fiercely defending the health of their community. Even though the county commissioners had already acquiesced to Progress Energy’s big-money back-door deal, the seven-member Woodfin board listened to the concerns of the people and unanimously voted against the power plant. It was a rare and inspiring demonstration that democracy still works, and that a small Southern mountain town can make a big difference.

—Will Harlan