Upper Chattooga Management Decision

Here’s the decision by the USFS to manage the Upper Chattooga. The recommendation from July was “Alternative 12”. However, the USFS has chosen a new decision: “Alternative 13A”.  Later this year, South Carolina Wildlife will be publishing my reporting about the upper.

(Columbia, S.C.) Jan. 31, 2012 –U.S. Forest Service officials today announced final decisions on managing recreation in the upper segment of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River (WSR) Corridor. The decisions include new opportunities for boating in the winter and early spring between Green Creek in North Carolina and Lick Log Creek in South Carolina. Current management, or not boating, will be maintained year round between Lick Log Creek and Hwy. 28, an area that includes the popular Delayed Harvest, a highly valued trout fishery. The three forest supervisors in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia based their decisions on a new Alternative 13A that the agency developed in response to public comments received last summer, as well as additional analysis.

“Our decisions protect a variety of existing, high-quality recreation experiences, offer new whitewater boating opportunities and use season, reach and flow restrictions to minimize potential conflict between the two,” said Paul Bradley, forest supervisor for the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests in South Carolina. “Boaters will be able to float in the winter and early spring in areas and at a time when high flows are most available and predictable, and when traditional use is low.”

“Allowing boating in the Nicholson Fields would introduce unacceptable levels of conflict,” said Bradley. “And that’s something we’ve worked extremely hard to avoid.”

Although the forest supervisors have made their decisions, boaters won’t be able to float right away.

“Now that we’ve made our decisions, we have some work to do before boaters can float the upper river like printing boater permits, installing permit boxes, finalizing supervisors’ orders,” said Bradley. “We expect boaters to be able to float no later than early to mid-March.”

The forest supervisors’ decisions also take management actions that will protect the upper segment of the Chattooga WSR Corridor for future generations. They establish new visitor capacities to maintain existing opportunities for solitude, as well as protect the river’s outstandingly remarkable values—biology, history, scenery, recreation and geology and preserve the wilderness character of the Ellicott Rock Wilderness. Other actions include maintaining the current prohibition on commercial boating and boating in the tributaries on the upper segment; preventing large woody debris removal without agency approval; and redesigning, relocating or closing some trails and campsites and maintaining sustainable ones. In addition, the agency will continue to monitor visitor use and its impacts.

The agency’s decisions have been seven years in the making, during which time many individuals and organizations haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on how to manage the upper segment of the Chattooga WSR.

“The other forest supervisors and I hope today’s decisions will bring closure to the differences many folks have had over how this precious, valuable resource should be managed,” said Bradley. “We’ll be seeking public input on implementation in the near future. When we’re ready for additional input, we’ll make an announcement. We are hopeful this will provide an opportunity to bring everyone together with a common goal of protecting the Chattooga River for enjoyment by future generations.”

Information related to managing recreation uses in the upper segment of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River Corridor can be found on the web at http://fs.usda.gov/scnfs.

Red’s not dead, says Dr. Dan

I’ve enjoyed blogging mostly as a means to an end. It’s been great for me to keep track of some of my writing projects; I’ve found blogging to be a great organizing tool.  Typically, I think I’ve kept my personal/political views to a minimum so I can report on issues from an unbiased perspective. That said, this one is tough to resist. I hope that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents can all agree that NC District #11 U.S. Congress candidate, Dr. Dan Eichenbaum, is a bit bananas.

A couple of excerpts From Dr. Dan’s e-mail newsletter:

Dr. Dan Eichenbaum condemns sustainable development.

The elimination of private property ownership in all forms is the cornerstone of Marxism and its plan for a one-world collectivist tyranny. Socialism, Communism, and the Marxist agenda are not dead. They did not disappear 20 years ago when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated. Instead, Marxists realized that they could defeat us from the inside by destroying our moral integrity, the family unit, and using the environmental movement to destroy our industrial base.

Agenda 21 is the weapon Marxists have chosen to create a socialist, redistributive society. Under the guise of “sustainability”, America would lose her sovereignty to a one-world government run by self-appointed elitists, shielded by the banner of the United Nations. Confiscation of private property would force all human beings to live in prison-like high-rise cubicles in “smart” urban zones. All aspects of our lives would be closely monitored and strictly regimented.

Viva la revolucion Comrade Dr. Dan! Hasta la victoria!

Blue Ridge Bike Plan underway

Take a look at my reporting on the Blue Ridge Bike Plan in Carolina Public Press.

 

 

Smokys Backcountry Fee Opposition

Here’s a link to Southern Forest Watch – a group opposed (see image below) to the proposed backcountry camping fee in the Great Smoky Mountains N.P. Thanks John Quillan for the link.

I might also suggest visiting Hiking in the Smokys blog  for a reasonable discussion on the topic of the fee.

There are no facilities in the Smokies Backcountry.  No bathrooms, picnic tables or water fountains exist.  Just a spot on the ground. We want to keep it that way, not  “improved”  by the Government. Southern Forest Watch

Stolen Turbine

This rusty old turbine was uncovered recently along Hominy Creek in West Asheville. It was part of a century old dam that electrified, I think, the trolley and a long gone resort. Now, it’s part of a future greenway system. Unfortunately, the super heavy piece of iron was snagged sometime over the weekend. I suppose it’ll catch about $50 at the scrapyard. The goal of greenway developers was to include in some sort of tribute to times past.

Hemlocks in the park

Earlier this month I posted on a hike on the Boogerman Trail on the NC side of the Great Smoky Mountains N.P. That’s an area hit pretty hard by the adelgid – particularly along the Caldwell Fork Trail. Here’s a recent article that appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel on 1-18-12 by Rebecca Williams

The hemlock woolly adelgid is a destructive, aphid-like insect pest of the eastern and Carolina hemlock. Originally from Asia, it was first discovered in the United States in the 1920s and spread to East Tennessee in 2002.

The adelgid attaches itself to the needles of the tree and feeds on new twig growth, eventually killing the needles. Heavily-infested trees die within four years.

Hemlocks are often called the “redwood of the East” because they can grow to more than 150 feet tall and measure six feet in diameter.

ATBI in GSMNP

Here’s a sneak peak at an intro to my article about the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory underway in the Great Smoky Mountains N.P. This story will appear in the spring in AT Journeys magazine – a publication of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Let me know what you think so far.

If spiders and other tiny crawlers unnerve you then take heed: experts have accounted for over 500 varieties of spiders and more than 100 types of millipedes and centipedes.

And that’s just in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP).

Add to that 900 species of flies; 2,500 kinds of beetles; and hundreds of other strange beings and you get a sense of just how expansive the web of life inside one of the most diverse ecosystems in North America. In fact, the exact number and scope of living species in the park is not so easy to peg. Not just because of the sheer number that is estimated to be in excess of 100,000 species of living organisms – but because so many of them – such as the 460 types of bacteria – are invisible to the naked eye. And the fact that most of them have yet to be discovered.

Despite the evident challenges, scientists, the National Park Service, and amateur naturalists are hoping to count them anyway. Every slug, slime mold, and stonefly at a time. Their effort to catalog all that lives in the park is known as the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI).  Launched on Earth Day in 1998, the ATBI is a co-project of the GSMNP and Discover Life in American (DLIA), a non-profit based at the park’s Gatlinburg, Tennessee headquarters that is dedicated to the project’s management.

While actually doing it may seem as ludicrous as counting blades of grass in your front yard; experts say it’s well worth it. From their vantage, tallying the number of obscure beings may have implications far beyond their diminutive stature: such as revealing methods to safeguard threatened habitats to managing the Appalachian Trail to protecting endangered species in the nation’s most visited national park.

Yet aside from the question of its significance is a more pressing one: how to do it. “That’s a question I hear pretty often,” admits DLIA executive director Todd Witcher.

NC Parks impact

Here’s reporting from the Asheville Citizen-Times on North Carolina state parks.

Last year, the place to be in North Carolina, apparently, was in the NC state parks.

According to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, visitation at North Carolina’s state parks and state recreation areas continued at a record level in 2011, with 14.25 million visits, matching the all-time record set in 2009 and posting a slight increase from 14.19 visits in 2010.

Among 39 state parks and state recreation areas, 15 reported increases in attendance in 2011. Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County reported the highest attendance at 1.32 million visits, down slightly from 1.47 million last year.

“State parks make a strong contribution to North Carolina’s tourism economy as well as to the economies of local communities in which they’re located,” said Lewis Ledford, director of the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation.

“Their continued record attendance reflects the value that North Carolinians and visitors to this state place on outdoor recreation and our natural resources. In addition, families continue to benefit from the affordable recreation and education opportunities in these special places.”

A 2008 economic study revealed that travelers spend an average of $23.56 a day to enjoy the state parks. The analysis by North Carolina State University’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management estimated the state parks system’s total annual economic impact at more than $400 million.

 

 

 

 

If your interested in supporting the DLIA – here’s a great way to do it: go to their conference this March.  Go to their website for more info: dlia.org

The keynote speaker is Edward O. Wilson – that’s a pretty big score. And really a great match given the scope of the bio-inventory in the park. Here’s his profile from TED.com

One of the world’s most distinguished scientists, E.O. Wilson is a professor and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard. In 1975, he published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis,a work that described social behavior, from ants to humans.

Drawing from his deep knowledge of the Earth’s “little creatures” and his sense that their contribution to the planet’s ecology is underappreciated, he produced what may be his most important book, The Diversity of Life. In it he describes how an intricately interconnected natural system is threatened by man’s encroachment, in a crisis he calls the “sixth extinction” (the fifth one wiped out the dinosaurs).

With his most recent book, The Creation, he wants to put the differences of science- and faith-based explanations aside “to protect Earth’s vanishing natural habitats and species …; in other words, the Creation, however we believe it came into existence.” A recent documentary called Behold the Earth illustrates this human relationship to nature, or rather separation from an originally intended human bond with nature, through music, imagery, and thoughtful words from both Christians and scientists, including Wilson.

You might also check out this profile from the Guardian.

 

 

ATBI in jeopardy

Check out this link to a story about the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) from the Knoxville News-Sentinel republished in the Asheville Citizen-Times.  I’m covering the ATBI story for the Appalachian Trail Conference’s magazine. Until I did a previous story in August for Warren Wilson College’s alumni magazine, I hadn’t heard of it. That seems to be a big problem for them right now – getting the word out to increase their funding. I’d hate to see this project go away – however, given it’s scope I can see the challenge of trying to gather the funds – particularly in grim economic times as these.