Southern Forest Watch Fuels the Fire in the GSMNP

A number of months ago I interviewed John Quillen of Knoxville, Tennessee for an article I wrote about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park backcountry camping fee (the article will print in late fall). Quillen established Southern Forest Watch in response to the proposed fee – which is now official. Yesterday John sent me a follow-up to some of the organization’s work which included a fourteen page brief “outlining the deceptive practices of the leadership of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in deciding to charge backpackers for backcountry camping”.  You can find that document on the Southern Forest Watch website. For the record, I prefer to avoid choosing sides on the issue and to remain neutral in my reporting.

Here’s a clip from my story about Kathryn Newfont’s recent book Blue Ridge Commons in which she examines access threats to southern Appalachian forests. I wrote the story in the context of the GSMNP user fee.

That spirit to protect access to the waterways, coves, and ridges of the southern Appalachians may be playing out once again in a recent disagreement among some backcountry users of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) and its management. The GSMNP is one of the only major national parks that does not charge an entrance fee. However, in 2011, the park proposed a measure to begin collecting a permit fee and implementing a reservation system for shelters and backcountry campsites. By revamping the current backcountry reservation system and adding a fee, the park hopes to protect backcountry natural resources and improve visitor services, public education, and safety through a greater presence of rangers.

The proposal, which was opened to public comment, met with a concentrated and fierce backlash. Yet the fee is only four dollars and many of the sites in the backcountry already require reservations. So why the backlash?

“This is not about a four dollars fee,” says John Quillen of Knoxville, TN and frequent backcountry user in the GSMNP. Quillen established Southern Forest Watch – an organization created in direct response to the fee proposal. “The park is a church to me. It’s my sanctuary.”

Indeed, the fee proposal has smacked a nerve by conjuring up the fury tied to decades-old history of how the GSMNP and other public land units in the southern Appalachians were created in the first place. In all, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee combined have over 800,000 500,000 acres of THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN national park and over a million acres of national forest. “Many people lost their livelihoods when the park was created in the teeth of the depression,” says Newfont who published a book on the topic earlier this year, Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in North Carolina (Univ. of Georgia press).  “Against that backdrop, the sense of resentment and skittishness of new initiatives is understandable.”

So back to Southern Forest Watch’s legal brief on the fee.  One piece of their document that stands out is on page 12 involving a former Tennessee governor.  At the moment, I haven’t examined the sources of their information, however, it sounds interesting. Perhaps a future story on its own.

4. Political Patronage
Your efforts have not been related to serving we citizens. Your course of action has, for a long time, been exclusively to indulge, coddle and enrich the “politically fortunate” establishment. For instance, Ace Gap Trail is a backcountry trail that has existed within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for decades. The trail’s location has existed for decades. Please find enclosed a map from the Blount County Property Assessor’s office, which appears to reflect, among other things, that Ace Gap Trail encroaches on tract “1.13″. That tract is 20.33 acres.

In 2004, former Governor Sundquist acquired tract 1.13.

Soon thereafter, under pressure from former Governor Sundquist, you voluntarily and illegally diverted and rerouted Ace Gap Trail off of tract 1.13, further back into the park away from Governor Sundquist’s new home.

At the very least, that property became property of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by eminent domain decades before former Governor Sundquist even acquired the property in 2004. You gave him property that was a part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

During the discovery phase of the litigation, we expect to uncover agreements and conveyances. Also, a second FOIA request for that information is being sent contemporaneously herewith. You also closed at least two separate campsites that were apparently too close to Governor Sundquist’s property.

Cycle to Farm metric century inflates Black Mountain economy

This comes my way from Susanne Hackett of Pollinate Asheville. Check out her blog and website to find out about some of the cool initiatives her business is a part of.

Cycle to Farm is an annual charity metric century bicycle ride that supports local food, local farms and greenways through cycling and tourism.   At their first event on June 23, 2012, they supported Black Mountain Greenways.  They also estimate that the event brought $50,000 to the region.

For the complete blog post link here.

Blue Ridge Bike Plan

I’ve been reporting on the Blue Ridge Bike Plan – a seven county wide cycling transportation planning effort in western North Carolina. Here’s an update:

Launched last November, the Blue Ridge Bike Plan is moving closer to forming a seven-county cycling transportation network plan to help link important activity centers such as hospitals, schools, workplaces and shopping districts.

“The first few months of the planning process has really built momentum,” said Lyuba Zuyeva, a transportation planner with the Land of Sky Regional Council and member of the effort’s steering committee. The project, funded by a N.C. Department of Transportation grant, is focused on cycling condition and infrastructure in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Madison, Swain and Transylvania counties.

Link to the full story here.

1962 US Forest Service film on Weeks Act

I have fond memories of watching sleepy films in middle school science class with guys in lab coats and strange muzac in the background.  I just came across this film about the Weeks Act from 1962 that brought those old films to mind. The Weeks Act of 1911 gave the federal government the funds to purchase land from willing sellers to establish the national forests in the east.  The film is an interesting history of the forests in North Carolina (if you can stand the sappy music in the background). In fact the first acquisition under the act was an 8,100 acre tract in Curtis Creek which is near Old Fort east of Asheville.

 

Us Forest Service from appalachian on Vimeo.

Transportaion survey – complete and win $50 gift card!

Please consider completing this very important survey by August 20. You’ll be entered to win a $50 gift card, but more importantly you’ll generate vital information to improve western North Carolina’s transportation system.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?  The survey will help us develop opportunities and incentives for people who live in WNC to decrease their personal fuel costs by finding convenient, safe and flexible ways to find bikepool, carpool, vanpool and share rides to work, school, events and activities each day. With this feedback, leaders will be able to make more informed decisions about how to best serve those who live in and traverse WNC.  Let’s help them with feedback.

WHO’s DOING THIS? This survey gathers input from Buncombe, Haywood and Hendersonville residents about transportation needs around WNC.  The Land of Sky Regional Council and the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization are conducting this online survey about transportation issues and services in Buncombe, Haywood, and Henderson counties as part of the Long-Term Transportation Demand Management Plan.  The survey will take about 10 minutes.