High Country Press
2.13.08
Opinion piece by Mark Kirkpatrick of Boone, NC
I am responding to an editorial by Mr. Seehorn, retired U.S. Forest timber program biologist from Gainesville, GA in several local papers. Mr. Seehorn, in his editorial about managing the Pisgah National Forest/Grandfather Ranger District, called groups of environmentally concerned lawyers and other professionals “radical preservation oriented groups.” I would call Wild South and Southern Environmental Law Center two groups that want to ensure there remain pockets of protected forest areas for future generations. They are certainly not “radical,” in what sounds like Bush speak to me.
I have traveled the Globe off and on since 1979. I read Shakespeare at High School and University. I studied timber framing and learned that Shakespeare’s Globe Theater was an octagonal timber frame structure that had complicated joinery and was pre-cut, stood and pegged together like fine furniture. The Globe Theater represented, in a much less densely populated planet, the planet. Interesting.
The Globe that we speak of is not The Globe Theater. It is not the endangered globe upon which we live. The Globe we speak of is in the John’s River Gorge, Grandfather Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest (that’s right, the people’s forest). Please, pull out a regional map: look at Charlotte, Knoxville, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Johnson City/Bristol/Kingsport, Lenoir, Morganton Wilkesboro, Boone Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, Linville and all the small and large communities between and beyond. Now look at the community of Globe on the map (you might have to get a local map for this). Now, plan to get in a car and go to either Blowing Rock, Linville, Morganton or Lenoir. Find the Globe Road or roads that lead to the Globe Road and, with map in hand, and with friends and family, go to Globe. Take the offshoot roads to Lost Cove, Lost Cove Cliffs, Roseboro, Mortimer, Brown Mountain, Edgemont, Wilson’s Creek, etc. Take your tent, backpack, fishing rod, take your compass and some hiking and mountain biking trail maps and go-go. You must go and experience this. Go general public. Go foresters. Go public decision-makers who take care of this public trust for us, the people. Do not deny yourself these trips to accessible parts of the Pisgah National Forest! I must warn you, this might be a life-changing experience. Note: These are all unimproved gravel roads. If you plan these trips correctly, you must study maps and be prepared.
As our children and their children grow up, where will they find country? Will they find any pockets of old growth remaining? Where will they go and play, hike, camp, fish and hunt? If the U.S. Forest Service will represent the people who own this land, they will understand that The Globe, The John’s River Gorge needs to be protected for a recreational area. Saving The Globe from poorly conceived “forest management” practices is not about, as the editorial Mr. Seehorn wrote, a controversy created by representatives of Wild South and the Southern Environmental Law Center. These groups do not represent “spoiled adolescents who want it all.” The writer, with all due respect, seems out of touch. He represents an era gone by when environmental exploitation was the norm and when there was more environment to exploit. We must question these historic “forest management” practices in order to ensure we have forests left to manage. We also need to consider, as our population grows, in certain locations, mixed use with a focus on recreational use is more valuable than the short-term cutting of the timber. When old growth pockets are cut, they will never be old growth again.
I hiked the proposed U.S. Forest Service “timber harvest” in The Globe with Joy Malone (U.S. Forest Service District Ranger for Grandfather Ranger District) and her staff, Wild South and SELC. I was honored to be among such a large group of professional foresters and representatives advocating and reviewing local and regional environmental considerations. I will agree, to the extent that I understand as a layman, with Mr. Seehorn regarding some of the statistics he outlined. The Globe is not “virgin forest” or all “old growth.” However, it was proven to me and to the U.S. Forest Service by the field biologist hired by Wild South that there are pockets of old growth and virgin timber in the area of planned “timber harvest.”
This is not farmland. This is an existing eco-system that sustains many wildlife habitats and many recreational opportunities. To call the Globe clear-cut and chemical treatment a harvest is a misrepresentation of facts. What the Forest Service calls “forest management” for the (unnecessary) improvement of habitat is just cutting timber. In this case, some very old trees. The people, who own these forests, do not benefit from these subsidized cuts in prime recreational mountain and foothills country. It would be interesting to evaluate who does benefit.
In my readings related to forestry in the U.S., I understand that the southeast is some of the most productive forest in the country. I understand, as well, that 4% (or less) of the southeastern forests are old growth. The people’s question should be: if there is so little old growth forest in the southeast, why not preserve what remains of old growth that is on public land? Why cut this land, particularly that it is so well located for recreational access adjacent to other areas of private and public protected land: near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Grandfather Mountain, Linville Gorge, Wilson’s Creek, Lost Cove, Julian Price Park, Moses Cone Park and much more.
Joy Malone’s (District Manager for the U.S. Forest Service at Nebo, NC) comment (quoted loosely) in one of her response articles when this controversy began to heat up last year was, “ultimately we believe that this controversy will be resolved, in the words of the first director for the U.S. Forest Service, Clifford Pinchot, considering ‘the greatest good for the greatest number.’” If this is the case, all of The People in the southeast and their children into perpetuity must be represented. I would say that this number of individual campers, fishers, hikers, mountain bikers would far outnumber any groups Joy Malone and the U.S. Forest Service could list that are advocating for the “harvest” of The Globe. Truly, the highest and best use of this land is as 1) a protected watershed for communities downstream, 2) a regional recreational area and 3) for habitat protection for trout, bear, deer, grouse, turkey, turtle, southern flying squirrel, other squirrels, chipmunks, foxes and other wildlife that it currently supports. The scenic benefits are gravy on top of the meat and potatoes of these three sound management points.
Let’s consider a bit more of Mr. Seehorn’s comments about his knowledge of “forest management” in The Globe. I would ask him: When was the last time he drove, hiked hunted or fished The Globe? When was the last time he considered cleaning out a silt-infested creek in The John’s River Gorge that was a result of past logging? When did he last catch native trout, which are dead and gone in many mountain creeks due to previous timber harvesting in The Globe and The John’s River Gorge? When will we clean up the silt and replace native trout so that our children’s children can know native trout? We know Mr. Seehorn’s credentials because he outlined them, and I respect these credentials. He did outline a few facts in his editorial. However, in his last paragraph, he implied that the entire editorial was fact. I maintain that there were far fewer facts than opinions. I believe it is time for the opinions of a younger generation to be heard. We, and our children, will inherit The Globe, The John’s River Gorge and Pisgah National Forest. Lt the voices of the generation that will inherit The Globe be heard. Though I say this, I do not mean to imply that there is not broad-based support from many aging Boomers and other seniors for saving The Globe. There is broad-based support across generations to Save The Globe. However, historic forest service policies and management practices need to be reevaluated. Of this, there is no doubt. Please speak up to your local, state and national representatives. Please contact the Grandfather Ranger District office and the office at the state level of the U.S. Forest Service. Save The Globe! Support the movement to take small steps to save the planet. We must do all that we can for forests, clean air and clean water.
Respectfully,
Mark Kirkpatrick
