Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Area (NC/TN)

Facts and figures

Tellico ORV Area:

The Tellico ORV area, with 40 miles of designated ORV trails and an estimated average usage of 2,400 off-road vehicles per month, is one of the largest and most intensively-used ORV destinations in the Southeast.
The miles of US Forest Service designated trails in Tellico exceed the maximum density of trails allowed by the Forest Plan by 200%. This does not include the innumerable illegal trails created by ORV users.
The ORV area is located in the headwaters of the upper Tellico River. Many ORV trails run parallel and in close proximity to mountain trout streams, with at least 19 stream crossings.
In violation of state and federal law, approximately six miles of designated trail are located within 100 feet of trout streams, impacting 16 miles of critical habitat.
Trout densities in streams affected by the Tellico ORV area are approximately 50% of densities found in streams of similar size, topography, and geology across the Forest.
The streams degraded by discharges from the Tellico ORV system include Tellico River, Round Mountain Branch, Mistletoe Creek, Bob Creek, Peckerwood Creek, Tipton Creek, and Bearpen Branch.
All of the streams affected by the ORV trail system are designated as "Class C" trout waters by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. North Carolina law prohibits excessive sediment in these special waters.
From 1996 through 2004, annual fish counts conducted by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission documented a declining trend in trout populations affected by the Tellico ORV trail system, including at least one year in which no young of the year were documented.

Native Brook Trout

People value brook trout not only for their beauty, their delicious taste, and their sportfish qualities, but also as indicators of the broader health of the watersheds where they live. A sentinel of superior water quality, the brook trout will always mirror the health of the Appalachians and the waters that drain from these landscapes.
Brook trout once thrived in the Southern Appalachians. But competition with non-native rainbow and brown trout, combined with deteriorating water quality, have greatly reduced the population.
Many of the largest remaining populations occur on federal lands in headwater streams that escaped previous habitat destruction.
Tennessee and North Carolina boast the most remaining habitat in the Southeast, comprising just 3% of their historical range.
Still, only a handful of subwatersheds in Tennessee and North Carolina support 50% or more of the brook trout they once did.
Brook trout are extirpated in 36%, or 113 subwatersheds, and 95 of these occur in North Carolina. Brook trout data currently is not available for 15% of the total historical subwatersheds in these states.