A trio of North Carolina conservation groups are appealing a local district ranger’s decision to log the Courthouse Creek drainage of the Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County.
On behalf of WildSouth, the Wilderness Society and the Western North Carolina Alliance, attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center filed an administrative appeal Wednesday. The groups say logging below Devil’s Courthouse jeopardizes views, streams, soils, cultural resources, recreation and older forest habitats.
On Sept. 25, Pisgah District Ranger Derek Ibarguen approved a slightly modified version of the project that involves logging roughly 435 acres over a three- to five-year period, starting as early as 2015. Another 350 acres would be thinned using herbicides and hand tools to favor commercial tree species.
Ibarguen said timbering is needed to increase habitat diversity across the landscape for the benefit of wildlife and to help fund restoration efforts in the watershed. But conservationists said their attempts to shift logging to less-sensitive sites were rebuffed.
“The Courthouse Creek area is a unique and special place,” said Josh Kelly, the WNCA’s field biologist. “We have repeatedly suggested other, more suitable locations for logging, but the Forest Service has refused to redraw its plans. Ultimately, we had no choice but to appeal.”
From BlueRidgeNow.com: https://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20131115/ARTICLES/131119941/1042/news?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar