ACTION ALERT from Cherokee Sierra: Conacat Project in the Cherokee National Forest The latest “Forest Health and Wildlife Habitat Improvement” project in the CNF. Please let the Forest Service know that much of this project does little for forest heath. This project would include logging in 900 acres of forest. The logging includes: • 540 acres of logging of smaller trees and burning followed by herbiciding to “regenerate” oak and oak-pine communities in mixed hardwood stands . • 111 acres of logging and burning followed by herbiciding “maintain or restore shortleaf pine, pitch pine, and associated pine-oak communities”. While some of these sites could be called upland sites where some pine is natural, other sites aren’t. Large-scale logging and herbicides are not good “restoration” methods. • 256 acres of logging of older hardwood stands that are reaching maturity after being reclaimed by 1920’s logging in order to “regenerate” them. • 5,652 acres of dormant and late season burning of forest. Some points of concern: • Forests normally regenerate themselves. Large scale logging, burning, and the spraying of herbicides is unnatural and disruptive to the ecosystem. • Some of the forest land that the Forest Service wants to make largely into pine communities are not on sites where such communities would naturally occur. • While there is some natural fire that does occur due to lightning strikes, the Forest Service’s continued practice of repeated burning of the landscape is not only artificial, but is meant to shift the forest into promoting fire-tolerant species such as pines and certain oak species. • While some reclaimed forests from the early 20th century may have some areas with dense understory, these areas eventually mature and open the forest floor own their own without the need of poisons and chainsaws. Let the Forest Service know that these practices are unneeded and detrimental to the forest. Our National Forests should be places where forests heal, develop, and change on their own. Please send your comments to: [email protected] by regular mail to: Katherine Foster, District Ranger, Tellico Ranger District, 250 Ranger Station Road, Tellico Plains, TN 37385; or faxed to (423) 253-2804 Make sure that you reference, Re: Conocat
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 15:16:04 +0000
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