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On Feb. 1, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced that the Grandfather Restoration Project was one of 10 projects in the nation to receive federal funding as part of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program.
The Grandfather Restoration Project, centered on the Grandfather Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest, will receive $605,000 in 2012 and is eligible for more than $5 million over 10 years. The funding will allow the Grandfather Ranger District to control non-native invasive plants; restore thousands of acres of rare species habitat and pine dominated forests with controlled burns; preserve 250 acres of hemlock forest; improve water quality; and employ local people in the conserva-tion, forest products, and fire safety sectors.
Alliance Public Lands Biologist Josh Kelly, while working at WildLaw, was the primary author of the project proposal and the coordinator of the collaborative group that included 12 local, state, and national organizations.
Alliance Ecologist & Public Lands Director Bob Gale was the author of the non-native invasive plants portion of the proposal and a key member of the collaborative group.
“We are thrilled that the Forest Service has been awarded the funding to do the beneficial ecologi-cal restoration we have been advocating for years,” Gale said. “This grant will make Pisgah National Forest a regional leader in the art and science of ecological restoration, which will help to maintain and enhance the resilience, biodiversity, and beauty
of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We are truly thrilled about the awarding of this grant and what it means for Western North Carolina.”
Kelly and Gale will both remain heavily involved in helping the Forest Service implement the proposal. There will be plenty of ways for vol-unteers to get involved as well, and those opportu-nities will be posted as available at www.wnca.org and via our e-Accent and Accent newsletters.
In addition to the Alliance, project partners include The Nature Conservancy, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, North Carolina Forest Service, Wild South, Trout Unlimited, Southern Forests Network, Friends of Wilson Creek, Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina, WildLaw, Land of Sky Regional Council, and the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition.
AccentAlliance Plays Key Role in Securing
Restoration Funding for Pisgah National ForestBy Josh Kelly
Linville Gorge, one of the key locations for endangered species restoration and non-native plant control, is part of the Grandfather
Restoration Project. PHOTO MADE POSSIBLE BY SOUTHWINGS.
For 30 years, the Western North Carolina Alliance has been a trusted community partner, marshalling grassroots support to keep our forests healthy, our air and water clean, and our communities vibrant.
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Steering Committee3rd Tuesday of every other month Contact Julie at (828) 258-8737; [email protected]
TASK FORCESB.E.A.R. Task ForceContact (828) 526-9227 [email protected]
Forest Task ForceLast Tuesday of every month 4 p.m. at the main office Contact Bob at (828) 258-8737; [email protected]
Public Parks Task ForceContact Bob at (828) 258-8737; [email protected]
Do Not Buy GuideThe multiflora rose pictured here
is one of the 15 invasive exotic plants that WNCA and its SACWMP partners work to control in the Western North Carolina mountains. SACWMP is the not-so-graceful acronym for Southern Appalachian Cooperative Weed Management Partnership. WNCA is one of three organizations that helped to establish and continues to manage the partnership.
To help you identify and avoid buying these plants, the Alliance has created a handy, wallet-sized “Do Not Buy Guide” to help stop the spread of invasive species at the source. The guide tells you which WNC invasive plants to avoid buying and the native alternatives you can use instead.
It’s available on our website at the Public Lands program link, or by call-ing our office at 828-258-8737.
WNCA and SACWMP have just completed our fifth year of empower-ing citizens to take to the woods to protect native mountain habitats from aggressive invading plants that were introduced both intentionally and
accidentally. The other members are Equinox Environmental Consultation and Design and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The larger partnership includes the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, NC Department of Transportation, NC Division of Forestry, and Mountain Valley RCD.
Get your copy of the “Do Not Buy Guide” today!
WNCA CHAPTERSBuncombe CountyContact (828) 258-8737; [email protected]
Haywood Community AllianceContact (828) 258-8737; [email protected]
Macon CountyContact (828) 524-2280; [email protected]
Save Madison ChapterContact (828) 258-8737 [email protected]
Watauga River Partners(Avery, Ashe, and Watauga Counties) Contact (828) 264-3061; [email protected]
Tusquittee Chapter(Cherokee, Clay, and Graham Counties) Contact (828) 835-8473; [email protected]
Tuckaseegee Community Alliance(Jackson County) Contact (828) 506-9163; [email protected]
Issue 92 Volume XXXII Number 4 • Spring 2012
PHOTO COURTESY USDA FOREST SERVICE
On March 15, the Alliance hosted one of its biggest volunteer events yet for the French Broad River Paddle Trail, at the Little River Campground in Transylvania County.
As part of AmeriCorps Week, volunteers from AmeriCorps Project Conserve assisted in building campsites, alongside volunteers from Brevard, Hendersonville, and Asheville. Several
community partners also worked on this project, notably the Brevard-based com-munications company Comporium, whose manager brought in a crew with heavy equipment and graded areas for tent camp-ers. The crew opened up a nice view of the Little River in an area crowded with inva-sive privet.
The owner of the Hillside Nursery, across the river from the campground, donated trees for this site, much improving the aesthetics and shade along the river’s edge. Volunteers built picnic tables and a flood-proof platform for a portable toilet; cleared and treated invasive plants with
herbicide; planted live stakes of elderberry; spread native grass seed; and much more.
The conditions continue to be right for growth and change at the Alliance, as we’ve added two new people this spring. In February, we welcomed our new orga-nizer, AnnaJane Joyner, a WNC native who brings experience organizing students around environmental issues and work-ing at the national level on mountaintop removal. We are happy to have her exper-tise and energy advancing the Alliance’s work in communities across the region.
In March, we added a second Riverkeeper program, the Watauga Riverkeeper, and Donna Lisenby who has been the Riverkeeper there since 2008. Donna is the state’s most veteran Keeper, having been the Catawba Riverkeeper for 10 years prior to moving west. Donna’s work will complement that of our long-standing chapter, the Watauga River Partners. Donna is currently working for the Alliance on a part-time, contract basis, and we hope to make Donna a permanent full-time staff member when we raise a year’s funding to support the program. You can help by making a gift in support of the Watauga Riverkeeper program!
We are also engaging in a new kind of out-reach with some statewide partners. To counter the legislative leadership’s mantra that environ-mental protections hinder job growth and eco-nomic development, we are affirming what most
people already understand – that we can have both and that, here in WNC, our economy depends on a healthy environ-ment. Through ads, letters to the editor, op-eds, mailers, and phone calls, we are encouraging voters to tell their elected officials to support clean air and water and good jobs.
This is an important message in this election year and as we head into the 2012 legislative session in May. State legislators are poised to roll back more protections, including weakening the state’s strong air toxics law, allowing the polluting process known as fracking, and allowing Duke and Progress Energy to build new nuclear plants in North and South Carolina risk-free by using ratepay-
ers as an unlimited checking account.These are critical issues that will shape our
state for years to come, and we need your help to keep in place those protections that keep our air and water clean. Come May, we’ll be sending out action alerts and you can keep track of legislation on our website. You can also sign up to receive alerts directly at www.ncconservationnetwork.org.
In addition to needing your help, we also want to see you, so I hope you can make time to join us for a fun outing or event this summer. There are plenty to choose from, so come out and play!
Volunteers from AmeriCorps Project Conserve assisted in building campsites, along with volunteers from Brevard,
Hendersonville, and Asheville.
The Western North Carolina Alliance this month presents the 2012 Wild & Scenic Film Festival, a three-hour event featuring 14 award-winning educational and inspiring short films.
The festival kicks off at 5:30 p.m. April 18 at Western Carolina University. It continues at 7 p.m. April 19 at the Fine Arts Theatre in Asheville.
Wild & Scenic stands apart from the hundreds of other environmental festivals around the world by not only highlighting environmental concerns, but by providing solutions through beautiful imagery such as the majestic landscapes of Appalachia and the gran-deur of rivers around the world.
For 30 years, the Alliance has been building a community to protect and restore the forests and rivers of our home. The Wild & Scenic Film Festival puts our work - and yours - into the broader environmental and social con-text, and serves to remind us that we are participants in a global movement for a more wild and scenic world.
Featured films include “Chasing Water,” which follows the Colorado River, source to sea; and “Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000,” a docu-mentary about an acclaimed envi-ronmental pioneer who proved that an “ordinary” person can accomplish extraordinary things.
Tickets are $6 for students (with valid I.D.) and $10 for general admis-sion. A discounted Alliance member-ship can be purchased at a special ticket price of $10 for students and $25 for general admission.
Come Out to the Wild & Scenic
Film Festival!
From the Executive DirectorBy Julie Mayfield
As we get into the swing of spring, we are reminded how quickly things can change and grow when the conditions are right.
Volunteers Come Out in Force for French Broad River Paddle Trail BuildBy Nick Rose
For more information on this event, please visit www.wnca.org/events/wild-scenic-film-festival.
2 Western North Carolina Alliance • www.wnca.org • Accent • Spring 2012
AnnaJane Joyner
Donna Lisenby
The Forest Service is conducting, once again, an environmental analysis of a location within the Nantahala National Forest for a proposed shooting range. The proposal to construct a shooting range in Clay County was first raised by the Clay County Sports Club in 2002, but various locations suggested over the years have proved unsuitable. In 2010, an Environmental Assessment looked at two areas, but the final EA and Decision Notice eliminated one of these and determined that the other, located at Perry Creek, was suitable. Perry Creek may be the site that makes or breaks the project, once and for all.
While some of the range proponents are residents of Clay County, many are second home owners from cities or other areas out of state. A number of local residents, however (including those living near the proposed shooting range), have serious concerns about the location, which would be accessed by a gravel road running
though their community. Increased traffic is one concern, and increased dust from the road dur-ing dry spells is another. The latter is of particular importance to one family with an asthmatic child whose house sits close to the road. In addition, the whole local community has been extremely concerned about the noise of continuous gunfire that accompanies such shooting ranges.
This community is not opposed to the range, and most of them are gun owners, but they do not favor this location.
WNCA’s local Tusquitee Chapter joined with community members in appealing the Forest Service decision in November 2010, expressing the above concerns. They pointed out that the FS estimates of increased traffic lacked cred-ibility. The Forest Coalition and WNCA also had problems with the analysis of sound impacts to hikers on the historic “Chunky Gal Trail.” They also had concerns about a poorly conducted
sound test that had been used in the analy-sis leading up to the decision. The Southern Appalachian Rim Trail and the Valley River Mountains.
Acknowledging these concerns, the Tusquitee District Ranger withdrew its Decision early in 2011, performed a traffic count from July to December, and is working with Sewanee-University of the South to conduct a dust study. The District also worked with the Tusquitee community, Sportsmen’s group, and WNCA staff, to conduct a sound test better representing the appellant’s concerns.
The results of all of these studies and tests will be incorporated into a new Draft EA followed by public comments and internal analysis, and later in 2012, a final EA and Decision Notice.
We will stay tuned.
Upstream from the newly con-structed Little River Campground on the French Broad River Paddle Trail is the Penrose logjam, which for nearly two years has been a problem for area land-owners and paddlers.
The logjam began when two large trees on opposite sides of the river fell against each other, blocking the main channel. This formed a “strain-er,” a paddling term loosely defined as something in the river through which water can pass, but people and boats cannot. This strainer was not removed and grew to be massive.
The width of the French Broad River before the logjam was 95 feet in this section. As of this spring, this obstruction has caused the width to expand to nearly 250 feet, with a length greater than 200 feet.
These dimensions are increasing daily, as every flood has washed more debris against the logjam. It’s estimated this debris comprises some
2 million pounds of material, including hundreds of trees, boats, trash, and about every type of sports ball imaginable.
The logjam is a serious hazard for paddlers, who can’t legally portage around it without con-sent from the landowner. Even with permission, the portage (carrying a boat and its cargo) would be very difficult.
The French Broad River in much of Transylvania County is characterized by narrow, flat water flowing across an expansive floodplain that is generally free of rocks and sudden drops. But in the current situation, the logjam is forcing the river to create a new channel, and depositing vast amounts of sediment into the debris. If left alone, this logjam would ultimately become a new bend in the river.
Landowners on both sides of the river have watched their land wash away for more than a year as the river changes its course around the logjam. The two affected landowners hope to see the problem eliminated before the river elimi-nates their acreage.
Work is set to begin soon to remove the logjam. The Soil and Water Conservation Service is taking the lead on the project, hiring
French Broad River Logjam Set for RemovalBy Nick Rose
Forest Service Analyzing Impacts of Proposed Shooting Range in Nantahala National Forest By Bob Gale
Western North Carolina Alliance • www.wnca.org • Accent • Spring 2012 3
a contractor to implement a plan of removal and restoration based on the agency’s engineer-ing study. The project will be funded through a combination of county and state funds. If all goes according to plan, the debris will be removed and the channel will be restored before summer. The Western North Carolina Alliance and the French Broad Riverkeeper look forward to a river channel free of debris, where paddlers can make a safe passage to newly constructed campsites downstream.
Buncombe Chapter WNCA is looking for volunteers to help spread the word about coal ash at Asheville’s Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 21. To find out more or sign up, contact: [email protected]. Also, we urge members to check out “An Ill Wind,” a film on the toxic effects of coal ash on a Native American community showing during the Wild & Scenic Film Festival on April 19 at the Fine Arts Theatre.
Macon Chapter The Macon Chapter continues to spon-sor an engaged and lively Green Drinks on the third Tuesday of each month at the Rathskellar. In February, Susan Ervin spoke on planning in Macon; in March Kathy and Danny Tinsley spoke on local agriculture in Macon; In May, the chapter has tentative plans to host a talk about geothermal usage in Franklin.
CHAPTER NEWS
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29 N. Market St., Suite 610 Asheville, NC 28801Phone: (828) 258-8737
www.wnca.org
Western Office:16 Stewart Street
Franklin, NC 28734Phone: (828) 524-3899
APRIL 14“Renewing Our Roots” Spring Gathering - Franklin, NCDaytime program: wildflower hike, birding, walk on the Little Tennessee River Greenway, canoeing along the Little Tennessee section of the Needmore Tract.Evening program: 5:30-8:30 p.m. Memorial United Methodist Church, 4668 Old Murphy Road.Barbecue dinner, live music and a presentation by Mars Hill history professor Kathy Newfont. RSVP to [email protected] or by calling 828-258-8737.
APRIL 30, 7 P.M.Kathy Newfont will present and sign her new book, “Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental
Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina” at Malaprop’s Bookstore, 55 Haywood Street, Asheville.
MAY 12, 8 A.M. TO 2 P.M. French Broad River Fins & Gills Classic Fishing Tournament Launch from Bent Creek
Park at 8 a.m. Ending at Asheville Outdoor Center, 521 Amboy Rd. at 10 a.m. Fun activities for kids of all ages at Asheville Outdoor Center
SPRING EVENTS & OUTINGS
Clip and mail to: WNCA 29 N. Market Street, Suite 610 Asheville, NC 28801
Major Donor
$250 $500 $1000
$________ Other Amount
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Kayak rides, raft rides, casting contest, playground, horse shoes, volleyball, and fishing classes. Prizes awarded!
MAY, MEMORIAL DAY WEEKENDWNCA and Liberty Bikes Spring Cycle Trip, Bryson City area.
JUNE 16-24“Save the French Broad” Paddle Trip www.savethefrenchbroad.com.
THIRD TUESDAYS, 5:30 P.M.Franklin Green Drinks, Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub, 58 Stewart Street, downtown Franklin, NC.
WEDNESDAYS, 6 P.M.Asheville Green Drinks, Posana Cafe, 1 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville.
STAFFCynthia Camilleri,
Administrative Support
Hartwell Carson, French Broad Riverkeeper
Bob Gale, Ecologist & Public Lands Director
Joy Irby, AmeriCorps Project Conserve
Outings and Education Coordinator
AnnaJane Joyner, Community Organizer
Josh Kelly, Public Lands Field Biologist
Donna Lisenby, Watauga Riverkeeper
Julie Mayfield, Executive Director
Nick Rose, AmeriCorps Project Conserve
Assistant Riverkeeper
Melissa Williams, Communications Manager
STEERING COMMITTEELinda Tatsapaugh, Chair
Edward Pritchett, First Vice-Chair
Pete Krull, Second Vice-Chair
Greg Kidd, Secretary
Matt Raker, Treasurer
Randall Boggs, Henderson County At-Large
Teresa Buckwalter, Watauga River
Conservation Partners
Rob Cabelli, Buncombe County at-Large
Bill Crawford, Macon County Chapter
Mike Jackson, Macon County at-Large
Julie Lehman, Buncombe County at-Large
Alan O'Connor, Haywood County at-Large
Mary Osmar, B.E.A.R. Task Force
Stan Schnitzer, Buncombe County at-Large
Robin Smith, Yancey County at-Large
Julie White, Forest Task Force
Eric Zenteno, Buncombe County at-Large
