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This
article was written for and published in the Cherokee
Scout’s “The Far Blue Mountains” column on Wednesday,
September 16, 2009. Tom Bennett, writer of “The Far Blue
Mountains” is also the writer of the “WATR Column”.
USFS has a
specialist on hand as it angles for an Upper Tellico
solution
By Tom Bennett
Murphy, N.C.
-- The U.S. Forest Service is refereeing a heavyweight bout
between two groups. They are the nation’s off-highway
vehicle enthusiasts and its brook-trout anglers. The issue
is control of a piece of the Nantahala National Forest here
in far north Cherokee County.
Beginning in 1994, a USFS management plan permitted
off-highway vehicle trails in a high and environmentally
sensitive area at the headwaters of the Upper Tellico River.
An off-highway vehicle is “any motor vehicle capable of
cross-country travel over land, water, snow, ice, marsh or
swampland,” according to the Code of Federal Regulations. An
estimated average usage of 2,400 of them a month was
occurring at Upper Tellico, according to Southern
Environmental Law Center.
Marisue Hilliard became USFS’ Forest Supervisor for
North Carolina in 2005. She’s a 29-year veteran of the
Service; mother of three; former western regional director
in Denver; onetime litigation specialist in the Atlanta
office; and University of Georgia Forestry graduate.
Hilliard once led an assessment of Southern Appalachian
wildlife and forest health “foundational to the revision of
USFS land management plans,” according to a press release.
Eighteen months ago, from her office in Asheville and
citing her authority in that same Code of Federal
Regulations, Hilliard issued Order 12-02-07. It closed the
Upper Tellico OHV Area each winter from January to March,
the wettest months, and shut down completely four of 12
trails until a long-term plan is done.
“The Forest Service is in violation of its own standards
and North Carolina water-quality standards,” Hilliard said.
“Visible sediment from the ORV trails is reaching the
Tellico River and its tributaries in hundreds of locations.”
Since then an environmental assessment has established
USFS’ preference for total closure. No wonder OHV groups
have posted the “Rescue Tellico” web site. It declares the
trails to be “under siege.”
Meanwhile, the fishermen and women are just as
determined to win the day. The Trout Unlimited web site
details how severe erosion caused by OHVs threatens “the
most significant intact population of native southern
Appalachian brook trout in western North Carolina.”
COURT IS WHERE big environmental disputes go. In May
2008, the Southern Four Wheel Drive Club, United Four Wheel
Drive Associations and Blue Ribbon Coalition sued USFS and
Hilliard in U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina.
Joining in support of USFS and Hilliard were Trout
Unlimited; Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility; and Wild South. Southern Environmental Law
Center intervened, led by Attorney Austin D.J. Gerken of
Asheville.
The lawsuit went nowhere. In October 2008, both sides
voluntarily agreed to end it. “Now come all parties in this
action to stipulate to dismissal without prejudice and with
all parties paying their own costs and attorneys fees to
this date,” the court wrote.
It doesn’t work to sue over a temporary closure. Among
the Forest Service’s exhibits was a Northern District of
Georgia 2006 ruling throwing out a Chattooga River case. It
had been brought against USFS by a whitewater group.
“Plaintiffs must be content to allow the process they have
started to play out,” the Georgia court said.
* * *
Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek Community west
of Murphy is a Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member and volunteer.
E-mail him at
farblumtn@gmail.com
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