Forest Service starts with Bluff to win trust

HOT SPRINGS – U.S. Forest Service officials met with residents of Hot Springs, hoping to win the trust of people who nearly two decades ago fought to keep loggers off Bluff Mountain.

While they made inroads, it might be easier for forest officials to move that mountain.

Appalachian District Ranger Matt McCombs and colleagues on Monday answered questions regarding the future of Bluff Mountain, considered a jewel of Madison County. Concerns about the mountain were raised following the release of a draft plan — likely to be complete in 2016 — that will help determine the future of Pisgah and Nanatahala national forests over the next 15 years.

In that draft, most of Bluff Mountain is designated as an area suitable for restoring a range of forest ages and creating high-quality wildlife habitat. But the mountain could also be made available for logging and roads to support timber activities, raising the ire of residents who thought they had laid that battle to rest years ago.

That battle began in 1995, when the Forest Service proposed selling 4.3 million board feet of Bluff Mountain timber. The logging soon turned political when then-U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor advocated that logging shouldn't drop below a new proposal of 3.2 million board feet. Protesters began a "Don't Cut Bluff" campaign and nearly two years later reached a compromise with timber companies to sharply scale back the logging.

One resident at the meeting called the designation that allows for logging on Bluff a kick in the gut. Another, Elmer Hall, who was part of the 1990s coalition, questioned why the mountain wasn't given a different designation, one that would keep logging trucks of its slopes.

Without it, he said, "all we can do is trust you guys. We have some past history to be dubious of that."

"This town lives or dies on the tourist industry. We have whitewater, the hot springs, hiking. The Appalachian Trail hikers come through and stay for a day or two and spend some money," Hall said before the meeting at the Hot Springs Community Center. "Cutting the mountain would degrade all that."

McCombs told the crowd of more than 50 people that he understood Bluff Mountain was loved in the community, and the previous campaign was atypical for the time, galvanizing residents in a way Forest Service had rarely experienced.

"I can understand when reading about Bluff Mountain ([in the draft plan), it was a shock to the system and there might have been a thought the Forest Service was up to its old tricks again," McCombs said in a nod to the contentious and long discussions of the past.

McCombs, who has held his post about a year, came to Hot Springs after talking with resident Maxine Dalton about her worries that Bluff might be cut. He asked if he might meet with the larger community.

Near the end of the two-hour meeting, Dalton gave McCombs a nod of approval. He seemed trustworthy, she said, and seemed to understand sensitivities surrounding Bluff. But given how often rangers move from post to post, trust in a single person was not enough.

"We would like to see a designation that is strong enough that can withstand whatever personalities might come along or whatever might be coming down the tracks," she said.

The draft plan in recent weeks has stirred controversy, particularly among area environmental groups who point to figures that could subject nearly 700,000 acres of the one million acres across the two forests to logging.

That number will be whittled as the Forest Service continues through the plan process, and removes areas that are too steep, too rocky or have soil not suited for timber production, said Heather Luczak, a forest planner who has been developing the draft.

Forest officials expect a final plan would reflect timber production acreage and would be more in line with the current working forest plan, roughly 300,000 acres.

Of that number, only a small percentage would actually be logged, McCombs said, and only after years of planning and public comment. One major constraint, he said, is the agency's budget and resources.

The final plan is expected to be complete in 2016. The Forest Service is taking public comment on this draft though Jan. 5. Comments can be submitted online by email to NCplanrevision@fs.fed.us or by using an interactive mapping tool available at https://my.usgs.gov/ppgis/studio/launch/24175. Comments may also be mailed to National Forests in North Carolina, 160 Zillicoa St., Suite A, Asheville, NC 28801.

WANT TO COMMENT?

Public comments on the forest plan should be submitted by Jan. 5:

• Through an interactive mapping tool at https://my.usgs.gov/ppgis/studio/launch/24175

• By email to NCplanrevision@fs.fed.us

• By standard mail to National Forests in North Carolina, 160 Zillicoa St., Suite A, Asheville, NC 28801