Charles Tarver

Western North Carolina — The U.S. Forest Service’s Brushy Mountain logging project is cutting down a rare old growth forest near Highlands. The logging is demolishing the habitats of rare green salamanders and endangered bats. It is also introducing harmful exotic species and creating sources of erosion and sedimentation into beloved brook trout streams. And it is ignoring overwhelming public opposition to this project on public lands. The Forest Service’s decision to log this old growth forest also defies science and common sense. The stated purpose of the Brushy Mountain Timber Sale is to establish a wildlife opening in the forest. Multiple alternative sites nearby could provide the same wildlife opening benefits and entirely avoid destroying a unique old growth forest… Sadly, the Forest Service’s new proposed National Old Growth Amendment will allow even more old growth logging projects like Brushy Mountain, because of loopholes in the amendment that allow continued liquidation of old growth.