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When the agency issued the final plan amendment in 1994, conservationists widely considered the amended plan to be the best in the region. And the process that produced it put the Nantahala-Pisgah in the forefront of the national forest management debate. The original North Carolina's Mountain Treasures was instrumental in both.
Ultimately, though, it was the commitment of citizens who love their national forests that did so much to shape the final version. Yet, despite the improvements-and they were significant--the plan left many of the forests' important wild lands unprotected. They are unprotected today, over a decade later, and continue to diminish. If anything, the peril is greater than ever. Threats mount in the form of sprawl, damaging off-road vehicle use, and the residue of old forestry practices long since discredited.
Once again, citizen activists -- in many cases, a whole new generation of them -- must come together to demand the best possible management of their national forests. We intend the new Mountain Treasures to engage them and support them in that effort. And we hope it is equally successful. As habitat, open space and naturalness decline across the landscape and in other ownerships, our public forests become ever more precious. This report identifies and details the best of what remain on the Nantahala-Pisgah: the special places we can least afford to lose. |
