ForestGeorgia ForestWatch Quarterly NewsletterNews Fall 2018 8 Rabun Bald: A Georgia Mountain Treasure Page 6 Inside This Issue From the Director ......................... 2 Shooting Range Proposed in Union Fall Retreat Highlights ...............8 County Near Brasstown Bald ............ 4 Welcome New Members .............. 2 Upcoming Outings ..................10 Rabun Bald: A Georgia Georgia ForestWatch Publishes Mountain Treasure ........................... 6 Around the Forest ...................11 Organizational History .................. 3 My Day on an Invasive Species Pull Project ........................... 7 From the Director Don Davis A message from the trail Executive Director During a trailside conversation in the Sierra Nevada range, a National Forest. At all three above locations, we saw the effects young Albert W. Palmer asked John Muir what he thought about of poorly executed prescribed burns, ill-maintained Forest hiking. He had been told that Mr. Muir did not like the word, and Service roads, and numerous large timber stands that were thus wanted to hear directly from the naturalist. the result of neglect and poor planning. We also witnessed numerous invasive species – among them royal paulownia “I don’t like the thing or the word,” replied Muir. “People ought to (princess tree), Japanese knotweed, and Japanese stiltgrass – saunter in the mountains – not hike.” Muir added, “In the middle which have aggressively replaced native vegetation in the forest ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when understory. people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going they would reply: ‘A la sainte terre, to the Holy Land.’” As To the hurried hiker, the forest may indeed appear to be a result, says Muir, “the pilgrims became known as sainte-terre-ers or a healthy one. But to those of us who take the time to see saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought and appreciate our native forest ecosystem, it is clear that to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.”1 more work needs to be done. As Georgia ForestWatch’s new Executive Director, I look forward to the challenge. With your Since my first day on the job in mid-August, I have had numerous ongoing help, we can preserve these mountain treasures for opportunities to saunter through the north Georgia mountains. On future generations, as well as elevate them to the unique and the first outing, near the Chattahoochee River headwaters, I even special status they rightly deserve. encountered a young black bear. After I approached within fifty yards of the animal, it quickly disappeared into the nearby forest. On 1. Quotations from Albert W. Palmer, The Mountain Trail and its the second excursion, near the Warwoman Wildlife Management Message (Boston, MA: Pilgrim Press, 1911), pp. 27-28. Original Area near Clayton, Jess Riddle and I saw numerous yellow-fringed version available online at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ orchids along the roadside, many several feet in height. At Brawley pt?id=hvd.hn1jia;view=1up;seq=15 Mountain, our group encountered a fairly large surviving American chestnut, which had made viable nuts the previous year. At the same time, upon closer inspection, we also saw many potential and very real problems in the Chattahoochee-Oconee WELCOME THANK YOU NEW MEMBERS! FOREST GUARDIANS! (July – September) (July – September) Jan Albitz Kornder Consulting Mike Bales Cumming Garden Club (Jennifer Kornder) David & Cara Busch (Sherry Brownlee) Dana LaChance Janet Chapman Donald Davis Ted LaMontagne Tom & Sally Colkett Georgia Chapter of the Renae Lemon Jim & Hedy Dawson Sierra Club (Jessica Morehead) Dee & Tom Pelewski Ted & Lynda Doll Lisa Harmon Janice Rapp Lyn Hopper Sally Hilton Mike Saunders & John & Marilyn McMullan Dennis Kast Rosalie Jensen Nancy Kennell Sheila Wofsy & Helen Meadors Reggie Lenoir Doug & Elaine Riddle Bill Witherspoon 2 Georgia ForestWatch Georgia ForestWatch Contact Information publishes organizational Georgia ForestWatch www.gafw.org history 81 Crown Mountain Place, Building C, Suite 200 by Don Davis : Executive Director Dahlonega, GA 30533 706-867-0051 Georgia ForestWatch is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational corporation. eorgia ForestWatch is rare G Forest News edited by Lyn Hopper and Don Davis among environmental non-profits. For more than three decades, it Layout by Eleanor Thompson has been a staunch and successful public lands advocate. It has STAFF directly influenced U.S. Forest Don Davis, Executive Director Service policy and actions and Lyn Hopper, Bookkeeper/Office Manager maintains a large and active Jess Riddle, Forest Ecologist membership. Currently, nearly 700 BOARD MEMBERS ADVISORS individuals consider themselves Sue Harmon, Marie Dunkle Butch Clay members of the non-profit. In President Tom MacMillan Ted Doll Our History: 32 Years of Watching Tom Colkett, John Moeller Sarah Francisco Your Forest, Georgia ForestWatch Secretary Denny Rhodes David Govus has carefully documented its own Trushar Mody, Harry Vander Robin Hitner institutional history. Several former Treasurer Krabben Patrick Hunter and active members authored the text, including Bob Kibler, one of the Tom Crawford Melanie Vickers Bob Kibler original founders and revered elders of the organization, and Charles James Dawson Charles Seabrook Seabrook, a former environmental reporter for the Atlanta Journal- Brenda Smith Constitution. Dennis Stansell James Sullivan The sixty-three-page booklet includes seven chapters or parts, arranged GEORGIA FORESTWATCH DISTRICT LEADERS chronologically. The cover image was provided by noted conservation photographer Peter McIntosh, who has exhibited work in the National Chattooga River Ranger District Oconee National Forest Geographic Traveler and Wall Street Journal, among other publications. Marie Dunkle 770-335-0967 JP Schmidt 706-613-8483 (Rabun, Towns and White Counties) Caleb Walker 706-248-4910 Ben Cash 706-968-3841 (Greene, Jasper, Jones, Part One examines the early formation of the group, which occurred (Habersham, Stephens & Monroe, Morgan, in 1986, a year after the U.S. Forest Service submitted its 15-year White counties) Oconee, Oglethorpe management plan for the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The & Putnam counties) founding members believed that the Forest Service wrongly embraced Blue Ridge Ranger District Larry Winslett 404-375-8405 clearcutting and roadbuilding and were overly zealous in their use of Tom & Sally Colkett 770-316-7609 (Greene, Jasper, Jones, Morgan, herbicides on nearly all logging sites. (Dawson & Lumpkin counties) Oconee, Oglethorpe & Putnam Jim Walker 706-273-3465 counties) Part Two summarizes Georgia ForestWatch’s original District Leader (Fannin, Gilmer, Lumpkin program, which was the heart and soul of the organization during the & Union counties) Conasauga Ranger District 1980s and 1990s. (District Leaders are individuals who monitor Forest Robin Hitner 678-294-3256 Service activities in the individual Ranger Districts.) Then and now, (Chattooga, Gordon, Murray, District Leaders organize hikes, speak at community meetings, and Floyd, Walker & Whitfield counties) formally comment on Forest Service actions. The chapter also discusses David Govus 706-276-2512 the role that the Wilderness Society played in the early history of the (Fannin & Gilmer counties) group, as well as the influence of individuals like Congressman Ed Cover photo credit: Jess Riddle The Bartram Trail tunnels through mountain laurel (continued on page 5) and rhododendron on its way over Rabun Bald. Fall 2018 3 Shooting range proposed in Union County near Brasstown Bald by Don Davis : Executive Director On October 12, 2018, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it On November 7, 2018, a live fire test conducted by Georgia would be doing an environmental analysis for a proposed target range in ForestWatch members, recorded a decibel level of 78.5 Union County. The 15-acre shooting range would be located off Highway on the Appalachian Trail, approximately 0.5 mile west of 180 (between mile markers 18 and 19), approximately five miles northeast Chattahoochee Gap (34.81953, -83.800468). The 78.5 of Vogel State Park. reading exceeds the so-called “Red” level (>65dBA) cited by acoustical experts and thus clearly falls into the annoyance If approved, the shooting range would be constructed by the Union range. Although the 78.5 level resulted from the discharge of County Government, who would lease the property from the U.S. Forest a .357 magnum pistol, other weapons used in the live test also Service. However, the shooting range would be exclusively managed by generated noise levels in the unwanted “Red” range, including the Union County Gun Club, who would provide limited public access. the firing of several .38 Special rounds. On most days, the shooting range would be used by Gun Club members or individuals from the Union County Sheriff’s Department. While Georgia ForestWatch appreciates the need for a shooting range (many of our members are hunters and shooters), there Georgia ForestWatch is opposed to a target range at the proposed is already a target range in nearby Towns County, on public location, due to its proximity to the Appalachian Trail, which is less than a land. Operated by the Chatuge Gun Club, the Chatuge range mile away. The location is also very close to the Brasstown and Mark Trail it is only 3.5 miles from the proposed Union County shooting Wilderness areas (each one-half mile away). Several Georgia ForestWatch range.