Forest News Georgia ForestWatch Quarterly Newsletter Winter 2012 25 Years of Watching Your Forests Page 4 Inside This Issue From the Director .....................2 Hedden Creek Bog: Book Review: Endangered Habitat ..................................6 Where There Are Mountains ........ 12 Search Committee Seeks New Executive Director ............3 Still Watching the Forest After Around the Forests ....................... 13 All These Years ...........................................7 Looking Back: 25 Years of 2001 Roadless Rule Victory Watching Your Forests ..............4 Georgia ForestWatch Extends Protection of Most Annual Fall Retreat Recap ..........................8 Inventory Roadless Areas ForestWatch Recollections Nationwide .................................. 16 of 20 Years Ago ........................ 5 Out in the Forest: Blood Mountain Hike ..10 From the Director Staying the course Robin Hitner Interim Executive Director I’ve been on the job one week. So far things are going well, • Attempting to influence the Forest Service as more but it is the honeymoon phase, isn’t it? All readers should districts implement proposals to thin overstocked pine know what a wonderful staff we have: they know what they stands. Our focus is on returning the woods to mixed have to do, they do it, and they have the right skills to get species stands, creating healthier woods and more sensible their jobs done. They are easy to work with and we even forest management. laugh sometimes! Working with them is making my job easy. Please tell them thank you. • Pressing for curtailment and appropriate use of prescribed fire. Prescribed fire ignition zones are now being confined Though a transition is never easy, Georgia ForestWatch is in a to south and west facing ridge-tops and are allowed good place. We are ending 2011 with a lot on our plate, but to burn across the landscape in a more natural, spotty good energy and commitment from the staff, board, district mosaic. leaders, members and funders. Many thanks to all of you! Just some of the things we are working on are listed below: • Expansion and development of our Outings Program. ForestWatch is getting hundreds of Georgians from all • Continued monitoring of the Wild and Scenic Upper walks of life into their woods. People protect what they Chattooga River boating issue: We strongly oppose love, and that love grows from having experienced it. We opening the LAST piece of protected wild river to currently have outings planned through August of 2012, boating and more intensive and extreme recreation. to grow that experience and love. While we support recreational use of the forests (see next bullet), we believe some pieces of Wilderness and • And much, much more! natural wild areas should be left alone. Coming up in 2012: We will co-host the annual Wild and • Leadership in a Collaborative Recreation Planning Scenic Film Festival at the Tara Theatre in Atlanta again; process that includes broad representation of trail and host both our annual Spring event, the Wild & Woolly recreationists and the U.S. Forest Service. The first Fundraiser, and our Fall retreat at Vogel State Park. step in this process was to gather public input about trails use, and identify which trails are in the most The Search Committee is hard at work to locate the best need of study. The next step will include analysis of possible new full-time Executive Director. They are casting 200 miles of “trails of concern”. This work will be done their net far and wide to find the right person for the job. In by an outside contractor, to be selected by the Forest the meantime, please feel free to call me with any suggestions Service. The work is paid for, in part, by a generous or input you may have: this is your organization. grant from the Howard R. Dobbs Jr. Foundation. This is precedent-setting work for this country and we are Thanks for your support! proud to assist in the leadership of this program. We need to thank Wayne Jenkins, former executive director, for the lion’s share in getting this process underway and Joe Gatins, district leader, for picking up where Wayne left off. 2 Georgia ForestWatch Search Committee seeks Contact Information new Executive Director Georgia ForestWatch www.gafw.org 15 Tower Rd. Ellijay, GA 30540 By now you probably know that our Executive Director, Wayne 706-635-TREE (8733) Jenkins, has left Georgia ForestWatch to join the Cook Inlet Georgia ForestWatch is a 501(c)3 Keeper in Homer, Alaska. Wayne has done an outstanding job Nonprofit educational corporation. for us, and we hate to lose him. But we recognize that change is Forest News edited by Jennifer Lopez, Joe Gatins his wife, Lori, have long dreamed of living in Alaska, where their and Honor Woodard Layout by Eleanor Thompson. son resides. We wish them the best of everything and for Wayne every success in his new position. STAFF Robin Hitner, Interim Executive Director Diane Freer, Office Manager Jennifer Lopez, Outreach Director Doll, past President of the board of directors, Craig Richardson, Darren Wolfgang, Forest Ecologist our Treasurer, and Jim Walker, a long-time District Leader for ForestWatch. Suggestions concerning the search process and possible candidates can be directed to Ted at 706-878-2526 or BOARD MEMBERS ADVISORS [email protected]. Applicants who are interested in the Kasey Sturm, President Butch Clay Peg Griffith, Vice President Sarah Francisco position should email their resume with a cover letter and contact Patton Dycus, Secretary Bob Kibler information for three references to [email protected], or Craig Richardson, Treasurer Audrey Moylan mail the same to: James Dawson Charles Seabrook Executive Director Position Ted Doll James Sullivan Georgia ForestWatch Andy Edwards David Govus 15 Tower Road Ida Long Ellijay, Georgia 30540-2243 Honor Woodard We are looking for an Executive Director with a strong background Goodloe Yancey IV in, and knowledge of, forest ecology, forestry, environmental prominent organization. GEORGIA FORESTWATCH DISTRICT LEADERS Chattooga River Ranger District Oconee National Forest Joe Gatins 706-782-9944 JP Schmidt 706-613-8483 on environmental issues pertaining to the national forests in (Rabun, Towns and White counties) Caleb Walker 706-248-4910 Georgia and watersheds therein, maintain funding and implement (Greene, Jasper, Jones, Blue Ridge Ranger District Monroe, Morgan, the annual budget, provide oversight on all programs, direct the Dennis Stansell 706-747-5892 Oconee, Oglethorpe Wally Warren 706-754-0150 & Putnam counties) Executive Director reports directly to the ForestWatch Board of (Dawson & Towns counties) Directors. Tom & Sally Colkett 770-316-7609 Conasauga Ranger District Jim Walker 706-273-3465 Robin Hitner 678-294-3256 (Fannin, Gilmer, Lumpkin (Chattooga, Gordon, Murray, and Union counties Floyd, Walker & Whitfield counties) Our sincere thanks to Wayne for his seven-plus years of exceptional David Govus 706-276-2512 service to Georgia ForestWatch. We appreciate his passion for (Fannin & Gilmer counties) the organization as well as for the environment, and admire his tenacity and diplomacy in handling the many thorny problems and issues that he has encountered along the way. Wayne – your tenure will be long remembered and highly valued. ■ Cover photo credit: Peter McIntosh Winter 2012 3 Looking back: 25 years of watching your forests by Wayne Jenkins : Former Executive Director It is important occasionally, while we are forging ahead, to gaze backwards, to remember our accomplishments, if for no other Chattahoochee Forest Protection Act of 1991 reason than to rescue them from the wilderness of time. Early forest preservation efforts, in reaction to rampant clear- cutting and road building, centered on increasing efforts to Your ForestWatch is 25 years old and it is important to gain permanent legislative protection. Wilderness, Scenic ponder the success of the past, recall those that made it a reality and National Recreation Area designations for special areas and remind ourselves why we continue to struggle to protect of the forest with least development was championed by U.S. the forests we love. Below, we highlight a few highpoints along Rep. Ed Jenkins. Previous legislation shepherded by Jenkins the way. For more details on our history please, especially if had protected 45,000 acres in creating Tray Mountain, Rich you are a new member, please go to our website and see “Our Mountain and Raven Cliffs Wilderness. The new bill, passed History” under the About Us tab. in 1991, protected another 50,000 acres as Blood Mountain and Mark Trail Wilderness, Coosa Bald Scenic Area and 1996 – The End of Clear Cutting in Georgia the Springer Mountain National Recreation Area. This was the last legislative protection of national forestlands on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. 2008 – Anderson Creek OHV area closed permanently Georgia ForestWatch volunteers struggled through the 1980s and early 1990s to halt destructive timber sales characterized by clear cutting, siltation of streams, runaway road building and disruption of rare habitat. This effort was finally rewarded by a federal court decision in the 1996 case, Sierra v Martin, The permanent closure of Anderson Creek culminated a which stopped the agency when a panel of federal judges ruled decade-long campaign by Georgia ForestWatch to end the that the U.S. Forest Service had failed in its duty to monitor damage that off-road vehicles were causing in this sensitive the effects of its timber program -- bringing