FS-2025-0001-456481

The N.C. High Peaks Trail Association, a 501(c)3 with 150 members, calls on the Forest Service to reject the repeal of the Roadless Rule. Based in Yancey County, N.C., our group leads hikes, promotes conservation and has donated thousands of hours to maintaining and improving hiking trails on the Black Mountains. This chain includes Mt. Mitchell and a dozen other peaks topping 6,000 feet, making it one of the most unique natural areas in the entire Eastern U.S. The Black Mountain Crest Trail is one of the most scenic and spectacular hikes in the East, taking visitors on a rugged trip through a unique, high-altitude spruce/fir forest akin to those found 1,000 miles to the north in Canada. The repeal would allow logging on the entire eastern flank of the Blacks, an area where extensive roads already exist behind locked USFS gates. Loggers could begin cutting the mature Appalachian hardwood and spruce/fir forests on the mountain’s slopes almost immediately, irreparably damaging what are now gorgeous views and peaceful hikes through deep, shaded woods. The impact on wildlife would be drastic, as this area is largely undeveloped and thus a refuge for animals. Water quality would be adversely impacted as the many small streams and sizable creeks running east off the Black’s escarpment feed into the South Toe River. The local economy would be severely hurt, as dozens of small businesses offering house rental options have opened in recent years, taking advantage of the boom in such tourism. Burnsville’s growing downtown, just beginning to thrive with shops, a refurbished historic hotel and new restaurants, would take a tremendous hit, as the Blacks and Mt. Mitchell are the county’s main tourism attraction. Hikers are not going to come to an area to hike through miles of logged-over wilderness. Word will spread quickly through that community and visitation will drop. Motorcyclists will choose other areas of the Blue Ridge Parkway for their scenic rides when the overlooks in Yancey look down on a patchwork of large-scale logging. The Blacks were devastated 100 years ago when industrial-scale logging stripped the mountains bare. The slopes took decades to re-grow and recover. The USFS must uphold its tradition of stewardship of this land by NOT repealing the Roadless Rule and reverting to large-scale logging. That would fly in the face of the agency’s own decades of scientific research on what it takes to support healthy forests. Your agency’s mandate is to protect the resource for the greatest public good. The interests of the recreational community are far too big and important to ignore. Hikers, fishermen, hunters and free-spending tourists leave prosperous businesses in their wake. Large-scale logging enriches a tiny number of individuals and leaves little but forlorn landscapes and damaged land that attracts nobody.