Group Blasts Bush on Appalachian Trail

[jamotto]

Link

quote:

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By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - About one of every 13 miles of the Appalachian Trail between Maine and Georgia passes through national forests where a Bush administration plan could allow clear cutting of wooded areas, an environmental group said Tuesday.

The Campaign to Protect America's Lands said it found that 163 of the popular trail's 2,174 miles fall within the 58 million acres where the Bush administration proposed lifting a ban on logging, road-building and other development.

Designated as the first National Scenic Trail in 1968, the Appalachian Trail draws thousands of hikers each year, including some who attempt to travel its entire length. Most enjoy shorter segments within easy reach of cities in the East.

"I don't think that walking through clear cuts or mines is what people are looking for," said Peter Altman, director of the campaign, which is part of the Rockefeller Family Fund's Environmental Integrity Project.

Altman, however, said he knows of no plans to allow timbering along any of the 163 miles of trail in six states covered by the new policy ÔÇö Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

Officials with the U.S. Forest Service had no immediate comment.

Most of the trail is protected by existing forest management plans, according to the Appalachian Trail Conference, a volunteer group in Harpers Ferry, W. Va., which works closely with the Forest Service in managing the trail.

The administration announced in July that it would allow logging in areas that former President Clinton (news - web sites) had put off-limits to such activity shortly before he left office in 2001.

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[Guest]

Sounds like a nut to me, the trail and the forest directly ajacent to it, are protected from such things, and no amount of changing of policy will change that.

The new policy of opening up that area for logging etc, is one of the best things that I have heard from the Bush admin yet.

THe timber industry is suffering badly, leave the old growth alone, but continue cutting on our tree farms, which is really all these forests are now.

[Grizzle]

The sections of the Appalachian Trail that I've been on (MD, WVA, PA) are not tree farms.

But my gut feeling about this is that it's getting over-blown. Of course there is bound to be some impact along the trail if not only from the noise and traffic disturbing the peace and quiet of the Great Outdoors.