Brawley Mountain Woodland Project

 

I live in the mountains of North Georgia, not far from the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, and much of my free time is spend wandering or hiking in the Chattahoochee National Forest. One of the reasons I have for getting out into the forest, other than solitude and pure appreciation of nature, is to check on what the Forest Service is doing. I serve as Toccoa District Leader of Georgia ForestWatch, an outstanding organization whose purpose is "is to protect and restore the native ecosystems of Georgia's Mountain and Piedmont public lands, and to inform the citizens of Georgia about the values of these landscapes." We do this mostly by encouraging the Forest Service to manage the public lands under their control in such a way as to promote a truly "healthy forest." Sometimes this involves lawsuits, but more often just the regular give and take of Forest Service scoping notices and Georgia ForestWatch responses.

Our response to the Brawley Mountain Woodland Project is considerably longer than most scoping responses (45 pages) because we consider the proposed project particularly insidious. The response is the result of much research and ground-truthing and serves as a good example of the complexity of the issues involved. It is worth reading if you are interested in Forest Service management and the health of Southern Appalachian forests.

Click HERE to download the Brawley Mountain Woodland Project document in Word format.