Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Joyce Kilmer Backgrounder 12.1.10



A detailed backgrounder on the
Joyce Kilmer hemlock felling project


·       “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions, and which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable … “
--  Definition of Wilderness from The Wilderness Act of September 3, 1964, PL 88-577



ROBBINSVILLE, N.C. -- Anyone visiting the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest since mid-November is in for a shock.  Those who have visited it previously probably will not recognize it.  New visitors might wonder why the two-mile loop trails of the Memorial Forest, part of the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness, looks much like the site of an artillery test range.  That is because the U.S. Forest Service, the federal agency responsible for management of this national forestland and Wilderness, used explosives and chain saws to drop 150 large hemlock trees that were dying of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid infestation and because a previous Forest Service effort to try to save some of these hemlocks failed.  The dead hemlocks were alleged to be endangering safety of visitors along Joyce Kilmer trails.  The explosives were used in an attempt to “mimic a natural event, such as strong down-drafts or thunderstorms,” in the words an agency planning document.  Chain saws were to be used to down trees that were in danger of falling on top of pedestrian bridges and then were to be “fuzzed” with explosives to mimic natural events.


Whether one agrees with these justifications or not, this largely virgin forest now looks like an unholy mess.  Fractured hemlock stumps are to be found at every turn of the trail, stump after stump after stump.  Very big and solid boles lean up to the trail’s edge, spewing the acrid smell of the bark that was once a favorite of the leather tanning industry.  No sound or birds.  There is little natural about this forestscape.

Visitor reaction

My wife and I visited the site and walked the lower loop of the memorial trail on Monday, November 22, three weeks after the Forest Service first detonated the powder and cranked up the chain saws and one week after the project’s completion.  “There was no regard for the spirit of the trees or of this forest.  They were not allowed to die a natural death,” she said.  “This was not natural, and it is going to affect the forest for years to come.  If this was such a big problem, why didn’t they just move the trail?”

A first-time visitor from south Georgia came to Joyce Kilmer the weekend of November 20-21. “The place looked as if it had been shelled,” he said. “I have heard of the place and its wonders for many years, and it is ironic that when I should finally see it, it quickly brought to mind the photos by Matthew Brady, of Civil War battlefields immediately after the shooting stopped.” 


Photos of the scarred stumps “underscore the impression of explosive violence,” that visitor added.  “The appropriateness of this place as a memorial to a deceased soldier of the Great War, noted for a poem about trees, is perhaps temporarily enhanced by its present appearance as a battlefield.  But as an example of the beauty of trees it has been rendered less than useful for the next several years by the current ‘improvements’ at the hands of the Forest Service and its contractors.”

Joyce Kilmer Sidebar, 12.1.10

Qualified support for
 hemlock felling plan

As the Joyce Kilmer hemlock felling project came to completion, the U.S. Forest Service made available the project planning file and answered further questions about the work, suggesting that the agency had received additional verbal support for its plans.

“Cheoah Ranger District staff briefed Brent Martin of The Wilderness Society concerning the project,” said Candace Wyman, (Acting) Public Affairs Staff Officer for the National Forests of North Carolina.  “Brent Martin, due to his frequent interactions with WildLaw (Josh Kelly), Southern Environmental Law Center (D. J. Gerken), and Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition (Hugh Irwin), offered to contact those individuals.  He did so, and relayed back to the district that they supported the project,” she added in an e-mail of Nov. 17. “Thereafter, district staff discussed the project directly with Josh Kelly and D. J. Gerken, who have reiterated their support.”

Wilderness Society recollection

"Others were contacted, but I was not chosen by the Forest Service as the person to contact them and convince them that this was the right thing to do," Martin said.  "They made their own decisions, based on their professional opinions."

In separate interviews and communication, Kelly, Gerken and Irwin confirmed some contact regarding the issue – these are called “verbal scopings” by the Forest Service -- but all qualified their expressions of support for the plan.