RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina is home to one of the most-visited swaths of national forestland, the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests. The future of about 450,000 acres of the combined land — nearly half of it — is now in the hands of the U.S. Forest Service after eight years of arguments about the best use of the forests.
Since 2014, the federal agency has been working on a management plan for the future of the land. The plan could be in place for up to 30 years. The forests, which stretch along the state’s western border and include parts of the Appalachian Trail and Blue Ridge Parkway, drive recreational tourism in the 18 counties they touch. But the land is also a key resource for the state’s forestry industry.
Last year, after many meetings with stakeholder groups, the Forest Service released a draft plan that would open more areas to logging than stakeholders had even asked for. It received more than 22,000 objections to the plan — more than any other in the agency’s history, mostly in support of more protections for the forests.
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