Opinion: Keep Heavy Machinery Off the Blue Ridge Parkway

Editor’s Note: Earlier this Summer, the National Park Service announced plans to bring heavy machinery onto Blue Ridge Parkway land to remove trees and bulldoze forest in the name of “wildfire fuel reduction.” MountainTrue and our environmental partners have advocated against these plans, attending meetings and sending action alerts to our members. With MountainTrue’s support, Sally Watanabe, a summer intern on the Southeast Field Team with Defenders of Wildlife and a Master’s student in environmental management at Duke University, wrote the following Op-Ed articulating our position on the Park Service’s proposed plans. The piece was first published July 17 in the Asheville Citizen-Times.

By Sally Watanabe, Asheville summer intern with Defenders of Wildlife

This summer, visitors on the Blue Ridge Parkway might spot a bobcat– not the kind you’d hope to see on vacation, but the kind with a diesel engine and hydraulic arm. If the National Park Service (NPS) executes its plan to use heavy machinery in removing downed trees from nearly 3,000 acres of Parkway land, it will have damaging effects on recovering ecosystems and create more long term harm than good. There are alternative ways to address fire risk that are better suited to protect the wellbeing of all communities, and NPS needs to reevaluate the project before it causes unnecessary and irreversible impacts. 

Starting in August, NPS plans to conduct what it calls “hazardous fuel reduction” to remove trees, bulldoze roads into hillsides, and clear areas of up to 5,000 square feet for log landing sites. The main concern driving this project is fire risk, especially to homes within proximity to the Parkway. Indeed, extended drought conditions have left the landscape drier than usual, but the majority of large debris leftover is not the real threat. 

Fire science tells us that dead wood larger than 8 inches in diameter takes 10,000+ hours of sustained drought to lose most of its moisture, so the massive downed trees far from roads are poor candidates for ignition. While large logs left to decompose actually absorb moisture and provide habitat for wildlife, smaller snags and debris closer to the forest edge pose greater fire risk. The vague plan raises many questions while also sidelining local conservation groups trying to support the project with data and recommendations.

NPS is invoking emergency authority in this act, which bypasses certain processes such as a standard public comment period. Instead, they held “open house style” meetings in Asheville, Boone, and Galax over three days in May with one week of notice. There were no microphones, no public record, and no collective voice. Attendees rotated between stations in free form, similar to a science fair, while NPS staff answered individual questions in isolation. 

The emergency designation also invoked a clause in the Endangered Species Act that waives necessary consultation with wildlife experts on potential harm to vulnerable species or habitat before work begins. That means any impacts the project may have on threatened species wouldn’t get reported until the project is already underway or even finished, rendering the power of that reporting essentially moot. This is especially concerning since logging is planned in biodiversity hotspot areas like the stretch between Craven Gap and Elk Mountain Road. 

This corridor is home to one of North Carolina’s largest known populations of Cerulean Warblers, who migrate over 2,500 miles annually from South America to breed. It also harbors rare and endemic plant species that grow delicately alongside massive Oak and recovering Chestnut trees. If NPS can wait two years after a disaster to use emergency authority in moving forward with debris removal, surely they could afford a bit more time to go through a review process? 

“There is a right way to balance the need to reduce wildfire risk and the National Park Service’s mission to preserve nature for future generations,” explains Josh Kelly, the Resilient Forests Director at MountainTrue. “That balance would look like a more targeted project creating a 100 to 200 foot defensible perimeter around structures. Fear is being used to sell a project many times larger than is necessary.”

The “home ignition zone,” or HIZ, is widely recognized and backed by wildfire researchers who understand the primary fire risk is within 100-200 feet of a home. However, the NPS plan calls for fuel removal extending up to 500 feet from some structures, and in some areas up to 1,200 feet. A targeted approach focused on the HIZ and smaller fuel loads near roads, trails and homes using chainsaw crews would address the actual risk without sending heavy machinery deep into mature forest. 

Logging roads and landings would compact hillsides, increase erosion, and create severe gaps that invite invasive species to spread. In a landscape still destabilized from Helene’s landslides, bringing heavy equipment and creating more disturbance has real ecological consequences, in addition to driving tourism away. Even if we weren’t given the opportunity to weigh in, we can still speak up for our Parkway. MountainTrue and other organizations have been pushing for transparency and a seat at the table, asking NPS to listen.

Join us, and find our petition here.