Events Roundup

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our volunteer workdays this past month! We had a great time partnering with Carolina Mountain Club and Friends of Hominy Creek Greenway on trail maintenance and invasive plant removal. Folks showed up and showed out, completing some excellent work on the Mountains to Sea Trail even with wildfire smoke in the air. Our invasive plant removal work along Hominy Creek Greenway was also a huge success, with 25 participants cutting and removing invasive plants and applying herbicide to ensure our native species can flourish in that area.

Get Involved

Ongoing – Landslide Documentation Project: Sign up to document landslides on public lands in Western NC! We have already had 49 people sign up and multiple data entries input already – thank you to everyone who is helping with this project! Sign up here! If you’re having any trouble using the Survey123 app or would like additional assistance, please fill out this survey.

Saturday, May 3 – Wildflower Walk and Garlic Mustard Pull: Join MountainTrue as we enjoy spring wildflowers and pull invasive garlic mustard on the Appalachian Trail near Max Patch. Read more and sign up here!

Friday, May 9 – Nature Yoga: In partnership with Highlands-Cashier Land Trust, join MountainTrue for a rejuvenating experience of nature yoga and forest bathing in Highlands, NC. Read more and sign up here!

Wednesday, May 28 – Conservation Conversations: Come meet some of the organizations in your community working to recover and conserve the places we love and share at Conservation Conversations. We’ll be at RAD Brewing and joined by Asheville Greenworks, Hemlock Restoration Initiative, and Carolina Mountain Club. Confirm your attendance here!

Friday, May 30 – Trail Workday: Join MountainTrue and Carolina Mountain Club for a day of trail maintenance near Asheville! The work location will be decided closer to the date, and we’ll communicate that to you the week of the workday. Sign up here!

Saturday, June 21 – BioBlitz: Help MountainTrue document biodiversity at Hickory Nut Gap Farm near Asheville. Volunteer with us in the afternoon, then celebrate a job well done at the evening barn dance! Sign up here!

In the News

After more than a decade of public engagement, partnerships, and planning, the U.S. Forest Service had the opportunity to get it right. Instead, on March 20, 2023, they finalized a Forest Management Plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests that takes us backward — threatening some of the most beloved and biologically diverse landscapes in Western North Carolina. That’s why MountainTrue is taking legal action. We’re joining with our partners to sue the Forest Service over its deeply flawed Forest Plan — a plan that undermines public trust, sacrifices rare species habitat and existing old-growth forests, and sets a dangerous precedent for forest management across the Southern Appalachians. Read more.

Records show flaws in data used to back logging in Pisgah, Nantahala: Resilient Forests Director Josh Kelly is quoted in this piece from the Asheville Watchdog. The 2023 Management Plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests increases logging six times over the previous plan. The models used to justify the expansion fail to account for natural disturbances like storms and wildfires, and are based on what the forests looked like prior to European colonization. Environmental groups like MountainTrue worry over where logging will occur, rather than how much – with particular concern over the potential for logging in rare old-growth areas. Hiking through an area of Brushy Mountain logged last summer, Josh Kelly encountered a felled tree aged 171 years old: “My emotional response is, gosh, I hope someone does something to honor this really exceptional, venerable tree,” he said. “I hope it was worth it. And my anger is, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.”

Volunteer Spotlight

MountainTrue volunteer Andy Widenhouse has been hard at work documenting landslides for our landslide survey citizen science project! Andy has paid particular attention to the impacts of Hurricane Helene on Brook Trout streams, creating a map that shows how degradation of these streams has reduced Brook Trout populations post-Helene. Thanks for all your hard work, Andy!

Federal Policy Updates Affecting Public Lands & Forests

Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names Eliminated by Trump Administration: The ACRPN was terminated in early March. Established by previous Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, the ACRPN existed to identify and replace derogatory place names. During her tenure, Secretary Haaland replaced 650 place names containing a slur for Indigenous women with names chosen by local communities and Tribal Nations. The ACRPN identified an additional 1500 derogatory place names.

National forests face the hatchet as Trump administration boosts logging: On April 3rd, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins released a memo designating an emergency situation on National Forest lands. The designation inappropriately rolls back environmental protections and encourages logging on an additional 60% of forest lands. The move comes in response to an Executive Order signed last month.

Trump considering plan to change how the country fights wildfires: The Trump Administration is considering creating a new federal agency focused on extinguishing fires quickly after they start. State and federal officials worry that this plan could erode safety standards and place too much emphasis on simply putting out fires, rather than focusing holistically on land management that reduces wildfire risk.