Public Comment Opportunity: The GAP Plan
The USFS recently released the draft Environmental Assessment for the Grandfather, Appalachian, and Pisgah (GAP) Plan. You can learn more about the plan here, which includes a detailed map of the proposal. Public comment is now open until August 12th, 2024.
The two main objectives of this project are to reduce wildfire risk and restore fire-adapted forests, and the proposal covers a lot of land on the Pisgah. It could potentially outline fire and vegetation management plans for 10+ years. There is overwhelming support for the purpose and need for this plan from many stakeholders, including nonprofits focused on conservation and preservation. We believe in sharing this information and the public comment opportunity, as we feel for those that recreate on our public lands, it is also our public responsibility to be curious about the plans, purpose, and needs of our forest.
So, how would mountain biking and recreation access be impacted?
From our research and conversations, for the most part, our recreation access would not be much more impacted than what we already see during prescribed burns. It is important to note that areas which have been identified for commercial vegetation management with saw timber production may experience more lengthy temporary closures. According to the released draft, “For example, for safety reasons the Forest Service often requires system roads or trails to be closed during timber sale activities. Closures start when logging begins and are lifted when logging is done, or during an extended pause in operations. As a result, roads and trails could be subject to temporary closures and detours during vegetation treatments. Based on previous projects, closures would typically last 6 to 12 months.” You can see the map of identified areas for commercial timber here, by navigating to the “Gap Map.” The areas identified for potential timber sale activities are marked in blue. You may notice some of the areas identified for commercial management include highly trafficked spots like Bent Creek (Wolf Branch and Boyd Branch are specifically called out in the draft). Due to planned limitations explained in the draft, these impacts would not occur quickly, but may occur at several points over the next decade.
Pisgah SORBA will be submitting public comments expressing support for this plan, with underlying concern for the potential extended impact to recreation access. We will advocate for avoiding impact to existing trail systems whenever possible. We will also encourage careful management of the project, as considering both the time of year and the locations of activities is necessary to avoid temporary closures during peak seasons. We encourage the public to also be engaged with these opportunities. You can submit a public comment here.
