Globe Timber Management Plan Is Now In The Hands Of U.S. Forest Service’s Joy Malone

By Scott Nicholson
Now that the second public-comment period for the Globe Project has ended, the next decision rests with one person.
Joy Malone, district ranger for the Grandfather District of the Pisgah National Forest, is perusing the comments submitted through Jan. 2 about the U.S. Forest Service cutting project below Blowing Rock. Malone said once she makes her decision, there will be a 45-day window for appeals of the decision.
After public opposition to the plan during the original comment period in August, the park service brought back a revised plan that trimmed the logging area from 231 to 212 acres. Opponents who fear destruction of the view and possible damage to the ecosystem still believe the plan will make a dramatic impact on publicly owned land.
“Right now, we are still gathering comments and making an analysis,” Malone said. “The decision will come sometime after that. We got quite a few comments, so it could take a while.”
Malone didn’t have a firm deadline for a decision, saying it depended on the breadth of the comments. She said some were redundant but all the issues would be addressed in the final plan.
Malone also clarified some of the seemingly conflicting claims of opponents: both that the project area had 300-year-old trees and that it had been clear-cut in the early 1990s.
Malone said there could be 300-year-old trees in the area, but those were likely culls that had been neglected in earlier timber cuts. Most of the mountain slopes were heavily logged shortly after the 19th century, and a forest service cutting in the 1990s probably left some of those trees that had been initially skipped over by the timber industry.
“We don’t do core samples of every tree,” Malone said. “There may be some older species that weren’t logged much or might have had defects.”
She said the oldest stand of trees, a collection of species, is 110 years old, and most are 70 to 90 years. The environmental assessment mapped out the ages of the stands, which are available for public view on the forest service’s Web site. Malone said before any logging is conducted, the forest service will designate trees and stands that will remain. These “leave trees” will be determined on a case-by-case basis, and Malone said older trees that weren’t logged before “will probably get left again.”
Malone said the Globe Project was part of ongoing forest management, and the forest service also has a mandate to supply products for the timber industry. That money is used to enact the management plans, which could include roads, invasive species control, and the application of herbicides. One of the goals is to provide a more diversity habitat by creating “new growth” or scrub forest, a naturally occurring cycle that historically had been conducted by storms and wildfires.
Malone said the Globe Project was part of the regular management of an 11,000-acre area, which includes rotating forest cuts. Malone said that is why the Globe area was cut in the 1990s and again has come up in the rotation. She said there are different ages of tree stands across the entire area, and one of the goals of the cutting is to break the homogeneity of the canopy.
Once Malone makes her decision, anyone can file an appeal within a 45-day time frame. If an appeal is filed, the decision would be reviewed by the state supervisor of the National Forest Service, Mary Sue Hilliard.
Michael Froehlich, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-5), said there is currently no action on a proposed scenic designation for the Grandfather district or the entire Pisgah National Forest. He said Foxx was closely watching the situation and was sensitive to the opinions of Blowing Rock residents and suggested a bill could be pursued even after Malone’s decision.
The forest service held two local informational sessions on the project. The towns of Boone and Blowing Rock, as well as the Watauga County Commissioners, adopted resolutions supporting a scenic designation that would prevent most timber cutting in the area.