ASHEVILLE – The U.S. Forest Service announced the final version of the Pisgah-Nantahala Land Management Plan in February 2023, drawing criticism from conservation advocates about its allowance for aggressive logging practices.
Now five of those groups have filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service, alleging that its plan to log a section of Nantahala National Forest violates the National Forest Management Act.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which has an Asheville office, filed the lawsuit in the Asheville Division of the U.S. Western District Court of North Carolina. This legal center filed the complaint on behalf of the Chattooga Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, MountainTrue and the Sierra Club.
The groups argued that a 15-acre logging portion of a project located near Cashiers was inconsistent with two aspects of the recently approved Forest Plan. This is known as the “Southside Project.”
The Nantahala National Forest covers more than a half-million acres of mountainous terrain in the westernmost region of Western North Carolina. It is the large of the state’s four national forests and is open to timber harvesting, hiking, fishing, hunting, paddling, horseback riding and more activities.