Kentucky Heartwood Enters Formal Objection to Jellico Logging Project, Urges Public to Act
Berea, KY, February 2026
Kentucky Heartwood announces that it will formally participate in the objection period for the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed Jellico Vegetation Management Project in the Daniel Boone National Forest, and is calling on community members, local governments, scientists, and concerned citizens who made comments to submit objections as well.
The proposed project would authorize timber harvests and associated roadwork on approximately 9,500 acres of forest in the Jellico Mountains in McCreary and Whitley counties, along the Kentucky-Tennessee border. These harvests would include large-scale clear-cuts over multiple decades, one of the most significant logging proposals in the forest’s history. Kentucky Heartwood and other critics, however, argue the proposed project relies on outdated planning assumptions and does not adequately address site-specific risks.
“This is not sustainable forest management,” said a representative of Kentucky Heartwood. “The project is being justified under a forest management plan that is more than 20 years old, yet would guide logging decisions for the next four decades. This raises serious questions about whether current science, climate conditions, and on-the-ground realities of the communities in the area are being meaningfully considered.”
According to the Forest Service’s Environmental Assessment, the project would include clearcutting, two-aged shelterwood harvests, deferment harvests, and thinning, including on steep slopes in headwater areas. Kentucky Heartwood points to independent geological analyses and landslide inventories showing the Jellico Mountains contain unstable terrain and a history of slope failures, concerns the group says are not sufficiently addressed in the agency’s review.
Clearcutting in headwaters and steep terrain directly affects local communities, especially those already vulnerable to flooding and infrastructure damage. “The project area is highly prone to landslides,” the organization explains. “These forests play a critical role in stabilizing soils and protecting the communities below from erosion, landslides, and flooding.”
Public interest in the project has been significant. During the initial public comment period in 2024, more than 900 public comments were submitted opposing the proposed action or calling for reduced scale and alternative management approaches, according to local reporting.
“As a logger, hunter, and conservationist, I feel like the overall aspect of clearcutting is a horrible idea for our mountains, “ said Whitley County resident Brandon Bowlin regarding the Jellico project. “We’ve done seen devastating flooding and landslides in Whitley County along Jackson Creek in the Little Wolf Community. The slides all have one thing in common and that’s at some point in the past 10 years and even less in some cases, the mountains above them have been clearcut.”
Kentucky Heartwood criticized the Forest Service for moving forward with the project largely unchanged despite the community’s response: “These are public lands, and the public participated in good faith,” the group said. “Yet the Forest Service is proceeding with essentially the same proposal, without meaningful modification, despite overwhelming community concern.”
Local community member and organizer Theresa Martin said “Our children of today will be in their 50’s by the time this project is done and will never have a say in what happens to their forest. The Forest Service is writing themselves a blank check to devastate these mountains and ignore us for decades. They had a great opportunity to do the right thing for the citizens of Whitley and McCreary counties. But instead, they are choosing greed for corporations, and intend to give the people flooding, landslides, sediment in our streams, noise, and invasive species, all at a cost to taxpayers..”
“These forests protect people,” the group stated. “When they are removed at this scale, communities pay the price.”
Kentucky Heartwood is urging the public, local governments, and community organizations to participate in the objection process and to request that the Forest Service reevaluate the project’s scope, methods, and reliance on outdated planning documents.
The objection period is open for 45 days following the project’s legal notice publication. Information on how to submit an objection is available through the U.S. Forest Service.
Public lands belong to the public, and meaningful participation is essential to safeguard them.
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