Important update, December 19, 2014
Land Between the Lakes Supervisor Tina Tilley has announced that, on account of the tremendous outpouring of public concern, the current Scenery Management Plan will be set aside with a new process beginning in summer, 2015. Thank you to everyone who submitted comments!
You can read the two letters Kentucky Heartwood sent to the Forest Service pointing out the illegality of the process and other concerns by clicking the icons below
Will Forest Service plans to log this forest enhance your experience of LBL? The Forest Service thinks so.
The U.S. Forest Service at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL) released for comment their Draft Scenery Management System Plan. This plan suggested that the public will have better recreational experiences at LBL by selling timber and leasing farmland than by maintaining natural forests.
Comments were originally due by Wednesday, December 17, 2014. The comment period was then extended to December 31, 2014. Now, on account of the tremendous outpouring of public concern, the current Scenery Management Plan will be set aside with a new process beginning in summer, 2015.
If you still want to send in comments, you can do so by emailing lblinfo@fs.fed.us with “Scenery Management System Plan” included in the subject line of your email.
Comments can also be postal mailed to:
Tina R. Tilley, Area Supervisor
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
100 Van Morgan Drive
Golden Pond, KY 42211
The Draft Scenery Management System Plan is a document that will be incorporated into the Land Between the Lakes management plan, or Area Plan, and applied to management projects across the forest. At the project level, the finalized Scenery Management Plan “provides guidance and strategies for working toward the desired scenic and visual conditions, establishes a system for analyzing project level scenic and visual effects, and creates a basis for recommended and required mitigation and visual enhancement standards.”
According to the Forest Service’s own inventory of public perceptions at LBL, two of the top three characteristics visitors to LBL associate with areas of high scenic value are “Wildness” and “Solitude.” The Forest Service also states that the “top general scenic place” according to the public is “the woods” (24%), followed by “on the trail” (18%) and “on the water” (18%).
The Forest Service thinks that this commercially leased farmland at LBL provides visitors with a better recreational experience than natural forests.
Do you agree? (Photo Credit Tennessee Heartwood)
Despite this public feedback, the Forest Service is advancing the notion, and policy, that commercial logging and the conversion of forest to hay fields and cropland provide better and more appropriate scenic quality for public enjoyment at LBL than do natural forest landscapes. The plan even goes so far as to recommend that clearcutting, timber harvests, and herbicide spraying be “used to achieve long-term Desired Landscape Character Conditions.”
This is consistent with Forest Service claims in the Pisgah Bay Project that logging the forest around Star Camp and other popular areas will benefit “visitor recreation experiences” – because nothing gets people in the woods like chiggers, briars, and impenetrable thickets.
To produce the Draft Scenery Management System Plan, the Forest Service at LBL contracted with a landscape architect from New Mexico, and the scenic values given highest emphasis and priority in this plan are more reminiscent of those out west: Open land and vistas. Examples of landscapes in the highest Scenic Attractiveness Class (Class A) include reservoir shorelines and maintained pastures, both of which are unnatural at LBL. Logged and burned forest are given a Scenic Attractiveness Class rating of “B”, and intact, unlogged forest is given the lowest Scenic Attractiveness Class of “C.” Uncut, unburned forest is included in the same Existing Scenic Integrity (ESI) level as administrative facilities with parking lots.
Will logging this small stand of old-growth along the North South National Recreation Trail enhance visitor experiences as the Forest Service claims?
While prescribed fire may be important to promote certain native flora and fauna in some portions of Land Between the Lakes, the Forest Service at LBL already maintains more openlands than any other eastern national forest through commercial crop leases and hayfield management. Still, the Draft Scenery Management Plan complains that “there are relatively small amounts of open lands at Land Between the Lakes,” and makes recommendations to improve visitor experiences by wasting money on unnatural and unpopular management actions like commercial logging and farm and pasture leases.
The Forest Service needs to be reminded that the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Areas is a national forest, not a city park, and that it is part of the great Eastern Deciduous Forest – not the grasslands and deserts of New Mexico.
The Scenery Management System Plan is supposed to be about enhancing and encouraging outdoor recreational tourism and education in this unique national forest. So what are the scenic qualities that bring you and your family to Land Between the Lakes? Let the Forest Service know!
Comments should be emailed to lblinfo@fs.fed.us by December 17, 2014 with “Scenery Management System Plan” included in the subject line of your email. Comments can also be postal mailed to:
Tina R. Tilley, Area Supervisor
Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area
100 Van Morgan Drive
Golden Pond, KY 42211
The official News Release from the Forest Service along with the Draft Scenery Management Plan can be viewed by clicking here.
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