Coopers Creek

To view the US Forest Service Scoping notice, click here.
To view the proposed Commercial Treatment, click here.
To view the proposed Non-Commercial Treatments, click here.
To view the proposed Road Changes, click here.
To view the proposed Prescribed Burn areas, click here.
To view Sierra Club's Comments (prepared by Georgia ForestWatch), click here.
Attachment 1 and Attachment 2
coopers creek
 

 

 

Approximately 3,500 acres of some of the most biologically rich stands of the Chattahoochee National Forest face drastic clearing under a new plan from the US Forest Service.  The Coopers Creek Watershed Project, announced in a May scoping letter sent by the Service's Blue Ridge District, would cut or heavily thin an area situated in the Cooper Creek, Coosa Creek, and Youngcane Creek watersheds in Union County, Georgia.  Over 1,500 acres of the project site are dominated by healthy stands of oaks, many of which are over 100 years old.

A year after the US Forest Service named the new Forest Supervisor for the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, Betty Mathews, it announces this vast and complicated “watershed” project, the worst we’ve seen in decades, that is essentially an extensive logging project involving 125 “stands” of timber and seven different “treatments.”

These treatments include oak and pine “thinning” that, while not technically clear cutting, amount to the removal 112 acres of 100-year old oak trees and 843 acres of white pine, with some mature oak mixed in. “Canopy thinning” proposes to remove up to half of the trees in given areas, meaning 466 acres of Yellow poplar and various oak (Chestnut, White, Northern Red) will be cleared.

Much of this thinning would depend on the application of dangerous herbicides, which are ineffective when not properly applied, to prevent cut trees from resprouting.  To be effective, these herbicides must be applied to tree stumps immediately after the trees are cut, which requires a separate crew to follow the loggers.  In an ongoing project on Brawley Mountain, the Forest Service judged this proper technique to be too expensive, and cost considerations might lead the Forest Service in a similar direction at Cooper Creek.  The improper use of dangerous chemical would only make this project worse.

The thinning also requires the use of heavy equipment and thus presents the need to build large roads.  These roads contribute to runoff that would degrade the pristine streams in this region.  Southern Appalachian brook trout living in this watershed depend on cool, clear water, and increased runoff caused by new roads and forest clearing would jeopardize their existence. The use of heavy equipment also leads to devastating soil compaction that transforms the soil from a healthy and productive ecosystem to something resembling concrete where nothing is able to grow.

The Forest Service's stated goals for this project include protecting native plants, restoring wildlife habitat, and improving forest health, but in reality this project threatens to significantly disrupt one of Georgia’s healthiest ecosystems through prescribed burns and the removal of important food sources for wildlife.

The project calls for prescribed burning on over 253 acres to remove various oak species for the purpose of improving “Early Successional Forest Habitat” dominated by yellow poplar.  Some pines would also be cut for this purpose.

The goal of “Woodland Restoration” would be accomplished on 641 acres through the use of ground-based equipment and post-harvest herbicide treatments aimed at preventing the resprouting of hardwoods like yellow poplar and red maple.  Species selected for retention in these areas include fire-tolerant hardwoods and yellow pines. Midstory Treatment and Release are the last two treatments, which together cover the last 1316 acres.

Other concerns include:
· Over 1,900 acres of logging is proposed in the watershed of Cooper Creek and several tributaries. These waters support native Southern Appalachian brook trout that depend on clear, cool water.
· Much of the proposed heavy "thinning" - logging up to half the existing forest cover - is proposed on steep slopes that are highly inappropriate for commercial timber harvest.
· Some of the areas to be cut harbor rare spring ephemerals such as yellow lady slippers, blue cohosh and trilliums. These lush, sensitive sites must be protected.
· Acorns produced by these mature oaks are some of the most important food sources for wildlife.

We can see what is going on in Brawley Forest as a preview of the devastation possible at Coopers Creek. The use of brutish forest practices involving heavy equipment and the construction of major roads pose a serious threat to this precious ecosystem that, in addition to the concerns detailed above, could obliterate a wonderful place to explore Georgia’s Appalachian beauty.

For more information email Larry Winslett at winfog@windstream.net