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By Cliff Hightower

Staff Writer

GREASY CREEK, Tenn. -- A road built across Little Frog Mountain near the Ocoee Gorge would leave a footprint, no matter how "green" roadbuilders made it, environmentalists said this week.

"There's ways to build highway with less impact," said Holly Demuth, executive director of the Stop I-3 Coalition. "But it still brings in 18-wheelers."

Some local officials have floated the idea of widening and improving Kimsey Highway atop Little Frog Mountain as an alternative to widening U.S. Highway 64 through the Ocoee Gorge.

A recently completed economic development study of U.S. 64, or Corridor K, showed the need for more highway connections between Chattanooga and Asheville, N.C. One proposal is to use Kimsey Highway, an old U.S. Forest Service road that crosses Little Frog Mountain between Reliance and Ducktown, Tenn.

Jeffrey Hunter, southeast trails program director for the American Hiking Society, said this week such a road could devastate the ecology of the area. The American Hiking Society is a national organization dedicated to serving hikers and protecting hiking trails.

Mr. Hunter said an improved road along Kimsey Highway would bring in invasive nonnative species of plants, destroy bear and bird habitat and threaten the Ocoee and Hiwassee rivers with pollution from cars and trucks.

"Why create a new disturbance?" Mr. Hunter asked.

He said this week that environmental groups think the Tennessee Department of Transportation should look at improving the existing U.S. 64 road.

Polk County Attorney Denny Mobbs, a proponent of using Kimsey Highway, said Tuesday he has the same concerns about the impact on the environment. Those issues arose about Interstate 26 between Kingsport, Tenn., and Asheville when it was completed in 1995, and it is a similar road, he said.

A 1999 study conducted for the state of Tennessee showed minimal impact from the interstate on the ecology, Mr. Mobbs said. He said a road can be built using barriers that reduce water and air pollution.

"The concerns are legitimate," he said. "But the methodology is in place by the department of transportation to address those issues."

Hiking along the Benton MacKaye Trail on Monday, environmentalists associated with four groups said a road across the mountaintop threatens a rich and diverse wildlife system. They said parts of the trail, which runs 300 miles from Georgia to the Great Smoky Mountains, could be destroyed.

Chattanooga environmentalist Betty Petty said a new road could impede hunters who use the old logging road to get to their hunting grounds. It could also hurt trout populations in the Hiwassee River, she said. While the forest around Kimsey Highway is not virgin, it becoming an old stand, she said.

"It hasn't been logged since the 1930s," Ms. Petty said. "So it's been 70 years since it was logged."

Ms. Demuth agreed.

"No, it isn't a virgin forest, but it's a healthy forest," she said.

The Stop I-3 Coalition is battling a proposed highway between Savannah, Ga., and Knoxville. Ms. Demuth said the group became involved with Corridor K because it fears that moving ahead with one roadway could spur the building of the other.

The Corridor K economic development study said a road is needed between Chattanooga and Asheville to help the region compete in a global economy. It would make it easier for trucks from counties like Polk, Bradley, Hamilton, Catoosa and Walker to get to eastern seaports, the study said.

Eric Eades, conservation chairman of the Benton MacKaye Trail, said road proponents claimed the same thing about building state Route 165 near Tellico Plains, Tenn. Mr. Eades, who lives in Dalton, Ga., helped build the Benton MacKaye Trail.

"The Cherohala Skyway was supposed to be a panacea, but you talk to the folks in Robbinsville (N.C.) ,and Tellico Plains, they've yet to see it," he said.

TDOT has begun searching for a consultant to conduct a transportation planning report of Corridor K. TDOT officials said they could ask for a new environmental impact study to be conducted by the end of this year's legislative session in April or May.

Mr. Hunter said he hoped solutions could be found away from Little Frog Mountain that would keep the wilderness intact. He said he often comes to hike the Benton MacKaye Trail, to listen to birds chirping or just enjoys the quiet. Every now and then he catches glimpses of black bear and wild turkey, he said.

"This is an important place, certainly for me, to soothe my soul after a busy week," he said. "I'd like to think my kids could come enjoy this."

E-mail Cliff Hightower at chightower@timesfreepress.com

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