Conservationists file lawsuit over logging plan near Polk County, Tenn., trout stream [photos]

Local conservationists are worried erosion from a proposed logging project along Tumbling Creek, a trout stream in the mountains west of Copperhill, Tenn., could cause significant damage to the environment. Two local conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forestry Service to stop the project until the government satisfies concerns about the legality of the project.

By Ben Benton March 26, 2018 8 min read

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Conservation groups file federal lawsuit over logging plan near Polk County, Tenn., trout stream

Soil continues to erode down to the chert layer at the former logging site in Polk County, Tenn., called the Island Creek/Hogback sale atop Sylco Ridge south of Parksville Lake. Conservationists, some of whom call the site a "disaster," are pressing forestry officials the do more to mitigate the damage and worry that the same damage could happen at a propose timber sale site a few miles to the east along Tumbling Creek, a trout stream.

Sam Evans, staff attorney for Southern Environmental Law Center

A coalition of Tennessee conservation groups has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a logging project in Polk County is endangering a sparkling trout stream.

Tumbling Creek flows through hemlocks and beech trees on the southeastern corner of the Cherokee National Forest’s Ocoee District. It provides anglers a cold-water trout stream and families a quiet setting near Copperhill for camping, wading and picnicking.

Dinkey timber sale

Tennessee Heartwood, a nonprofit group that advocates for Tennessee’s public forests, describes the current work proposed for the “Dinkey Sale” located in Polk County, Tenn., near the Georgia border.› 230 acres of clear-cuts, shelter-wood cuts, and seed-tree cuts with burns and herbicides› 356 acres of mid-story thinning with burning and herbicides› 444 acres of “cut-and-leave” mid-story thinning› 734 acres of prescribed burning that alternate between dormant and growing season burns between two to five years› 32 acres of noncommercial thinning› 75-acre “extended stream side management zones” for logging of 50 percent of the canopy along Tumbling Creek. This will be the second-tier buffer strip between the creek and the heavy logging along the slope.› An old logging road will be reactivated across Tumbling Creek at one point, where a deposit of Anakeesta Shale is located. Anakeesta Shale is known to cause acid rock damage where roads have been cut in the past.› Some of the slopes that will be logged exceed 35 percent in steepness and are highly susceptible to runoff, erosion and compacting from logging equipment.Source: Tennessee Heartwood

The Forest Service wants to allow a timber sale on lands not far from the banks of Tumbling Creek as part of restoration efforts to replace non-characteristic trees logged from the land with trees characteristic to the area. The project area is about 3,700 acres, and timbering is proposed on more than 500 acres of it.

Federal officials told the Times Free Press in September that timber sales are offered as part of the agency’s restoration efforts to return an area to “a more natural state” by restoring the ecosystem with appropriate vegetation, officials said. Forest Service officials contend that Tumbling Creek doesn’t face an impact from the planned timbering project.