Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015 - 14

M Va. Tech Seeks Hemlock Life Keys
by Cathryn McCue

Mountain
Report

ALSO, VIRGINIA'S GEORGE WASHINGTON NATIONAL FORESTS GETS
PROTECTIONS WHILE THE N.C.'S PISGAH-NANTAHALA GETS LESS.

VIRGINIA TECH PHOTOS

2 3 4 5

From left: a blighted stand of hemlocks; the telltale white puffy egg sacs of the woolly adelgid; a healthy stand of hemlock trees.

Around the Region

North Carolina

West Virginia

Virginia

Kentucky

Virginia Tech researchers
wanted to know why
some eastern hemlocks
afflicted with the hemlock woolly adelgid survive while the tiny aphid
fells as much as 95 percent of the forest giants
it infests. Taking core
samples from 120 hemlocks in six states, they
examined tree rings and
found that cold winters
harm the adelgids while
also benefitting the
hemlocks, and that surviving hemlocks grow
better without competition from other trees.
The results can aid forest
managers in determining the best places to
preserve hemlock
stands. frec.vt.edu

Conservationists are
decrying a U.S. Forest
Service proposal to
designate 700,000
acres of the 1.1 million
acre Pisgah-Nantahala
National Forest for timber as part of a longrange plan to
accommodate multiple
uses of the publicly
owned forest. The
agency says logging
can support a variety of
plant and animal species, but conservationists are concerned that
the plan emphasizes
timber over recreation,
water quality and other
uses. The agency will
release another draft
next year for public
review, with the final
plan due in 2016.
fs.usda.gov/nfsnc

Environmental groups
reached a landmark settlement with Alpha
Natural Resources in
which the coal company
will meet the strictest
standards so far to control pollution from four
of its mountaintop
removal mines. The
groups say the settlement means Alpha will
apply the best available
technology to limit
"conductivity," a measure of certain mining
pollutants that are devastating aquatic life in
the coal region of
Appalachia. ohvec.
org/press_room/
press_
releases/2014/12_15.
php

The U.S. Forest Service
issued a long-awaited
final management plan
for the George
Washington National
Forest that protects
most of the forest from
natural gas drilling,
including fracking.
About 10,000 acres
currently under gas
lease and 167,000
acres subject to private
mineral rights will
remain open for development. Dozens of
public interest groups,
11 local governments
surrounding the forest
and 75,000 citizens had
urged the agency to
favor recreation over
drilling. svnva.org/
regionalcampaigns/gnational-forest-plan

Last fall, citizen groups
revealed 28,000 violations of the Clean Water
Act by a coal mining
company in one of the
largest cases of noncompliance with the
federal law. In papers
filed with the court,
they said Frasure Creek
Mining had falsified
data on pollution
reports it sent to the
state in 2013 and 2014.
In a related case, a
Kentucky judge soon
after rejected as too
weak a deal the state
had reached with
Frasure Creek for the
exact same type of violations the citizens had
revealed in 2010.
appvoices.org/2014
/11/17frasure-creekfalse-reports/

14 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

http://www.ohvec.org/press_room/press_releases/2014/12_15.php http://www.ohvec.org/press_room/press_releases/2014/12_15.php http://www.ohvec.org/press_room/press_releases/2014/12_15.php http://www.ohvec.org/press_room/press_releases/2014/12_15.php http://www.svnva.org/regional-campaigns/g-national-forest-plan http://www.ohvec.org/press_room/press_releases/2014/12_15.php http://www.svnva.org/regional-campaigns/g-national-forest-plan http://frec.vt.edu http://www.appvoices.org/2014/11/17/frasure-creek-false-reports/ http://www.svnva.org/regional-campaigns/g-national-forest-plan http://www.appvoices.org/2014/11/17/frasure-creek-false-reports/ http://www.fs.usda.gov/nfsnc http://www.svnva.org/regional-campaigns/g-national-forest-plan http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015

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