Email sent to TU members

One of the NC4x4 members who is also a lifetime TU member got this in an email.


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Titled : your comments are needed to protect the Tellico River

Dear Ron,

Our North Carolina and Tennessee volunteers have worked hard on protecting and restoring brook trout watersheds in the Tellico River basin for years and finally have achieved a breakthrough. The Forest Service is asking for comments on its short-term and long-term plans to address water quality violations caused by the 39-mile Tellico Off-Highway Vehicle (“OHV”) Area on the North Carolina/Tennessee border near Murphy, NC. The Tellico OHV Area is in the headwaters of the Tellico River, one of the best strongholds for native brook trout, a species in decline in the North Carolina and Tennessee.

WHY WE CARE
Inadequate long-term maintenance, and excessive use of the Tellico Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) trail system, have resulted in significant sediment travel into rivers and tributaries muddying the waters and devastating important water quality and trout habitat in the Tellico River and its headwater streams. The Forest Service has completed a comprehensive analysis of the trail system and concluded that the Tellico watershed is not a suitable location for an OHV area because of highly erosive soils and close proximity to important trout streams. This is one of the best management decisions that we have seen from the Forest Service in years in the eastern U.S., and it needs our support.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Visit our online action center and contact the Forest Service and let them know you support the agency acting on this information by closing the Tellico OHV system to protect water quality and trout habitat (Alternative C). Also let the agency know you support its proposal to keep the area closed temporarily until the Forest Service reaches a final decision on the future of the Tellico OHV system.
Let the agency know that TU members support their commendable efforts to end ongoing water quality degradation caused by the Tellico OHV Area.

If you prefer to send your comments directly, you can send them to:

comments-southern-north-carolina-nan...itee@fs.fed.us

OR

National Forests in North Carolina
Attn: Candace Wyman
160 A Zillicoa Street
Asheville, NC 28801

Contact your senators and representatives in Congress. You can find thir information using our elected officials search tool.
Find out more about TU's stance on this issue by reading a letter from TU's North Carolina Council Chair, Dave Maeda.



Sincerely,
--
Bryan Moore
Vice President for Volunteer Operations
304-641-2658
bmoore@tu.org

Steve Moyer
Vice President for Government Affairs
703-284-9406
smoyer@tu.org



For what its worth all the numbered issues are hotlinked and take you to a TU page with pre filled out emails to just click send on:

copies attached below

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the USFS Environmental Assessment and proposed action for the Tellico River Off-Road Vehicle Trail System. Years of declining water quality prove that it is impossible to maintain a trail system as extensive as the Tellico OHV area, particularly in an area as sensitive as the Tellico watershed. I strongly agree with the Forest Service conclusion that the Tellico watershed is not a suitable location for an OHV area because of highly erosive soils and close proximity to important trout streams. The Tellico River watershed is one of the last remaining strongholds of the southern Appalachian brook trout in North Carolina and Tennessee, and is of critical value to me and all members of Trout Unlimited in the southeast.

I fully support and applaud the Forest Service’s preferred alternative, Alternative C, which would close the Tellico OHV trail system, but would maintain over 10 miles of existing Forest system roads in the area, open year-round or seasonally, to provide for public access for highway-legal vehicles for hunting, fishing and other recreation uses. The analysis in the Forest Service’s Environmental Assessment is clear that only Alternative C, which would close the OHV system, has a high probability of meeting state water quality standards and protecting the future viability of the native brook trout population.

I would also like to express my strong support of the Forest Service proposal to keep the entire area closed temporarily until a final decision is reached on the future of the Tellico OHV system. Based on the information in the Environmental Assessment, it would be extremely detrimental to allow continued degradation of the water quality in the Tellico watershed during the decision-making process.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this important matter, and for providing an open forum to provide comments. I hope the final decision will be Alternative C, which will protect one of the last remaining native brook trout populations in the forest. Please bear in mind, these brook trout are a public resource that cannot be replaced once lost.

Let them have their form emails - this comment period is about SPECIFIC issues which is why SFWDA and others are pushing for respondents to compose their own words and thoughts on the matter.