Recently announced: logging will hinder recreational ventures in Pisgah National Forest until Late May 2014. U.S. Forest Service made the announcement that 7 trails will be shut down for three months. Logging, beginning in late February, would continue until mid to late May.

It’s important to understand that national forests are dynamic areas. Logging not only impacts the recreational population, but also the animals of the ecosystem. The act of logging poses a number of direct and indirect consequences. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assessed the possible consequences  in a report in 1992. The issue expands far beyond the simple closing of recreational trails for a few months.

With the closing of the trails due to logging, the forest will lose some visitors. However, in the long-term, it is in danger of losing far more. Potential consequences include:

• Unstable Banks -prone to undercutting
• Unstable Slopes – prone to landslides
• Increased Sedimentation – increased sedimentary load in streams might adversely affect stream populations and stability
• Climate and Air Quality – may release dust into the air; bare soils may become prone to wind deflation; tree felling, log hauling and other uses of machinery may release fumes
• Vegetation Damage – may eliminate entire endemic species or substantial portions of the total gene pool of certain species, including timber species
• Deplete Conservation Efforts –  may conflict with existing, planned or potential conservation areas
• Wildlife and Fisheries – damages or destroys key habitats such as nesting sites, including old hollow trees, feeding and breeding grounds

The negative environmental consequences vary in the severity, irreversibility and significance depending on the form of forest utilization. Proving both the positive and negative influences of forest utilization on the environment is often a difficult task because most impacts are indirect and complex.