WATAUGA, Tenn. - The deadly storms that swept through parts of northeast Tennessee earlier this month made their mark on one of the state's points of pride. The Appalachian Trail, which originates in Georgia and reaches to Maine, crosses through the Volunteer State, and the severe storms downed hundreds of trees in Watauga County.

Bill Hodge, executive director of the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS) said his organization is working to quickly clean up the damage before it prohibits hikers on the trail, or causes additional damage.

"People will continue to use it but just go around the downed trees and that ends up doing resource damage," he said. "It ends up creating new trail corridors that aren't sustainable, because people are having to go around the downed trees."

The July 8th storms killed at least two people, when a tree fell on their tent. Independent nonprofits and other citizen groups are often the ones who maintain and service parts of the Appalachian Trail. There are 94 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee, and the trail runs along the state's border with North Carolina for an additional 160 miles.

Hodge said with two million people visiting parts of the Appalachian Trail each year, it's important that groups like his keep the trail safe for people who want to enjoy the national gem. Right now he said parts of the trail in the Laurel Branch area are not safe.

"These are huge trunks to the trees, it's the crowns of trees," he added. "Trees that are snapped off at heights that make them what we call widow makers; they're dangerous overhead hazards."

Because of regulations governing designated wilderness lands, the crews must use hand tools and not large equipment that could damage other parts of the trail. The Appalachian Trail covers more than 2,100 miles and was created in 1925.


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An update to the Northwest Forest Plan is expected soon, and Washingtonians who enjoy the outdoors are being urged to follow the process closely.

While the plan doesn't specifically mention recreation, the Northwest Forest Plan is the land management plan for millions of acres of forest in the region.

Michael DeCramer, policy and planning manager with the Washington Trails Association, says the U.S. Forest Service should keep in mind the people hiking trails within the plan area.

"Outdoor recreation is the primary way in which the public interacts with those lands. So, this management plan is key to assuring that there's continued conservation of resources, but also opportunities to recreate and enjoy the forests in the Pacific Northwest," he said.

DeCramer added the outdoor recreation economy is also important to the region. It generates more than $26 billion annually in Washington, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.

The Northwest Forest Plan was adopted in 1994 for management of forests in Washington, Oregon and northern California. The U.S. Forest Service is set to release a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the plan amendment next month.

The Forest Service plans to address is the impact of climate change on the region, among other factors.

Betsy Robblee, conservation and advocacy director for Washington-state based group The Mountaineers, said increasingly frequent wildfires are hurting trails. She contributed recommendations with the federal advisory committee on the plan amendment to address this.

"Restore recreation sites after climate-related events and reopen them to the public. One thing that we're seeing is more lengthy closures of areas after wildfire," she explained. "Places can be closed for a number of years for public access."

Robblee encourages people who enjoy recreation to follow along as the Northwest Forest Plan amendment is released, because there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on it.

"It's easy for folks to think, 'Oh, this is all about logging or wildlife, and it doesn't affect me.' But it definitely affects people's recreation experience and the places that they love and care about," she added.


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From power outages to burnt farmland, North Dakota is coming to grips with the impact of several large wildfires that are linked to at least two deaths. The fires intensified this past weekend around the western half of the state, with crews working in recent days to get them under control. Gov. Doug Burgum said when they get the final numbers, it is possible the fires will have consumed as many as 50,000 acres of farmland.

Daryl Ritchison, North Dakota State Climatologist, said windy and dry conditions fueled the devastation, adding that there's no doubt the agricultural community was hard hit.

"Farmers lost cattle. Farmers lost grazing land. Farmers lost houses. Farmers lost their fencing," he continued.

The North Dakota Farmers Union reminds ranchers who lost cattle, pasture and equipment in the fires that the federal Farm Service Agency has resources to help them recover. Information can be found on the USDA website. Meanwhile, the governor has said this could be one of the worst groups of fires in state history when factoring in acreage.

Ritchison suggested it's too early to link this disaster to climate change, noting the state's history with prairie fires, especially this time of year, and added that if there is a silver lining, early warnings to farmers - to pause their fall harvest - appeared to be effective.

"If there's any good in this, I think it could have potentially been even worse considering the wind gusts up to 60, 70 miles per hour, how dry the conditions were, the low relative humidity," he explained.

Globally, scientists say climate change is one of several factors as to why wildfires are becoming more destructive and difficult to contain. It's prompting more calls for state and local governments to become better prepared and alert the public ahead of time. A recent report found that preparation lapses hindered evacuations during the deadly Maui fires in Hawaii last year.

New legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate would conserve more than 730,000 acres of federal public lands in and around Colorado's Gunnison Basin.

Tony Prendergast, a cattle rancher near Crawford, was one of a number of stakeholders who worked for a decade to shape the legislation. He said farmers, ranchers, hunters, anglers, hikers, mountain bikers, wildlife advocates and others realized the lands were being "loved to death," and if nothing was done, everyone would lose.

"We came together to say, 'Well, how can we work together to protect what exists, and protect it well in the future and into future generations?'" Prendergast explained.

The Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act, led by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., taps federal wilderness and special management area protections for important fish and wildlife habitat. The bill would also transfer the Pinecrest Ranch into a sovereign land trust for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Six Colorado counties and 16 advocacy organizations support the measure but some in Congress continue to oppose any increased public lands protections.

The measure would not affect water rights or existing land uses, such as mining or oil and gas leases. But Prendergast pointed out the legislation will give land managers the tools they need to mitigate conflicts after a surge in outdoor recreation.

"New mountain bike trails were appearing all the time," Prendergast noted. "The motorized recreation was spreading out across the landscape. Gates were being left open. There would be conflicts, livestock dogs chasing off mountain bikers."

He added the legislation would also allow land managers to prioritize the needs of wildlife during critical times, such as the end of winter when animals are weak and nutrition levels are at their lowest.

"In an area where wildlife is close to having their young, there may need to be closures from dusk to dawn from human activity, so wildlife can have a break," Prendergast added.


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