Saving the Smokies:
Stopping the North Shore Road
It's official - the 'road to nowhere' boondoggle is stopped in its tracks!
©SELC
"The most important natural area in the eastern US...of world importance as an example of temperate deciduous forest."
World Conservation Union, in reviewing the park for designation as a World Heritage Site
On December 28, the National Park Service officially determined that blasting a 34-mile, $600+ million highway through the wildest area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park presented an unacceptable threat to the park's outstanding natural resources. Instead, the agency decided to repay Swain County, North Carolina for the loss of a road some 60 years ago with a monetary settlement.
Just days before, Congress passed a spending bill containing $6 million for Swain County in lieu of the proposed road on the North Shore of Fontana Lake; the bill has been signed by the president.
The effort to stop the road has been a widespread and consistent effort among a majority of the local community and a wide range of conservation groups, including SELC. The final push to save the Smokies is due in large measure to the commitment of Rep. Heath Shuler (NC), Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN) and Sen. Elizabeth Dole (NC) who championed the settlement in Congress.
The funding is a step toward fulfilling a 64-year old obligation of the federal government to compensate Swain County for the inundation of a road in the 1940s when Fontana Lake was created for hydroelectric power. In the 1960s, the National Park Service started building the road but after a few miles abandoned the project when it proved too costly and environmentally damaging. Since then, the county, state and many others have called on the federal government to repay Swain County with a monetary payment of $52 million - the value of the lost road plus inflation.
The Smokies national park, which straddles the North Carolina and Tennessee and lies in the heart of the Southern Appalachians, is one of America's best-loved places, drawing upwards of 10 million visitors a year. It is also a global natural treasure, recognized as a World Heritage Site for its unparalleled diversity of plants and animals. The road would have cut through one of the largest unbroken tracts of mountain forest in the East, fragmenting important habitat for songbirds, black bear and other species. Runoff from the acidic rock in the rugged terrain would poison dozens of mountain streams. The road would also spoil scenic views from miles of the Appalachian Trail, and destroy 28 miles of the newly created Benton MacKaye hiking trail.
Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson said the decision to support the settlement versus the road was based on review of nearly 76,000 public comments and careful analysis of the impacts of each alternative on the park's natural, cultural and recreation resources. He said he anticipated scheduling a meeting early in 2008 between representatives of the parties who signed the original 1943 agreement – the Secretary of the Interior, Swain County Commission, North Carolina Governors Office and the Tennessee Valley Authority – to develop a new document.
SELC and others remain committed to helping Swain County secure additional funds to sufficiently compensate for the original road. A report by SELC last year showed that a cash settlement of $52 million would yield far greater economic benefits to the county than tourism income from the North Shore Road.
