Cumberland Plateau named endangered wildland area
The Natural Resources Defense Council says the area is on its list of at-risk “biogems” — or “unspoiled places in the Americas facing imminent destruction from development” — because the pulp and paper industry there is a major threat to the forested area.
“We are going to stop the multinational paper companies from plundering what’s left of the Cumberland Plateau,” said Allen Hershkowitz, an NRDC senior scientist. “NRDC’s million members and Internet activists … will defend the endangered forests of this region from these corporations, which are bent on destroying it for newsprint and toilet paper.”
The pulp and paper industry refutes that claim, saying there aren’t any statistics to back it up.
“The bigger issue that we’re concerned about is the loss of forest land to development on the plateau and in other parts of the state as well,” said Candace Dinwiddie, executive director of the Tennessee Forestry Association.
The area of the Cumberland Plateau and Southern Appalachians listed by NRDC is centered in Tennessee, but stretches to Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and the Carolinas.
Environmental groups have become increasingly interested in the region, and say clear-cutting of large chunks of hardwood forests is ravaging the ecology and is an eyesore for tourists.
Other areas added to the environmental group’s list include the Western Arctic Reserve in northern Alaska and the heart of the Boreal Forest in central Canada.
The state has not had the opportunity to review the science behind NRDC’s list, said Mike Countess, assistant agriculture commissioner for Tennessee.
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On the Net:
Natural Resources Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org/