This Land, Your Land

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog reports today that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is considering a proposal to require reservations for all backcountry camping permits through the government's recreation.gov site.

Great Smokies camping permits, which are now free, could cost anywhere from $4 per person per night to $10 per reservation plus $5 per person, depending on which proposal is adopted, the proposal says.

Recreation.gov is the centralized reservation service for camping at U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Forest Service recreational areas.

The blog quotes a Backpacker magazine forum that publishes the proposal and a report by WBIR TV in Knoxville, Tenn., that confirms the existence of the proposal but provides very little information. It wasn't on the park's page or the NPS new release page at mid-morning today.

Moving Great Smokies backcountry camping permits to the recreation.gov system will speed the process of obtaining permits and free park staff to do other things, the proposal says. The online service is available 24 hours a day.

Comments on the proposal will be accepted until August 26 at grsmcomments@nps.gov or Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738.

Public hearings have been set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. August 16 at the park's Old Oconoluftee Visitor Center, and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. August 18 at the park headquarters lobby.

If you find yourself deep in the state's southwestern mountains this Saturday, consider heading over to Robbinsville for the rededication ceremony for the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.

The 3,800-acre old-growth hardwood forest within the Nantahala National Forest is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Part of the celebration is Saturday's ceremony, which is to be held at the Rattler Ford campground next door to the forest.

The forest was named for writer/poet Joyce Kilmer, best known for the poem, “Trees.” Kilmer was killed in action during World War I while serving in France on July 30, 1918.

The re-dedication will include a 5K road race through a portion of the Nantahala National Forest, exhibits about the area’s rich natural and cultural heritage, guided tours of the Joyce Kilmer National Recreation Trail, and speakers on Joyce Kilmer’s life and the U.S. Forest Service’s stewardship of wilderness.

(The news release linked to above did not have a time for Saturday's ceremony. Call the Cheoah Ranger District office in Robbinsville at 828-479-6431.)

Click on the photo below for a look at our visit to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and the Joyce Kilmer National Recreation Trail.

The visitor center at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills was to reopen this morning after a small fire Wednesday, the National Park Service said Friday.

A fire in an air handling unit motor at mid-morning Wednesday caused evacuation of staff and park visitors from the building. No one was injured, and the rest of the park, including the Wright Brothers Pavilion with interpretive exhibits about man's first powered flight, remained open.

The visitor center's normal hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A little ways south, the visitor center complex at the Bodie Island lighthouse reopened Thursday after repairs to the entrance road and parking lot at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore site. The complex had closed Monday.

The Bodie Island Lighthouse visitor center is also open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Officials at Great Smoky Mountains National Park say that overcrowding at two backcountry campsites is drawing bears, so use of the sites will change from first-come, first served to by-reservation as of August 1.

Campsites 84 and 85, along the Hazel Creek Trail in the Fontana Dam area of North Carolina, accommodate six campers per night and 10 people and six horses per night, respectively, a news release says.

But, since they are first-come, first-served, they are often overcrowded, which means there is not enough room on overhead cables to store food, and the improperly stored food has led to "repeated bear-human conflicts" in the last couple of years that have required closing the sites for long stretches.

To reserve backcountry campsites up to one month in advance, phone 865-436-1231 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily. Overnight backcountry camping permits, which are also required, are available at 16 backcountry permit stations throughout the park.

In addition to 24 backcountry campgrounds, Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers five "frontcountry" campgrounds, plus a campground for horse riders, in North Carolina.

The latest plan from the U.S. Forest Service for boating on the Chatooga River would allow "high-quality" whitewater rafting in the winter but keep the National Wild and Scenic River clear of watercraft the rest of the year.

Last week, the Forest Service released an environmental assessment on managing recreation uses on the upper segment of the Chattooga, which partly lies in southwest North Carolina, for 30-day public review.

The Forest Service had previously proposed allowing boating on the upper portion of the river, but withdrew that idea in December 2009 under fire from conservation groups.

The new approach prohibits commercial boating on the upper river and boating in the tributaries.

The plan also calls for the three national forests that manage the Chattooga River — the Sumter in South Carolina, the Nantahala in North Carolina and the Chattahoochee in Georgia — to improve campsites and trails. It's also meant to protect fishing by prohibiting the cutting of large woody debris that provides vital habitat for the native brook trout and other aquatic species, a news release says.

The federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act declares that selected rivers that have remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or similar values shall be preserved as free-flowing and protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. There are five National Wild and Scenic Rivers in North Carolina.

Comments about the environmental assessment plan for the Upper Chatooga River (available here) can be e-mailed by August 15 to: comments-southern-francismarion-sumter@fs.fed.us. Hard copy letters can be mailed to: Comments on the Upper Chattooga EA, c/o USDA Forest Service Supervisor’s Office, 4931 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29212.

The Bodie Island Lighthouse complex, below, will close for three days next week beginning Monday morning for work on the entrance road and parking lot, the National Park Service said Thursday.

The entrance road, which is to be repaved, and parking areas, visitor center, lighthouse grounds, wildlife viewing platform, and access road to the Off-Island Hunt Club will all be temporarily closed to the public, a news release says.

The 15-acre site on the northern end of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is to reopen as soon as work is completed.

Bruce Henderson of the Charlotte Observer took a look at North Carolina's state parks this week and found that budget cuts mean "visitors will pay more to camp, swim or picnic" and "find fewer rangers and more peeling paint."

"The park system also will lose millions from the trust fund that has helped it grow by about 5,000 acres a year since 1996," the report says.

But, no parks have closed, despite an early proposal to close some and shorten the week at others.

State legislators cut the parks budget by 25 percent this year and took $8.4 million from the trust fund to help balance the state budget. They also shifted another $6 million from the trust fund to be spent on park operations. The latter move means the overall parks budget is effectively 5.6 percent less than last year's, Henderson said.

The trust fund is supposed to be spent on land acquisition, capital projects, major maintenance expenses and local grants. This is the first time it has been spent on operations.

Meanwhile, parks officials have continued to hold the line against charging entrance fees, which a N.C. State University study shows would not pay off anyway, the newspaper says.