Timber harvest planned at DuPont State Recreational Forest

Karen Chávez | The Citizen-Times

CEDAR MOUNTAIN – As part of the resource management mission of the DuPont State Recreational Forest, a timber sale has been approved on the southern end of the nearly 11,000-acre forest, which sits on the Transylvania and Henderson county border.

The North Carolina Council of State, which must approve all land sales, recently OK'd the 42-acre sale of mostly white pines along Reasonover Road.

“It’s part of the forest management plan,” said Ranger Bruce MacDonald, communications director for DuPont Forest.

“We will remove some old white pine. A lot of white pines were planted at the time DuPont Corporation owned the property in the 1950s and ‘60s. These trees get really old and big and start deteriorating. We try to get in some other species like yellow pines and pitch pine and we might even plant some short leaf pines.

“The idea is to mix species, get more diversity, which improves forest health and improves species composition. More diversity helps wildlife and other aspects of the forest as well.”

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He said marking of trees to be logged and other prep work is now underway. The job will go out to bid to various companies that buy timber, and then the goal is to start logging this winter, to avoid wet conditions and the busy visitor season.

DuPont State Recreational Forest is managed by the North Carolina Forest Service. The name of the forest was changed to include “recreational” several years ago to account for the enormous influx of visitors and outdoor recreation that takes place on the forest, which has numerous waterfalls, lakes and some 80 miles of hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trails.

More than 600,000 people visit the forest each year.

The forest was established in 2000 on land formerly owned by DuPont Corp., which produced silicon for the manufacturing of transistors and electronics in the 1950s, and in the ‘60s, medical X-ray films.

Josh Kelly, public lands biologist with the environmental nonprofit MountainTrue, said he is not familiar with this particular upcoming timber sale, bus said he tends to be comfortable with the timber management at DuPont because all of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Natural Areas at DuPont are protected.

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“Natural Areas identified by the N.C. Natural Heritage Program contain rare elements of North Carolina's natural diversity, whether it be rare species or rare habitats - like bogs or old-growth forests,” Kelly said.

Dupont has had a thorough inventory by the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, and was purchased with Natural Heritage Trust Fund money, which requires protection of identified Natural Areas. Areas that are open to logging are generally not habitat for rare or endangered species, or representative of outstanding diversity or natural qualities.

MacDonald said that the timber harvest might take about a month, depending on weather conditions. It might affect the end of Reasonover Creek Trail with a temporary reroute, he said, but trail closures will try to be minimized.

He said there have been one or two timber harvests a year for last five years, mostly on this small scale.

“The harvest is done with the forest we want to have there in mind,” MacDonald said. “It’s about the regeneration of the forest.”