Karen Chávez

kchavez@gannett.com

Buncombe County Commissioners plan to vote tonight, Tuesday, Sept 20, on a resolution supporting an expanded wilderness for Big Ivy.

The County Commissioners meeting is open to the public at 4:30 p.m. at 200 College St., Suite 326, in downtown Asheville.

The community north of Asheville near Barnardsville is home to nearly 14,000 acres of mostly forested land, including old-growth forest, fly-fishing streams and waterfalls. In the draft Nantahala Pisgah National Forest Plan Revision, prepared by the National Forest Service, much of Big Ivy was designated as available to logging.

"We think 70 percent of Big Ivy should be permanently protected from logging. To make that happen, we need to convince the Buncombe County Commissioners to support an ‘expanded wilderness recommendation’ for Big Ivy,” said Will Harlan, member of Friends of Big Ivy and editor-in-chief of Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine.

“Unlike Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Clay, Burke, and Graham counties in Western North Carolina, Buncombe County has no wilderness areas. Yet wilderness has widespread support in the most populous, progressive, and developed county in WNC. Big Ivy's wilderness would prevent logging from scarring the views from Craggy Gardens and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and it would protect the drinking water for the town of Weaverville.”

Harlan said the wilderness recommendation would not affect any current uses of Big Ivy. Horseback riding, hunting, and fishing will all continue to be allowed. No roads or trails will be closed. The boundaries have been drawn so that mountain bike trails will be outside of the recommended area.

The wilderness recommendation would prohibit logging and development in the high-elevation areas of Big Ivy where there are no trails and where most of the old-growth forests are located.