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Want to receive email notifications about meetings and environmental events? Send your email address to Tom Taylor at tnt2703@yahoo.com. Our local group sends emails using a system provided by the national organization with the usual "unsubscribe" option.
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Help Resolve the North Shore Road Settlement!
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Please write in support of the monetary settlement to Swain County, which was agreed to in principle in 2007 instead of construction of the destructive North Shore Road. Negotiations of the settlement are now being conducted by Congressman Heath Shuler and the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and we need your letters to help push these negotiations to a close before a new administration takes office in 2009. If the settlement is not resolved before the administration changes, there will be another long delay, with new people to be brought up to speed, and with new concerns and interests added to the negotiating mix.
Congressman Heath Shuler believes that the negotiations are at a turning point and that the weight of your letters will make a difference.
Each letter should make ONE POINT- urging an IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT with Swain County - and stress it as strongly and urgently as possible. See sample letter below.
The letters should be sent to:
1. Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
2. Lyle Laverty, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks
3. Dale A. Ditmanson, Superintendent, Great Smoky MountainsNational Park.
You can send the same letter to all three. Please send the letters by email, followed by hard copies by regular mail.
Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
Dirk_Kempthorne@ios.doi.gov
Lyle Laverty, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks
1849 C Street, N.W. , Room 3161
Washington, DC 20240
Lyle_Laverty@ios.doi.gov
202/208-5347
Dale A. Ditmanson, Superintendent
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
107 Park Headquarters Road
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
Dale_Ditmanson@nps.gov
865/436-1201
865/436-1204 FAX
SAMPLE LETTER
Hon. Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
Re: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Dear Secretary Kempthorne:
I urge you to settle immediately the claim of Swain County, North Carolina for a monetary settlement arising out of the 1943 Agreement. In my judgment, this is a matter of urgency. A settlement needs to be effected immediately.
The National Park Service has conducted an Environmental Impact Statement on this issue. It chose a monetary settlement with Swain County as the agency preferred alternative in September 2007. The Record of Decision confirming that was signed on 26 November 2007. Nearly a full year has passed, more than enough time to implement the decision.
After the national election and state elections the president and Department of the Interior appointees will change. A new governor will be elected in North Carolina. We urge you as strongly as we can to reach a settlement with Swain County before we encounter the time consuming delays that accompany a change of administrations, both national and state.
The issue of compensation for Swain County has been batted back and forth for too many years. Please use the best effort of your office to produce an immediate settlement.
Yours very truly,
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Support Trail Maintenance in NC
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=TRb7HapiRMNNMJiyZ6l09A
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 SUPPORT TRAIL MAINTENANCE IN NC by casting a vote for a funding proposal:
The link above takes you to a Save the Trails site that is accepting votes on proposals to provide advocacy and work on trails from around the US.. They are down to 20 finalists, one of which is the Fires Creek trail system in NC, proposed by the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition.
Fires Creek Trail System Maintenance and Education
Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition
Fires Creek Trail System, North Carolina
SAFC will perform 350-400 hours of volunteer trail maintenance on and build public support for the permanent protection of the Fires Creek Rim Trail system in western North Carolina. The Rim Trail connects to the Appalachian National Scenic and also connects to the 137-mile Bartram Trail.Please support our NC trails by going to the site and voting for
the Fires Creek proposal (# 15 down from the top).
Thank you.
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