Haywood Community College will celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week Feb. 16-23 with a week-long schedule of events.

The events will allow HCC to highlight the college’s strengths in the areas of entrepreneurship, sustainability and creativity.

The following events are planned:

• Monday, Feb. 18: “I Have a Great Idea” student entrepreneur contest. Students may submit a “Great Idea” for a new business concept or invention. Submissions will be in the form of a three-minute or less YouTube video. Prizes are $100 for first place, $50 for second place, and $25 for third place.

Online submission can be entered at www.entrepreneurshipathcc.blogspot.com and are due by midnight on Feb. 18.

• Tuesday, Feb. 19: Marketing Your Business on Facebook. This workshop is for businesses that are already using a business Facebook page and want to learn how to use it more effectively for marketing the business. Space is limited. Contact Sharron Donnahoe, HCC Small Business Center Director, at 828.627.4512. 6-8 p.m. in HCC Room 219. Open to the public.

• Wednesday, Feb. 20: “Meet Local Business Owners” game show and Amanda Sorrells of New Generation. Local business owners will share, in a game show format, their biggest challenges, tips for success, and advice to new entrepreneurs. 10 a.m.-noon in the Student Center Auditorium. Open to the public.

• Thursday, Feb. 21: Showcase for Student Entrepreneurs. Two categories of participation include product/service or craft. HCC students will pitch their ideas to win money to help start their venture. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. in the HCC Library. Open to the public.

• Thursday, Feb. 21: Salon ownership forum. Local entrepreneurs from the cosmetics industry will be panelists and share their years of experience and answer questions about the industry and their professional success. 3-4 p.m., Student Center Auditorium.

For more information about HCC’s Entrepreneurship Week activities, contact Dr. Michelle Choate, HCC Department Chair of Business and Entrepreneurship, at 828.565.4219.

Deanne Oppermann, a chemistry instructor at Southwestern Community College in Sylva, is the recipient of the R.J. Reynolds Excellence in Teaching Award for 2012-2013 by the North Carolina Community College System.

Oppermann is known at SCC for embracing multiple teaching styles and incorporating mastery learning, the philosophy of providing more than one chance to demonstrate mastery of content or skill, into her courses.

However, Oppermann’s passion for teaching goes beyond the classroom. Her passion for teaching is solidified by her interaction with students during the advising process and the countless professional development hours she logs to improve student learning and stay current in her field.

Oppermann has worked at 17 years, with six years’ experience in the industry as a research chemist. She also holds a U.S. Patent based on novel chemical surfactants.

“I am humbled, honored, and excited to have been selected as the 2012-2013 NCCCS Excellence in Teaching recipient,” Oppermann said. “The true reward of teaching comes from making a positive difference in my students’ lives.”

Oppermann was chosen as one of the five finalists for the award from a field of 58 candidates, one from each community college in the state.

“Deanne Oppermann is a superstar in the classroom. Because Dee has never mistaken activity for achievement, every activity she connects with (and there are many) leads to something spectacular for the student,” said Cheryl Contino-Conner, director of Student Support Services and Honors Program at SCC. “As an instructor, an advisor and a champion of SCC’s Honors Program, Dee Oppermann is simply the best when it comes to student service and teaching/learning at SCC. We are very lucky to have her, and I say that as a colleague and as a friend.”

Oppermann will receive an $8,000 stipend, a $2,000 contribution to Southwestern Community College and a commemorative plaque.

Haywood Public Transit will hold a ribbon cutting for a new transit shelter at 1 p.m. Feb. 12, in Clyde.

Haywood Public Transit offers free rides to anyone in the county, and the central location of the new transit facility will benefits users of Haywood Public Transit. The transportation operation will now be more efficient and more convenient, especially for people visiting the hospital or one of the number of doctors’ offices nearby, said Susan Anderson, director of Mountain Projects.

The transit facility also offers a lobby where passengers can wait while being transferred to a vehicle or between routes.

Connections are available to Buncombe County’s Trailblazer Route, which runs from the Haywood County line along the Enka-Candler business area and ends at the Goodwill Store on Patten Avenue. Connections can then be made from that point to other transit routes under Asheville Transit.

Haywood Public Transit runs from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Reservations are required and should be made a business day before an appointment or trip.

828.565.0362.

Waynesville residents will get their first chance to weigh in on the possibility of adding Lake Junaluska to the town limits with two public hearings this month.

Season tickets are now on sale for the “2013 Appalachian Evening Concert Series” in at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center outside Robbinsville.

There will be a variety of pottery classes offered at Pincu Pottery in Bryson City.

Guitarist Frank Vignola will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.

Wislawa Szymborska

One of the best poets I’ve read in quite a while, this Polish Nobel Laureate has a wonderful collection, Poems New and Collected, which includes some of her best work over the past half century. She turns a clever eye to the oddities of humanity, the perplexities of modern life, and everything from Atlantis and acrobats to museums and miracles. She imagines angels watching slapstick comedy, celebrates the gift of clouds, and watches a bodybuilder flex. It’s hard to say what a typical Szymborska poem is since her style and subjectivity have such range. In one poem, she contemplates the ethereal hour of 4 a.m. In another, she struggles to capture the hollow experience of a concentration camp. One poem observes a surreal scene outside a bar as the final seconds tick down before a terrorist’s bomb goes off. In another, she’s in the Himalayas calling out to Yeti. Above all, Szymborska keeps alive a dreamy hope, grateful for the opportunities we have to discover and share life in all its subtleties — if only in the moment of poetic ponderance.

Smoothies

It’s hard to think of a time when I didn’t have that milkshake goodness with a fruity delicious twist. Great for hot days when you want a cool, refreshing drink to energize your mind without the addiction of caffeine. So pull out the blender. Spoon out some yogurt, toss in some strawberries and bananas (or whatever fruit you desire), pour in the milk, and add a scoop of soy protein powder for a vitamin boost. Press blend. Enjoy.

Richard Cheese

He’s the swanky version of Weird Al Yankovic in a tux. Crooning with his back-up jazz trio, this Gouda with the golden voice turns Top 40, rap, metal and punk into lounge music renditions that will leave you laughing all the way to the martini bar. With albums like Aperitif for Destruction, The Sunny Side of the Moon, and most recently Lounge Against the Machine, His Cheesiness is in high demand playing shows in Vegas, the Big Apple and groovy joints across the land. Check him out at iTunes or at www.richardcheese.com.

— By Michael Beadle

By Chris Cooper

OK, yes, it’s a widely held opinion that the Reagan years doled out its fair share of really, really awful music, clothes and other cultural oddities. Geometrically impossible haircuts, weirdo shoulder pads, ridiculously pointy, paint splattered guitars — the list could roll on for miles.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Haywood Community College is finally on track to receive some much needed funding after county commissioners announced plans this week to allocate $3 million to the school.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Haywood County officials are jumping at the chance to purchase 22 acres of land for recreational space that will help make the county’s master recreation plan a reality.

Blessed are the planners, for in their hands rest the fate of these mountains.

By Chris Lowe • Guest columnist

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education,” said Albert Einstein. Einstein is credited with several accomplishments, some of which you may be familiar with and not know exactly what they mean to your everyday life, while others may linger totally in obscurity and yet still bear meaning on everyday life.

By Kathleen Lamont

Soy is found in all kinds of foods we eat today, but do you know what’s in soy?

By John Armour

At the end of every week I take stock of what’s happened. Rare are the weeks which have actual bookends — something that was sublime, and something that was ridiculous. This was one of those weeks. I have Harry Reid of Nevada and David and Joel Letterman of Arizona to thank.

We want the state Agricultural Research Station in Waynesville to remain open, but the Senate budget proposal that attempts to weed out duplication and conduct agricultural research more efficiently isn’t such a bad idea.

By Michael Beadle

William Bartram only came through Western North Carolina for a handful of days in the spring of 1775. The record of his travels through Cherokee country (including present-day Highlands, Franklin and the Nantahala Gorge) wouldn’t be published until more than a decade later. By that time, many of his plant discoveries were credited to others.

By Chris Cooper

Sometimes your ears want something different. Maybe they need to hear that which steps beyond traditional form into something at once simpler and more complex; where pure, unadulterated melody and soulfulness carry the music to places unfamiliar but undeniably inviting. Or maybe you’re just getting sick to death of guitars and drums and three-minute pop ditties that are about as filling as a handful of stale Cheetos.

By Julia Mrchant • Staff Writer

A decades-long battle between advocates for a clean Pigeon River and the Canton-based company Blue Ridge Paper Products reared its head last week at a rally where several groups called for further clean-up of the river, which some have referred to as “the dirty bird” due to its pollution levels.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

After months of rigorous planning sessions, Maggie Valley town officials are finally ready to reveal to the public a new land-use plan they hope will help the town deal with anticipated growth.

A recent study in the Bethel Community revealed that “working land conservation easements” would be valued as high as $7,900 to $9,400 per acre for flat or rolling land outside the floodway of the Pigeon River or other streams.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

In the end, the acquisition of Blue Ridge Paper Products by the New Zealand-based Rank Group for $338 million last week may have been the result of the purchase of a single factory in tiny Pine Bluff, Ark.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

It appears that the re-opening of Ghost Town in the Sky on Memorial Day weekend has made the town of Maggie Valley anything but.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Architects last week unveiled plans for a new three-level building that will house the Waynesville Police Department and town planning offices.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Parking for free

Public parking for as long as you want in downtown Waynesville:

The damming of creeks and streams by private developments is on the rise in Western North Carolina — so much so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has voiced concern over the cumulative impacts.

Those who supported Heath Shuler’s bid to represent this region in Congress probably did not believe the detractors who spent most of the last election harping about how he would become Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s lapdog once he arrived in Washington. Well, a recent study of voting trends in this Congress reveals Shuler as one of the most independent congressmen in the House. That description is almost a badge of honor in the highly charged partisan atmosphere that currently rules in our nation’s capital.

The Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust honored those that donated land and conservation agreements in 2006 at a recent celebration.

By Michael Beadle

Fishing for something fun to do this weekend? Head downstream to the Maggie Valley Fairgrounds for the 18th Annual Smoky Mountain Trout Festival on Saturday, June 23.

By Chris Cooper

It’s been a year at least since I did a live show review, and it’s likely that that last review involved Sylva’s one bright hope for a live music venue, Guadalupe Café. I’m also pretty certain that in the aforementioned article a particular ever-evolving band of musical n’er do wells (Shiner Miners) made an appearance, and there may have been some minor chastising involved by yours truly regarding certain long-winded excursions into the great wide world of tuning by Mr. Webb and Co. that evening.

It was a while back and my memory is hazy, so that’s merely my best recollection.

But Friday night, a little after 10 o’clock, a band that so closely resembled the Shiner Miners it was shocking took the, err “stage,” at the Guad and proceeded to bang out some of the tightest and freakiest “smartass with a sense of humor” rock I’ve heard just about ever in this town. Still quirky, still a bit disheveled and glassy eyed, but this new, leaner three-piece gave me the distinct impression that they actually had their *&^% together, and have developed into one of the better rhythm sections in town.

Put simply, no matter how goofy the music may occasionally come across, drummer Isaac Sturgill and bassist Jason Beck have achieved that joined-at-the-hip quality that defines a band’s sound and momentum. As a guitarist, Webb has embraced the creative use of effects (namely echo) lending a whole new atmosphere to the mutated reggae/rap/dub/country/spoken word/rock thing that’s become a sort of trademark.

That’s not to say that the slop we all know and love isn’t still there — it’s just that the Shiner Miners are getting so good at being themselves that even the slop is refined. The usual crowd of locals was present, and by the second set was wound up into such a frenzy that clothing began disappearing, footwear was set aloft, spontaneous wrestling matches broke out and even a fine example of the good old fashioned “drunken lip-lock on the dance floor” made an appearance. If my calculations are correct and all the votes have been processed and accounted for, the Shiner Miners easily won the “most improved local band of people that I’m friends with but that I’m not obligated to say nice things about” award, and that ain’t no small feat.

The next night was the fourth (fifth?) installment of Sylva’s “Play For Peace” music ... thing, with multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Matt Williams kicking off the late evening festivities. Considering the amount of times a mysterious “scheduling conflict” was mentioned into the mic, my educated guess is that there may have been some kind of “scheduling conflict” regarding who (Williams or funky jam upstarts Ideal Way) was the opener and headliner, but again, that’s just a guess — albeit a sarcastic one.

There’s no doubting the considerable skills of Williams and accompanist Stephen Foster (who qualifies as a multi-instrumentalist in his own right, looking at the sheer number of horns of varying shape and size he brought along for the ride) when you see them perform.

Williams has so many instruments under his belt, such a command of on-the-fly looping and layering (including his vocals) that it’s tough not to be a little knocked out when you see the guy pull it all off right in front of you. His fondness for vaguely 70’s styled “prog-pop” is apparent, with phased-out Jean Luc-Ponty styled violin solos taking flight over his major and minor seventh based “mini jams.”

And as carefully rehearsed as this kind of performance has to be, there were true moments of spontaneous improvisation, especially when he and Foster began trading fours and playing off each other. My only wish was for a little more ebb and flow in the set, maybe a few more numbers delivered sans looping and such fanciness, so that when Williams does build that miniature orchestra of sound we know he carries around in his head it’s just that much more meaningful.

Regardless, Williams has been hard at work in WCU’s studio on several new albums slated for fall and winter release, and if the new tunes in his set are any indication, they’re going to be quite excellent.

Back to the rhythm section thing — Ideal Way has a great one. As if it wasn’t difficult enough to basically improvise an entire set of music (in this case, an hour or two) it’s even tougher to make the majority of it actually work, and it’s that quality that may eventually separate Ideal Way from much of the tie-dyed jam band pack. There are bassists that groove, and there are bassists that noodle, but in Christian Ferri you get the better elements of both. Positively super-glued to Caleb Beissert’s bass drum, the duo struck the just the right balance of busyness and dynamic interplay in order to give Brett Dumsha’s guitar enough space to cluck, squawk and squeal as needed.

Though some of the transitions between the “songs” got a little lost, once these guys found a groove they chomped down on it like an emaciated pitbull on Ronald McDonald’s burger scented hand. Amidst the wacka-wacka of the wah pedal and the syncopated goodness of the drums and bass, there was a head-bobbing, hippie-dancing good time to be had by all, and though the vibe was completely different than that of the previous night, having two nights in a row of fine music on Main Street is nothing to scoff at.

But even better — it was proof that people do indeed still enjoy hearing talented players stretch out and take chances onstage, be it the brainy oddball antics of the Shiner Miners, the meticulously crafted singer/songwriter pop of Matt Williams or the inspired, mercurial soundscapes of Ideal Way: all local musicians, and all damn good. Now stop whining about being bored and go see a show.

(Chris Cooper can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Traveling Wilburys Re-release

On June 12 the Traveling Wilburys re-released the supergroup’s two albums along with (depending on whether you buy the deluxe or standard edition) bonus DVD content and 40-page collectible book with photos, original liner notes, new liner notes and a uniquely numbered certificate of authenticity. Really, I shouldn’t have to say any more. That alone should make you run right down to your local music store and order it, lest they actually have it in stock — then you’re really in luck. For those sad and lonely few not already acquainted with the Traveling Wilburys this is the perfect chance to get a musical education. Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Rob Orbison and George Harrison teamed up to create the Wilburys as the result of what was originally supposed to be a single B-side track. Upon hearing that track — “Handle Me With Care,” which incidentally is the song I walked down the aisle to — album producers said it had to be more than just a one tune gig. And oh, how lucky we are.

Buying a House

In about a month’s time the husband and I will be moving to a new house. It’s our very first house house, not a townhouse or a condo as we currently own. It’s an all-consuming task for sure. We’ve already spent way too many hours discussing various colors tones — “too cool,” “warm grey,” “reminds me of pea soup” — and have plans out the yin yang for all that we’re going to do — landscape this, rip out that, install a new one of these, refinish those. And I have to say that there’s a great part of me that has seriously enjoyed being a girl in all this. I’ve picked out new dishes — something I failed to do for the wedding — contemplated a few new specialized pots and pans to fill all the cabinet space in what will be my new kitchen, picked out flowers for the garden and bought a new rug for the bedroom (thank you Carpet Barn). All of it is part of making a house our home.

— By Sarah Kucharski

By Chris Cooper

In the mid 90’s it would’ve been nearly impossible to write about “new to the scene” female artists without mentioning Paula Cole. You know, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” and all that.

A Man, A Can, A Plan

My youngest son and I have gotten a kick out of using this cookbook this summer. Subtitled “50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make,” this durable, stain-resistant cookbook should be in every guy’s kitchen. The recipes taste great, are healthy and inexpensive, and even include pictures of the ingredients.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Walking his dog in a Waynesville neighborhood one summer evening several weeks ago, fear was the farthest thing from Dan Elliott’s mind. So when a pit bull came charging after Elliott and his 80-pound Australian Shepherd mix, sinking his teeth into the dog’s hindquarters, Elliott was shocked. It took a full minute for the owner to unlock his pit bull’s jaws from Elliott’s dog.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Searching for the term “dowsing” on the Internet will bring up all kinds of Web sites related to the paranormal. But to many who practice the craft, including Alvin Fradey, dowsing is simply an unexplained technique that works and can help locate everything from skeletons to minerals. It was first used to find underground water sources.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

After decades of neglect, an overgrown hill in Jackson County holding the remains of residents of the old Jackson County Home was nearly forgotten. Thanks to the determination of one man, however, the old cemetery has been saved.

Following months of course reconstruction, Smoky Mountain Country Club in Whittier will re-open 9 holes of golf this weekend.

By John Armour

You’d think that what happens in Western North Carolina, in the 11th Congressional District, isn’t very important to the powers-that-be in Washington. That’s usually so. But not now. And two extraordinary events that have occurred a year and a half before the 2008 election for that seat prove the point.

A government building for a mountain town that looks like it belongs in the mountains? Funny how that is going to work out for the town of Waynesville but never could come to fruition for Haywood County and the justice center that now dominates Waynesville’s Main Street.

By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist

Concerned Americans await the concluding acts of the political drama the president and his allies call “comprehensive immigration reform.” Many questions remain unanswered. The most salient is: Why are the president and Republican leaders in the Senate gambling with our national security?

By Stephanie Wampler

Stuff. Life is all about the stuff, isn’t it? We have stuff to amuse us, educate us, make our work easier, and do our work for us. We work hard so that we can buy more stuff. Where would the world be without vacuum cleaners? Could life continue without CD players? Certainly life as we know it could not continue without computers.

By Nancy Geiger • Guest Columnist

My daughter, Brittany, is staying at Western Caroina Univesity this summer. The hotel she has been working at wanted her year-round, and since her sorority house stays open and charges for her room all summer it made sense.

To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the Carolina Mountain Club Challenge committee has added two new hiking challenges this year to its lineup.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is beginning a new program that allows nearby residents, business people, teachers and community members to see the everyday workings of the national park.

A 601-acre tract in Avery County near Roan Mountain has been purchased and conserved by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. The tract is adjacent to the Pisgah National Forest and near the Appalachian Trail in the Highlands of Roan. The tract borders one of the highest ridges of the Southern Appalachians, and rises to 6,150 feet in elevation.

A large Appalachian Trail gathering is coming to Western Carolina University this summer, and local trail clubs hosting the week-long conference are recruiting volunteers to help during the event

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy will hold is biennial meeting in Cullowhee from July 19 through 26. The Carolina Mountain Club and Nantahala Hiking Club — along with three other hiking clubs from Tennessee and Georgia that maintain designated sections of the A.T. — are organizing and putting it on. Volunteers are needed to lead hikes, register guests, support workshops, distribute information, and assist with parking, camping and reception activities.

Volunteer can help out in shifts that range from four hours to a full day, anytime during the week. The event will feature hundreds of organized hikes on the Appalachian Trail and other WNC trails. Attendees will also have the chance to learn about hiking, gear, history, and trail maintenance techniques, as well as have the opportunity to meet new people who are passionate about the A.T. and its management.

www.appalachiantrail.org/2013biennial.

To the Editor:

I miss Martin Luther King. His enlightened reason and fervent advocating for equal rights is sorely missed. Unfortunate that a man with a gun chose to end his life.

Make no mistake about it, there have always been people who selfishly and self-centeredly would have us believe their rights should be paid for by other people’s blood and or expense.

In the case of those schoolchildren from Newtown, in no way, shape or form can any person not bereft of moral attributes or rational logic conclude their deaths were the cost of liberty and its equal protection thereof, let alone gun ownership.

In the application of our naturally inherent or inalienable civil rights, the only person who bears the cost is the person duly engaged in such application. No one else bears any direct burden. However, there is a cost of liberty: eternal vigilance. This requires informed knowledge more than just personal opinion.

The latest Supreme Court decision regarding private ownership of guns can be found at www.supremecourt.gov/-opinions/09pdf/08-1521.pdf. While reaffirming the right to private ownership of guns for self defense, the justices also re-affirmed our government’s interest in regulating such application:

“It is important to keep in mind that Heller, while striking down a law that prohibited the possession of handguns in the home, recognized the that the right to keep and bear arms is not ‘a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever, and for any purpose …’ We made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as ‘prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,’ ‘laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms …’  We repeat those assurances here. Despite municipal respondents’ doomsday proclamations, incorporation (by the 14th Amendment) does not imperil every law regulating firearms.”

While our founders were forced to modify their own liberal embrace of the deistic notion of naturally inherent rights and the equal protection thereof, they gave to their posterity the means to correct their error. 

No other country has accomplished such a radical embrace of liberal principles. None. Nor has any other country so entrusted their citizens to make their own decisions while reserving their right to remedy once harm has been done, like, gee, I don’t know, a self-closing garage door that kills a child.

 Just as we the people require proper licensing and or restrictions for our vehicles, so too should we for our guns. Every gun should have a traceable title. Even the ones I own.

Chuck Zimmerman

Waynesville

To the Editor:

Nature abhors a vacuum. Mother Nature assures change. Organisms are constantly adapting, changing, improving, evolving. Understand-ing life cycles in nature assists man in many ways. We can collect water, grow vegetables, clear land, harvest timber, fish for food, hunt the wildlife and even recreate on our wild lands.

Whatever “our” case may be, nature is constantly in motion, changing. Stop mowing your lawn and watch a small forest begin: berries, scrubby pines, locust trees, and soon, poplar trees. The forest grows on over a span of time. Our southern Appalachian mountain region naturally grows incredible hardwood trees of many varieties: red oak, white oak, chestnut, oak, hickory, tulip poplar, walnut, cherry, maples, ash, birch, basswood and so on.

We are so blessed to live in this region of deciduous beauty. Our forest resources have tremendous beauty, but they also provide us with much bounty, and that must be respected, understood and included in forest management plans.

All living things die. In death, there is life. We know that all living things have a life cycle, and then they will die. Managing forests requires many different approaches to handling varying ages of forest sections. The United States Forest Service is charged with managing our federal lands for multiple uses: timber, water, wildlife and recreation. Each of these objectives is carefully weighed and included in plans for our forestlands.

Man can mimic natural death by timing timber harvest carefully and with full intention for each treatment area. The resource professionals allow science to direct their action, and timber management should be included in the tool belt of prescriptions, along with forest thinnings, prescribed fire, use of herbicides to eradicate invasive species and so on ... all options should be left on the table.

To preserve something is to save it. A passive land management approach allows nature to take hold as it will. Man has a minimal impact on the environment and takes a hands-off attitude. To preserve the land is to lock it up and leave it.

A museum mentality has taken over our national forest policy: “you can look, but not touch.” I think man should wisely use and respect our renewable resources and be encouraged to keep these large land tracts in timber rotations, rather than converting them out of a forest-use, rarely to grow trees again once paved.

Conserving the resource allows us to use the bounty, sustainably, and with an eye for the next generation, leaving the land more productive and better than before.

Disturbance happens. Ice, wind, fire, tornados, flooding, hurricanes, typhoons, and hail are a few natural events that wreak havoc for man on earth. Disturbances will always occur. The early Native Americans would slash and burn forests, to manage the land for their lifestyle and kept the understory growth down with prescribed fires to encourage wildlife proliferation. Man has always worked to tame the land. Modern-day timber harvest can mimic these natural disturbances, while growing jobs, creating American-made products, and providing year-round revenue for our local economies, sustainably and perpetually. Waste not, want not.

Wood is good. Trees are the gifts that keep giving. During their growing life, they provide shade, fruits and foods for man and creature alike, and provide immense beauty to our mountains. With a common-sense and pragmatic approach to land management, trees can be harvested to enjoy a whole new life of giving: in the form of a handmade generational piece of fine furniture to be coveted and passed down within a family line. Perhaps the trees will be used to fashion hardwood floors in a home to also last another lifetime. Wood is good, renewable, and can be managed in perpetuity. Please do not lock up these resources, because to watch them grow and die without using and enjoying them is a true waste of their many gifts.

We need wood. With carefully planned timber harvests, brand-new money is created by taking a raw material and converting it into lumber. From there it grows into heirloom furniture, fine homes, hardwood flooring, and so on. The “leftovers” from sawdust, mulch, and chips make all sorts of items we need: juice containers, envelopes, cardboard, pressed board items, paper products etc. The “resins” go into hairspray, glues, steering wheels, spray paints and crayons. Even aspirin and ice cream contain wood products! We need wood, and trees can infinitely provide us with value-added products using carefully planned management approaches.

Please allow the United States Forest Service to move forward with the project at Devil’s Courthouse. Please do not impede our natural resource professionals from actively managing our forestlands, now or in the future.

Susan Fletcher

Candler