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Volume 30 Issue 3
September 16, 1999
Loggers protest environmental conference
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Debate over logging rights
has history of conflict
was a brief time after the
By Phoebe Hicks national forests were set
Staff Writer “P that there was no log-
nng in the national for-
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OUR TRAILS
OUR right
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PHOTO BY JASON GRAHAM
A protest staged in response to an environmental conference drew loggers and government officials to Owen Hall Saturday.
Loggers gather outside Owen Hall to protest logging suspensions
By Greg Sessoms
Staff Writer
Government officials and
members of logging and
forestry organizations pro
tested the suspension of 18
land-tract timber sales in
Western North Carolina
Sept. 11 on the UNCA
campus. The protest was
in response to an environ
mental conference that was
held on campus that day.
“I have not found a one of
these environmentalists
that would say ‘Come on
over. I want to deed my
front- porch to you, and
you can put it in public
lands.’ But they want to
say, ‘We want to deed your
lands for our purposes,’”
said U.S. House Rep.
Charles Taylor, a partici
pant in the protest, in the
opening speech.
Many of the participants
in the environmental con
ference said they disagreed
with the demonstrators’
characterization of the
Wildlands Project, a group
of conservation biologists
and activists whose go^ is
the recovery of whole eco
systems and landscapes in
every region of North
America, according to the
organization’s Website.
“Ail of the organizations
here at the conference to
day oppose any kind of gov
ernment condemnation of
private property or any
other coercive techniques to
protect land,” said Brownie
Newman, executive coor
dinator of the Western
North Carolina Alliance
(WNC Alliance). “All ofthe
organizations here support
permanent protection of
public lands, which belong
to the American people and
not the timber industry. We
support givmg economic m-
centives to private landown
ers to conserve their land.”
Participants in the protest
included members of the
Southern Appalachian Mul-
tiple-UseCouncil
(SAMUC), a forestry group
that promotes “the balanced
integration and protection of
forest land values” (water,
fish and wildlife, timber, rec
reation, wilderness and graz
ing), according to their press
release. Some SAMUC
members described what
they claimed were the Wild
lands Project’s radical goals,
including government con
fiscation of private lands.
“The goal of the demon
stration was to bring to the
public’s attention to what the
goals of the Wildlands
Project are, how radical it is
and what it would mean to
See PROTEST page 9
PHOTO BY TRAVIS BARKER
Logging trucks lined W.T. Weaver St. Saturday.
The debate between en
vironmental groups and the
logging industry that
occured on UNCA’s cam
pus Sept. 11 is not a new.
disagreement, according to
the executive director for a
local environmental group.
“The debate we’re having
now also happened right
when the national forests
were established,” said
Brownie Newman, execu
tive coordinator for the
Western North Carolina
Alliance (WNC Alliance).
“Unfortunately, the people
who wanted to do the tim
ber harvesting on the na
tional forests won that de
bate originally.”
The protection of the for
ests by environmental
groups will not come with
out a fight from the men
and women who have
grown up in and around
the logging industry, ac
cording to one of the log
gers.
“I will fight for my family
and for my property,” said
Nathan Stewart, a truck
dri ver who has been around
the logging industry his
entire life. “I will fight un
til I die. The loggers have
not been getting to work,
and the payments are due
on their equipment. So
what do you do when your
children, your wife and
your grandchildren start
getting hungry, and you
don’t have the money to
put food on the table? The
loggers get very upset, and
they will fight.”
Since the establishment
of the national forests, there
has been a concern over
whether or not they should
be used purely for habitat
and recreation, or should
be commercially logged.
“National forests were set
up about a hundred years
ago,” saidNewman. “There
“This is probably the first
of what may be a lot more
as the battle intensifies,”
said Bob Slocum of the
North Carolina Forestry
Association.
Slocum said the debate
and protest over the use of
public lands for timber
harvesting is new to the
“It’s been really common
out West where there’s
been a lot of conflict,” said
Slocum. “Unfortunately, a
lot of the national forests
in the West have, in a lot of
ways, been locked up. The
industry is slowly sort of
withering out there, and
the battle is now moving
to the South.”
Newman contends that
his organization is not to
tally against timber har
vesting.
“You can do timber har
vesting and still have some
ecological benefits, but the
question is, ‘should that
be happening on national
forests?’” said Newman.
“We feel like national for
ests would be places where
we should protect those
values to the highest de
gree possible, and we sup
port sustainable forestry on
private lands.”
“My dad lived until he
was about 90 years old,
and he logged all of his
life,” said Stewart. “He
logged until about two
months before he died.
Now I’m a truck driver,
and I haul the logs. That’s
my livelihood. That’s
what’s raised my family
afid my grandchildren.”
Fred Harden said he is a
forester who has often
fought for the right to har-
“Ten yfears ago, it started
See FOREST page 9
NCCCR recieves $100,000
toward new building
By Sarah Wilkins
staff Writer
The N.C. Center for Cre
ative Retirement (NCCCR)
received a $100,000 grant
from the Cannon Foundation
Inc. for a new building on
UNCA’s campus. With a lack
ofclassroom and parking space
for seniors citizens in the
NCCCR program, the build
ing is needed, according to
Cissie Stevens, the director of
the College for Seniors pro
gram, a division of NCCCR.
The organization now has
$2,042,121 of the $3 million
needed to build the Reuter
Center.
‘This is not a frill, this is a
necessity,” said Stevens. “I
knew we were going to make
“Wc hope to have (all) the
money in hand, and start the
building by the fall of :?000,”
said Stevens.
The UNCA Board of Trust-
ees gave five and a half acres to
the organization. According
to the master plan of UNCA,
all educational buildings will
be on the inner ring of cam
pus, while all programs will be
n the oi
ring.
“We are concerned because
we don’t want to be isolated
from students,” said Stevens.
The building’s location will
be on Campus Drive off of
Broadway.
The location “has been criti
cized by our members because
they like being right in the
middle of things,” said Beth
Lazer, co-chair of A Place to
Call Home building commit
tee and administrative assis
tant to the chancellor.
Cannon Foundation Inc.
chose the program because
they have an interest in sup
porting good programs that
contribute in significant ways
to the community, according
The foundation made the
decision in late spring of1999,
according to Stevens.
All of the money for the
Reuter Center has been raised
from members, foundations,
and corporations, according
“Last January, we received a
challenge grant from the
Janirve Foundation for the
amount of $ 1,250,000,” said
See NCCCR page 9
Parking changes cause problems
By Holly Beveridge
Staff Writer
UNCA students, faculty and
staff returned to find signifi
cant changes in campus park
ing areas this semester, accord
ing to the public safety direc-
In addition to the South
Ridge parking deck, which
opened at the start of the se
mester' and added approxi
mately 200 new spaces for resi
dent students, UNCA made
several alterations in the dis
tribution of existing parking
spaces, according to Dennis
Gregory, director of UNCA’s
Public Safety Department.
“We think parking is much
better this year than the past
two or three years,” said Gre-
mgry about the loss
of parking spaces close to their
dorms.
“There’s nowhere to un
load,” said Martens, a junior
biology major who lives in
Governor’s Village. Martens
said she would not be so angry
if UNCA had waited for the
construction to be completed
before taking away the Zageir
spaces'.
According to Gregory, the
construction should have been
completed before the start of
fall classes.
“They’re way over schedule,”
said Gregory, who said he
hopes the workers will finish
within the next week. “My
understanding is they’re at a
process now of being fined
every day that it continues.”
Nonetheless, some think stu
dents have blown the parking
issue out of proportion.
“Don’t the students realize
that even the farthest lot puts
them closer to classes and cam
pus than many of the other
universities in our state?” said
Pat Latta, a senior manage
ment major who commutes.
Latta called UNCA’s parking
complaints “minor ones.”
Several students, however,
expressed satisfaction with the
Jennifer Peterson, an unde
clared junior living in
Founders Hall, said she
couldn’t be happier.
“I don’t complain; it’s awe
some parking,” said Peterson,
who previously attended Ap
palachian State University.
Peterson, who found it diffi
cult to park anywhere near
campus at Appalachian, said
she likes the ability to park
“right next to your dorm” at
UNCA.
According to Gregory, com
muter students gained about
24 extra parking spaces in one
of the lots across from Zageir
Hall that had been previously
designated as residential stu
dent parking.
“We lost three parking
lots,” said Martens.
Martens complained that
spaces given to commuters in
the Zageir lot and spaces
taken up by the current Jus
tice Gym construction have
caused difficulties for Village
residents.
Commuter students may
find parking easier in the fu
ture as UNCA officials con
sider giving them even more
“Now that we’ve got the
parking deck for the resident
students, it is our hope that
we can give the entire Zageir
lot back to commuters,” said
Gregory, “because that seems
to be a real central parking
place for most commuters.
They like to park there.”
See PARKING page 9