Land Between the Lakes

The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is divided between the states of Tennessee and Kentucky and has both a unique history.  Originally known as Land Between the Rivers, the LBL was a creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority when Kentucky and Barkeley Lakes dammed after land seizures forced the removal of hundreds of families.  Its history has since been very controversial, with the land being turned over to the Forest Service in the 1990's. 
We have a quick slide show that highlights some key issues, some unique to the LBL.  
We have been monitoring the Pisgah Bay timber sale, which proposes to burn and log for "open woodland creation.   Kentucky Heartwood, who has been working with the Coalition for the Preservation of the Land Between the Lakes to stop this project has an excellent page on the sale and how you can get involved.

Grassroots Fight Takes Shape

In recent months, the controversy surrounding the Pisgah Bay and other projects by the Forest Service has brought what was originally backlash, but now has evolved into a concerted effort to bring real change to the LBL.  A collection of Between the Rivers natives (many who were forced to leave in the 1950's and 1960's), local officials, Kentucky Heartwood, and the Coalition for the Preservation of the Land Between the Lakes is pushing for a new forest plan as a means of undoing the bad philosophy that governs the forest.  There is also support to even transfer the forest to the Park Service.  Several public meetings have been effective in raising consciousness of  LBL issues and the possibilities of a new direction.  In February, hundreds came together to meet with the Forest Service and several congressional representatives to push for a better future for the LBL. Check out the latest news!

Between the Rivers Natives Talk About the Changing Ecological Landscape of the LBL

We conducted interview with Between the Rivers natives who explain how the Forest Service's view of what were "native" forest conditions are innacurate- how LBL originally had almost no pines and how TVA brought pines in decades ago- The first interview is in two parts.

Coalition Hosts Convoy to Highlight Mismanagement at the Land Between the Lakes.

A coalition of environmentalists, sportsmen, jeep and horseback riders, and businesspeople has forged an alliance to bring change to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.   After years of mismanagement by the Forest Service, hundreds have been gathering at meetings in a revolt against what they see as a willful destruction of the forest in the name of dubious “forest restoration”.  The Forest Service has already converted 8600 acres of the forest to an “oak-grassland” demonstration area that they claim represents pre-settlement forest conditions.  However, after over a decade of heavy logging, herbiciding, and burning, there is still nothing resembling a grassy understory, just an impenetrable tangle of scorched and fallen trees, cat briar, and blackberry.  With the agency poised to expand the project, locals have had enough. 
On Sunday June 28, the Coalition for the Land Between the Lakes will be gathering at 3:00 p.m. at the northern welcome station at the LBL to start a convoy that will tour the forest to highlight the issues.  Coalition organizer and Lyon County, KY Judge Executive Wade White is confident that the tour will expose to the public what is happening in the LBL: “The Forest Service is actively pursuing landscape change in LBL. If you want to see what that will look like come to the 8600 tour and see for yourself and decide if you want LBL to look like the 8600.”
The LBL divides between Tennessee and Kentucky and lies between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.  Lakes Barkley and Kentucky were built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).  The LBL makes for 172,000 acres.
Jan Culwell of the community development group GrowTrigg, says: "The focus of GrowTrigg is to enhance the quality of life in Trigg County.  To alter the landscape of the LBL on such a scale as is proposed is patently against all that we represent.  It would negatively impact the quality of life of the residents and it would keep the tourists and visitors from returning.  We need to be able to assure visitors that 'treatments' will be limited to the 8600."
Tabitha Smith Tripp of the nearby Shawnee Sentinels, sees this as a part of a region wide trend: “It’s appalling that the Forest Service would continue deceptive practices with public lands across the region in order to benefit a select few for timber, while the taxpayers are left with useless landscapes, lost revenue from a drop in tourism, and the mess left behind. Jim Scheff of Kentucky Heartwood has researched the timber program at the LBL and has found that the Forest Service is selling timber at a third of the current market value.
The campaign is of special importance to natives who still feel a deep connection with the land that they were forced to leave when the Tennessee Valley Authority seized the area that was originally called Between the Rivers.  BTR native Della Oliver: “This should be the beginning of the public getting committed to making BTR what it should be and all that it can be.  This tour will be eye opening for those who have been standing on the sidelines and unsure. This is going to be an eye opening experience. “
The Forest Service has been conducting a campaign of its own to reassure that public that the 8600 project is successful and ecologically beneficial.  Coalition members, however, have been finding great contradictions between the rhetoric and reality.  A recent Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the Forest Service has plans to expand the project to cover most of the district.  Another problem involves heavy logging that is happening outside of the 8600.  The Forest Service claims that it is thinning the forest to promote oak/hickory regeneration and prevent shade-tolerant trees from taking over the landscape.  Many of the projects actually include shelterwood cuts and clearcuts, far more intensive practices than thinning.  “You can walk about anywhere in the uplands of the LBL and the claim of this supposed threat by shade-tolerant trees like maples, elms, and sassafras is just not real.  There are few forests in this region with such a high concentration of oaks, both in the canopy and the understory,” says Davis Mounger of Tennessee Heartwood. “ It’s just a boilerplate claim to justify logging. No, oaks and hickories aren’t in danger.”
Between the Rivers native David Nickell sees the tour as a challenge to Forest Service publicity: “Don’t take anybody’s word for it.  See it for yourself.” 

For More information, contact:

Wade White

270-625-2744   lyoncountyjudge@gmail.com 

http://lblcoalition.org/wp/

www.the8600.com