1. Party for the Planet

April 22 marks the 37th birthday of Earth Day, the annual grassroots-coordinated holiday of environmental stewardship. Since its inception, local organizations have hosted festivals, information rallies, and clean-ups in the name of preserving and improving Mama Earth. This year the movement keeps rolling with a bevy of events in the Blue Ridge. In Charlottesville, Va., an entire week of events will take place from April 21-30 in what is being billed as Earth Week (www.earthweek.org). Activities include an Eco-Fair, Green Home Expo, Biofuels Presentation, Riparian Buffer Plantings, and a Rivanna Trail Explorers’ Challenge and Kids’ Scavenger Hunt. In the Commonwealth other one-day festivals will take place in Richmond, Staunton, and Claytor Lake State Park. In North Carolina there will be an Earth Day Festival at UNC-Charlotte on April 19. In The Mountain State, the Ace Adventure Center will lead a trash pick-up of the New River, before offering exciting rides down the lower section. For more information on programs in your area visit www.earthday.net.

2. PHat with a PH

The Forks Area Trail System (FATS) is officially open to fat tires. The 32-mile buffet of singletrack is located in the Sumter National Forest near Clarks Hill, S.C. IMBA was recently awarded a grant to build trail systems in 10 National Forests across the country in order to foster a stronger mountain biking community within the forest system. FATS is the model trail system and IMBA is holding it up as an example of what can be accomplished with a forward thinking land management agency. FATS is expected to turn Clark Hill and Sumter into a true mountain biking destination, something South Carolina desperately needs. www.sorba.org.

3. Blue Ridge Dominates Top 20 Trails

Need some more East Coast bragging rights? Here’s a little fuel for the fire-12 of the top 20 trails in North America are located to the right of the Mississippi, and seven of those blaze through our Blue Ridge backyard, according to Seattle-based Trails.com’s Top 100 Trails of North America. Northern Georgia’s Cohutta Wilderness, which holds 75 miles of backcountry trails on the Tennessee state line, took number two overall, just behind New York’s Breakneck Ridge Trail.

According to Trails.com, the top 100 were selected based on the analysis of more than 10 million votes by subscribers and visitors. Sections of the Appalachian Trail made the top 20 six times, including the entire Pennsylvania section (8) and again specifically for the Pinnacle (6), Georgia from Springer Mountain to Hightower Gap (7), Crampton Gap to Harper’s Ferry (17) in Maryland and West Virginia, Chester Gap to Harper’s Ferry in Virginia (18), and jointly the entire sections in Connecticut and Massachussetts (13). Other regional trails in the rankings include those in West Virginia’s Dolly Sods Wilderness (12) and Virginia’s Furnace Mountain/Trayfoot Mountain Overnight Loop (11) near Waynesboro.

4. Timber Sale Slated Near Moses Cone

Significant stands of ancient, old growth forest could be cut in an area near a popular Blue Ridge Parkway recreation area. The Forest Service has proposed for logging, road reconstruction, and herbicide application for 231 acres near Moses Cone and Julian Price Parks, which are popular recreation destinations off the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Blowing Rock, N.C. This area is a known refuge for Appalachian State University students and faculty. To learn more or take action, visit www.sabp.net.

5. Ramseys Draft Area Proposed for Logging

Proposed logging road reconstruction, and herbicide application on 523 acres adjacent to Virginia’s Ramseys Draft Wilderness, which contains native trout populations and old growth forests. Logged areas would be visible from the Georgia Camp Trail. To learn more or take action, visit www.virginiaforestwatch.org.

6. Logging Planned Near Shining Rock

Right beside the beloved Shining Rock Wilderness Area, N.C., in between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Looking Glass Rock, the Forest Service is proposing this timber sale in a popular recreation area that is known to include patches of old growth forest. Shining Rock is one of the region's most visited wilderness areas. Intense logging, road reconstruction, and herbicide application are proposed on 1,200 acres upstream of the Sliding Rock Recreation Area. The project would be visible from nearby hiking trails including: Case Camp Ridge, Caney Bottom, and Seniard Ridge. To learn more or take action, visit www.sabp.net.

7.Trail Blazer

Outdoor Chattanooga, an organization that promotes outdoor recreation in the mighty 'Nooga, just received a $10,000 grant to build 10 miles of singletrack on Raccoon Mountain, a recreation area only five miles from downtown. SORBA and Outdoor Chattanooga are attempting to build 100-miles of singletrack over the next 10 years around Chattanooga, which is sure to make the city one of the most popular mountain bike destinations in the south. The Raccoon Mountain trail system is the first step in this ambitious goal. www.outdoorchattanooga.com.

9. Dead End for North Shore Road?

Although the "official" comment period is over for the long-standing dispute on whether or not to build a road through the largest block of unbroken mountain forest in the Appalachians, comments to the Park Service and legislators will still have a significant effect. A recently-released study of the proposed road through the Smokies warns of major, adverse, long-term impacts that construction would have on every resource that the National Park Service examined. The common-sense cash settlement protects the country’s most popular national park, fairly resolves the dispute, and saves taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. To learn more about this issue and how you can help, visit www.SAFC.org.

10. Roadless Areas Renewed in Southeast

In March, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley moved to reinstate protection on some of the most pristine areas of North Carolina’s national forests. Easley petitioned the federal government to reissue rules that would restrict road construction and timber harvesting on the 173,000 acres of national forests that are designated roadless areas.

Roadless areas provide some of the state’s premier outdoor recreation. They also harbor headwaters for many rivers and streams that provide drinking water for millions of Americans.

Last July, the Bush Administration lifted federal protection on roadless areas within national forests across the country, setting aside a Clinton Administration rule that would have prohibited development on 58 million acres of national forests.

Governor Easley joins former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia who filed a petition for protection of his state’s 387,000 acres of roadless areas in December. Virginia’s (George Washington and Jefferson National Forests cover 1.8 million acres. Warner, a strong supporter of the roadless area designation, was the first in the nation to file a petition requesting roadless area protection.

Visit www.SAFC.org to find out how to thank Easley and Warner, and to encourage other Southern Appalachian governors to file petitions.