by Jedd Ferris

You own 665 million acres. Public lands are funded by your tax dollars and managed by a handful of federal agencies on your behalf. All this land is supposed to be at least somewhat protected by different federal agencies. Confused by the alphabet of agency acronyms? Here’s a basic owner’s manual to your Blue Ridge public lands.

National Parks

At a Glance: The National Park System comprises 384 areas covering more than 83.3 million acres in every state (except Delaware). National parks in the Blue Ridge region include Shenandoah National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Management: The National Park Service (NPS) is part of the Department of the Interior and manages lands with the purpose of preservation of natural resources for public enjoyment. While parklands often include paved-road attractions for visitors, most parks forbid commercial logging, hunting, and development.

Threats: Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains are two of the most air-polluted parks in the country, due largely to coal-burning power plants in the region. The so-called Clear Skies Initiative will actually increase emissions and further impair health and visibility.

National Forests

At a Glance: National forests comprise 193 million acres-8.5 percent of the U.S. land area. There are eight national forests in the Blue Ridge: George Washington-Jefferson (Va.), Monongahela (W.Va.), Pisgah (N.C.), Nantahala (N.C.), Uwharrie (N.C), Cherokee (Tenn.), Sumter (S.C.), and Chattahoochee (Ga).

Management: The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the Department of Agriculture that manages public lands for the sustained yield of resources. National forests are commonly referred to as “lands of many uses”-some of those uses include logging, hunting, recreation, wildlife protection, and mineral exploration.

Threats: Bush Administration rollbacks to the Roadless Rule have opened 58.5 million acres of public lands to logging and road-building, including about 919,000 acres in the Southern Appalachians. The Healthy Forests Initiative also increases logging on national forests under the guise of fire prevention. The Bush Administration has also virtually eliminated public comment on national forest logging plans.

National Wildlife Refuges

At a Glance: The 93 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System consists of more than 520 refuges and 66 fish hatcheries.

Management: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)-administered by the Department of the Interior-oversees all refuges and is also charged with managing the Endangered Species List.

Most refuges in the Southeast are in coastal or in waterside areas. The southern states have 42 designated refuges, including Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Threats: Proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act would jeopardize habitat protections on all public lands. The USFWS is also hamstrung by a 10-year backlog of endangered species requests and increasing costs associated with controlling invasive species. Bush has again proposed drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Closer to home, local activists have stalled the U.S. Navy’s plans to build a jet landing field near N.C.’s Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, a critical wintering ground for migratory waterfowl.

Wilderness

At a Glance: Wilderness is the highest form of public lands protection. In wilderness, the focus is on protecting naturally functioning ecosystems without human manipulation. No roads or permanent structures are allowed, and the area’s primitive character and ecosystems are emphasized over visitor convenience or resource extraction.

There are 57 federally-designated Wilderness areas in the Blue Ridge, including Ramsey’s Draft, Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock, Shining Rock, Dolly Sods, and Cohutta.

Management: In 1964 the United States Congress passed the Wilderness Act, which carved wilderness areas out of existing public lands. As a result, a combination of government agencies manage wilderness areas.

Threats: Bush’s repeal of the Roadless Rule, eliminated nearly 60 million acres of potential wilderness. Special interests groups have also rolled back wilderness protections, and in the case of Georgia’s Cumberland Island Wilderness, completely changed the boundaries to accommodate Jeep tours, roadbuilding, and other commercial enterprises.