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Guns are now legal in national parks. Are we any safer? In Georgia a serial killer stalked hikers in national forests. In a Tennessee campground, a mother and her two small children were mauled by a black bear. Two Virginia Tech students were found shot dead at their Jefferson National Forest campsite, their killers still [...]

Upper Chattooga River opened for paddling

Our national parks get all the love. You’ve seen the “Save Our Parks” bumper stickers, maybe you’ve even watched the new Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Certainly, you’ve heard the public outcry over the park service’s $9 billion maintenance backlog. We get it: our national parks are awesome. Let’s fix ‘em [...]

Pisgah National Forest has announced plans to log 2,000 acres in the North Mills River Recreation Area, near Asheville, N.C. The area is one of the most popular mountain biking destinations in the country, as well as being a destination for anglers, hikers, and trail runners. According to the proposal, the Forest Service plans to [...]

Seneca Rocks rises close to 900 feet above the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River Valley. Although it is believed Native Americans climbed the rocks, the first recorded ascent was in the 1930s. Throughout most of the rest of the 1900s, the views that could be obtained from its west-facing wall [...]

An invasive weed may be our next great fuel.

ORV user groups drop lawsuit over Tellico ORV area.

The US Forest Service maintains a 39.5-mile OHV system in the Cherokee National Forest known as the Upper Tellico OHV Area. Because of the area’s location adjacent to the Tellico River, the miles of poorly designed trails (many of which are social trails) have caused multiple plumes of visible sediment to pour into the Tellico [...]