News and Music Discovery
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

LBL Coalition's '8,600' Campaign Urges Against Oak-Grassland Project Logging

http://lblcoalition.org/wp/

A coalition of local government leaders and concerned citizens has launched a new campaign regarding the management of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

The campaign is called “The 8,600” – an allusion to the acreage involved in LBL’s oak-grassland project started in 2004. Lyon County judge-executive Wade White is a member of the coalition and says that the oak-grassland project - which involves controlled burns and logging - has not been successful. He says the coalition doesn’t want any more of LBL to look like "the 8,600". This includes the planned Pisgah Bah project.

“They want to log 4,400 acres there and it’s all for the same type of idea, the same type of experiment," White said. "So we’re wanting people to go check out the 8,600. Go look at it and see if you want these areas of LBL to look like that 8,600. We don’t think they will.”

White says that logging in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is still taking place within 150 feet of The Trace, despite a pledge from U.S. Forest Service officials to halt logging that close to LBL’s main thoroughfare.

“I was driving through there yesterday and they were logging right against the road," White said. "I took a video of it. It makes it very difficult to negotiate and have discussions when the things that they come out and say in public, on TV, aren’t even being held.”

LBL area supervisor Tina Tilley did not return a call requesting comment Thursday, but told the Paducah Sun the logging near the Trace was the result of a “miscommunication.”

Members of the coalition will voice their concerns in a closed sit-down with Forest Service officials May 21 at Kenlake State Resort Park.

John Null is the host and creator of Left of the Dial. From 2013-2016, he also served as a reporter in the WKMS newsroom.
Related Content