The Wayah district of the Nantahala recently proposed a logging operation with a new approach. The foresters want to log up to 763 acres scattered on tracts in a nearly 200 square mile area of national forest across Jackson, Macon and Swain counties.

“It’s a trend we certainly agree with. It’s called landscape-scale management. You look at what you’re doing and how is it going to impact this larger landscape,” said Steven Henson with the Southern Appalachian Multiple Use Council, a logging industry group. “We agree with that approach and strategy.”

But as usual, it appears the environmental groups aren’t satisfied.

Environmental groups claim the logging is scattered over too large an area. To Henson that doesn’t make sense, especially in light of the recent accusations by the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project that the forest service has failed to address the cumulative impacts of multiple smaller logging operations over the landscape (see article Not So Fast.)

“It seems to me there is a double standard. On one side they are saying they want to look at cumulative impacts, and on the other side they say a project with a landscape approach is too big,” Henson said.