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For 16 years, Wild South and Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project have worked side by side to protect and restore our great Southern national forests in order to ensure a natural legacy for future generations. In November 2007 our two organizations merged to become one powerful, streamlined organization—Wild South. Headquartered in Asheville, NC, with a field office in Moulton, AL, Wild South now works in a six-state region with a full-time staff of six and a part-time staff of four. The merger afforded Wild South the opportunity to showcase our organizations’ combined successes and improve many of our administrative and fundraising systems.
Parallel Histories Come Together in 2007 Wild South
| SABP
| 1991 – The Bankhead Monitor incorporates in AL to address USFS destruction of the Bankhead National Forest, including clearcutting of 80,000 acres to be converted to loblolly pine plantations, along with destruction of historic and cultural sites, such as Indian Tomb Hollow.
1993 – After a failed court challenge to violations of Endangered Species Act, Wilderness Act and NEPA, Bankhead Monitor takes its case to the people. Grassroots campaign begins to end corporate plundering of the Bankhead.
1994 – Launches Bankhead Watershed Project to study impacts of clearcutting on the soils and watersheds of the Bankhead. Public demand leads to expansion of statewide work and the name is changed to Wild Alabama.
1996 – Destruction of sacred and cultural areas in the Bankhead prompts Native American protests at Oakville Indian Mounds, which leads to a logging moratorium across 18,000 acres. Permanent protection is afforded to the area in the new forest plan.
2003 – Wild Alabama concludes nearly a decade of work to shape the new Forest Plan for the Bankhead, eliminating clearcuts and focusing efforts on restoring native forest communities.
2004 – By 2004, regional work mandated the name change to Wild South. Indian Tomb Hollow, High Town Path Historic District and Kinlock Historic District are managed as cultural heritage areas. The Flint Creek Botanical Area is designated. In addition, canyon prescriptions are developed for these unique geological areas.
2006 – Wild South teams up with SABP to help the community of Blowing Rock to protect old growth forests in the Globe Basin, Pisgah National Forest. Their combined efforts help generate over 1,800 public comments opposing the USFS project. | 1991 – USFS proposes a timber sale in a roadless area within the Cheoah River watershed of NC’s Nantahala National Forest, adjacent to the Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock Wilderness. A group of citizens, led by Brownie Newman, challenges the sale. As a result, the Forest Service drops plans for logging in the roadless area. The Forest Protection/Biodiversity Project is born.
1993 – Forest Protection/Biodiversity Project challenges illegal logging of the old growth pine forests in Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest, home to the endangered Red-cockaded woodpecker. In response, USFS stops all commercial logging on the southern half of the Boone for over a year to create a new management plan, which calls for protection and restoration of old growth pine and pine-oak forests.
1994 – Changes name to Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project under the umbrella of the Foundation for Global Sustainability in Knoxville, TN.
1996 – Joins the effort to reintroduce the endangered Red Wolf to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding national forests.
1999 – SABP incorporates in the state of NC and becomes its own independent corporation.
2000 – Work with partners to stop a highway corridor through the Pisgah National Forest that would have destroyed portions of the Big Mountain Roadless Area, the North Fork River, the headwaters of Cherryfield Creek, and six sensitive tributaries.
2002 – Protections secured for 144 miles of stream habitat near Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, and 92 miles of stream habitat in NC and SC for two endangered fresh water mussel species, the Appalachian elktoe and Carolina heelsplitter.
2004 – Protections secured for 1,637 miles of stream habitat for 16 threatened and endangered mussels throughout AL, TN, VA, and MS and 1,600 acres of upland habitat in TN and KY for Braun’s rock cress, an endangered plant.
2006 – SABP partners with Wild South and the Blowing Rock Town Council to propose the Grandfather National Scenic Area in order to protect the Globe Forest and surrounding viewshed in perpetuity. | | 2007 – With a shared vision for our native forest ecosystems and public lands, Wild South and SABP merge, combining forces to create one incredibly powerful, streamlined organization. The newly merged organization will inspire and empower people to protect and restore the native ecosystems of the Southeast. |
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