Our 2011 interns enjoy a sunny afternoon prior to an outreach event in Blowing Rock. From left to right: Allison Holloway, Tracy Davids, Giorgia Auteri, Tawnee Milko, and Janice Barrett.

Giorgia Auteri

I started my internship at Wild South after graduating from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Allison Holloway

I began interning for Wild South the summer before my last semester at UNC-Asheville.

Tawnee Milko

Tawnee is pursuing her Master of Environmental Management degree at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

Calling all national forest friends and advocates:

Over the years, Wild South (that means you) has protected over half a million acres from the axe. We've defended cultural sites, protected habitats, kept our air and water clean, and inspired thousands along the way. We have helped usher in a new era of forest management with a focus on ecological restoration. But, the system has inherent challenges with logging projects disguised as restoration, management regulations weakened, and positive work paralyzed as a result of dwindling agency budgets.

Wild South was born out of vigilant citizen involvement. For twenty years we have been the voice for the voiceless, the eyes and ears of the forest, the boots on the ground. Our founding spirit is as relevant today as it was in the beginning because while tools, strategies and tactics have changed, the need to protect the wild character and natural legacy of the South has not. Citizen involvement is still required to protect and steward the places we love and Wild South is committed to leading the way. Here's how you can help:

Forest Watch

Our Forest Watch program tracks ground disturbing projects in our region's national forests to ensure that the environment is protected. Our restoration work in Alabama's Bankhead National Forest – a source of pride for us until we caught the Forest Service cutting down old hardwoods in the name of restoring them – must have more community Forest Watch to be effective. In February we trained twenty-five volunteers in Forest Watch ground-truthing skills to help spot problems before they arise. You can be a part of this Bankhead Forest Watch team or you can help us to ground-truth projects in a national forest near you.

Helping Hands

Our Helping Hands program mobilizes local communities to improve trails, restore forest health, and maintain high quality recreational experiences in our National Forest. With shrinking Forest Service budgets and staff, Wild South expanded this program in 2011 to address some critical unmet needs.

Our new Volunteer Wilderness Ranger project will recruit, train and equip local volunteers to steward wilderness by serving as wilderness rangers in Alabama's three wilderness areas: the Sipsey, Cheaha and Dugger Mountain. These volunteer wilderness rangers will educate and inform wilderness users, monitor conditions of recreational resources, collect wilderness visitor use data, and perform services to maintain the wilderness resource in good condition.

Our NC Trails Inventory project will recruit and train volunteers to survey hiking, biking, and horse trails in the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forests of NC and collect data on their condition. The inventory will be the foundation for an ongoing collaborative effort to maintain a sustainable trail system that satisfies users while protecting the integrity of forest ecosystems.

NFMA Regulations Comments

The draft Planning Rule of the National Forest Management Act is out. This Act and rule determine how our national forests are managed and how their management plans are developed. These are your lands so the Dept. of Agriculture needs to hear from you. Submit your comments by May 16. Talking points and how to submit comments can be found in this newsletter.

The success of every grassroots group hinges on the involvement of people who care about the mission. It is going to take all of us to ensure that the wild character and natural legacy of the South are maintained. So if you care about wild places and your national forests, get active.

Ben Colvin, Wild South's new Donor Relations coordinator will be engaging more people in all aspects of our work. That's because our success rests on the support and active role our members play. If you are passionate about your forests and want to make a difference we've got a job for you. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to learn more about the opportunities listed above or other ways you can be involved.

Thanks for all of your help!

John Davis is a "tri-athlete meets John Muir" and co-founder of the Wildlands Network. He is also a lifelong wildlands advocate, conservationist, writer and explorer. This year John has embarked to hike, paddle, cycle and ski through the spectacular and biologically diverse Eastern Wildway—a human powered journey of approximately 5,000 miles.

Traveling northward from the Everglades to Canada's Gaspe Peninsula, John will slog through swamps, hike in search of rare prairies and longleaf pine forests, paddle pristine and important rivers, explore rich coastal marshes, climb ancient mountains, and navigate through valleys and northern landscapes. He'll also take "side-trips" from his charted course, to encounter as many critical wild places as possible.

John has already made his way through the Bankhead and met with Wild South to visit the Sipsey Wilderness. We will be meeting with him again as he begins his journey across the Blue Ridge Moutains. To learn more about this incredible journey showcasing the wildlands of the east, please visit  www.wildlandsnetwork.org/trekeast.

More than 43 million people visit national forests east of the Mississippi each year, according to the United States Forest Service, but few know that their origins lie in the Weeks Act, signed into law 100 years ago, on March 1, 1911.
Considered one of the greatest laws for the protection of national forests and one of the most important and successful efforts in land conservation history, the legislation authorized federal funds to buy eventually more than 25 million acres of private forest land in 26 Eastern states.

This year, to commemorate the act, a collective of groups organized asWeeksLegacy.org, has scheduled activities and events throughout the year, including field trips to the forests, lectures and arts festivals, touring exhibits, educational programs, trail cleanups and more.