|
Sylva leaders ponder management options at Pinnacle Park
By Samantha Blanton
Sylva officials July 7 pondered the future of Pinnacle Park and the watershed surrounding it.
The park, located at the end of Fisher Creek, is one of Sylva’s best kept secrets, according to the Town of Sylva Web site.
Sylva officials July 7 discussed the future of Pinnacle Park, the Fisher Creek watershed that formerly provided drinking water to the town. A recently-completed tree inventory triggered the board’s consideration of possible management options. The property is currently leased to Pinnacle Park Foundation. – Herald photo by Samantha Blanton.
The watershed is under lease through 2020 to Pinnacle Park Foundation, a non-profit that was organized to promote and develop the area, which once supplied water to the town.
Pinnacle Park includes the headwaters of Fisher Creek, which was the water supply for the town of Sylva for 75 years before Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority came into existence. Bordered on two sides by U.S. Forest Service land, the park is located north of Sylva on the southern side of the Plott Balsams.
The triangular-shaped, 1,000-acre Pinnacle Park is about the size of Chimney Rock park in Henderson County. The top of Pinnacle Bald can be seen by most of Sylva to the north by looking just above the tree line.
Sylva officials discussed the possibility of logging the area. Before making a decision, in May 2004, board members elected to learn more about the timber value in the park.
Students from Western Carolina University did an inventory of the trees in Pinnacle Park as part of the Western Carolina Forest Sustainability Initiative under the leadership of geoscience and natural resource management professor Pete Bates, Mayor Brenda Oliver said.
The class received a grant for the project from Southwestern Commission/Region A and the Watershed Association of the Tuckaseigee River.
Results from the study show that the watershed, which primarily is south-facing, also includes areas of east and west-facing slops. Elevation ranges from about 3,000 feet in the parking lot to 5,500 feet at Blackrock. Slopes are steep through the watershed and most are steeper than 30 percent.
According to Bates, forest vegetation throughout the lower park (3,500 to 4,000 feet) falls into the oak/hickory forest type. This is common for the southern Appalachians. The next levels of elevations includes predominantly the poplar cove forest type. Above 4,500 feet northern hardwood tree types, yellow birch and sugar maple, begin to appear.
The students separated the watershed into eight stands. Many stands contain significant timber volumes and a large proportion of the timber present is high quality, Bates said.
“We don’t want to tell the town what to do with the land, but management opportunities do look promising,” said Bates.
The group suggests management in some areas of the watershed, and letting nature take its course in others. Several stands would be hard to get to for management purposes.
“You might ask, why manage at all? The landscape up there is under stress with acid rain, pollution, insect problems and diseases. Management encompasses everything, considering values a forest can offer, and what trees themselves can offer whether to do nothing, cut something or plant something,” Bates said.
Management doesn’t always mean cutting, Bates said. There are a lot of ways to harvest and there are other treatments.
“It certainly is a beautiful place up there. We appreciate all the time and effort you put in. We’ve talked about what’s up there for years, and now we know. Now we will have to make some decisions,” Oliver said.
When logging of the property was discussed last year, the issue of the 1992 resolution and lease was brought up, raising the question of who actually controls the land.
Pinnacle Park Foundation President Jay Coward said last year that the 1992 resolution states there should be no logging or mining in the area.
The future of the park has been discussed for years, but no concrete decisions have been made. In May 1992, town officials approved a resolution that all future boards maintain the watershed.
North Carolina’s Adopt-a-Trail program provided $1,000 in 1994 for material to correct drainage problems and trail erosion on 4 miles of Pinnacle Park trails.
Sylva granted Coward’s request in 1995 and leased the Fisher Creek watershed to the Pinnacle Park Foundation. The town agreed to a 25-year lease at a cost of $10 per year.
Sylva’s Pinnacle Park was connected to the Blue Ridge Parkway in 1997 when a 1,594-acre tract between the park and Waterrock Knob was purchased by the N.C. Nature Conservancy.
Pinnacle Park Foundation received a $5,000 grant in 2001 to assist with construction of stream crossings, and other accessibility problems in the park.
|
