By Rose Hooper
The National Park Service is soliciting public comments tonight
(Thursday) on the draft environmental impact statement for a
land exchange proposal in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The exchange involves NPS land at Ravensford where the Eastern
Band of Cherokee would like to build new schools for the tribe.
In exchange, the tribe has proposed purchasing and donating
a 218-acre parcel in Jackson County known as Waterrock Knob,
which would become part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Tonight's public hearing will be held at Cherokee Elementary
School beginning at 6 p.m.
In June 2000 when the NPS and EBCI reached a general agreement
on the land exchange, one of the conditions was the development
of an environmental impact statement.
The study found the Ravensford site rich in cultural resources,
containing intact deposits and/or features associated with more
than 8,000 years of human occupation. Almost the entire site
is contained within the Oconaluftee Archaeological District.
Major components are present dating to the Middle Archaic, late
Archaic, Early Woodland, Middle Woodland, Late Woodland and
Historic Cherokee periods, according to the study.
Significant 19th-century Euro-American deposits are also present,
along with the extensive remains of the 20th- century lumber
town of Ravensford, the study found.
The depositional environments over much of the tract have provided
a favorable context for site preservation. Low-density deposits
dating to the Early Archaic period are present on portions of
the tract, and it has potential to contain additional artifacts
and paleo envirionmental data associated with the Early Holocene
occupation of the area, the study continues.
At the Waterrock Knob site, which is largely forested and currently
undeveloped, the study found a diversity of plant communities.
These included spruce fir forest, northern hardwood forest,
high elevation acidic cove forest, high elevation rocky summit,
grass bald and vegetated wetland seeps.
Other important biological resources present include two federally-listed
endangered species, three state-listed threatened species and
31 other special status species and 32 invertebrates that are,
or thought to be, new to science.
Comments can be e-mailed to @npslandexchange.com or mailed to
John Yancy, National Park Service, Southeast Regional Office,
100 Alabama St. SW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303 or faxes to 1-888-820-3643.
The deadline for comments is Aug. 15.
Copies of the environmental impact statement can be downloaded
from the Internet:
www.npslandexchange.com. Printed copies can be reviewed at the
Qualla Boundary Public Library, 810 Acquoni Rd. in Cherokee.
