Keep Fires Creek Rim Trail Natural

Fires Creek Rim & Basin is a 16,000 acre wilderness area that has one small privately owned, 50 acre parcel of land. It is located near a trail, off a gravel Forest Service road and up near the headwaters of a creek that flows into Fires Creek. The land is high enough that should buildings be erected on it, they could be seen from both the Appalachian & Bartram Trails.

The Forest Service claims to be responsible to provide access to the parcel based on federal legislation that was passed by Congress when Alaska became a state. To apply that same law here is stretching the parameters of the intent of the law.

In 1983, N. C. passed a Ridge Line Protection law that limits what can be built near ridge lines with height specifications of structures relative to ridge tops.

In 2002, N. C. Attorney General Roy Cooper wrote his opinion on a proposal put forth by the TVA concerning building windmills near the TN-NC border. In it, he used the term "viewshed" in a negative light. He reasoned that people who were in high elevations in some N. C. locations could see TVA windmills and that the TVA had no right to spoil the natural view.

If homes were built in the private in-holding, that would be far worse than windmills so far as spoiling an otherwise wildness mountaintop. There are many other issues that would compromise the wilderness--worsened water quality in Fires Creek, erosion from development, etc.