Swain County has the opportunity to protect a regional treasure. That treasure is the largest tract of roadless land east of the Mississippi River ….We need a strategy for how we are going to protect the park for the next 200 years and building roads is not a part of that strategy. Building a road is an ineffective short term strategy and one that threatens the future of Swain County and other surrounding communities.

Think about the future . . . and then imagine the positive impact you will have made by simply choosing to conserve what little is left. Please do the right thing right now!

This road is far too expensive for the state not only in terms of financial costs but also environmental costs. The road would destroy some of North Carolina 's most pristine wilderness in the GSMNP. It would cause hazardous nuclear waste to be transported directly through an area which we seek to conserve.

Our National Parks, National Forests, BLM lands, wildlife refuges, unique natural resources, and wildlife habitat in general are under siege. The undeveloped and unroaded lands of the GSMNP are priceless. From the GSMNP website “No other area of equal size in a temperate climate can match the park's amazing diversity of plants, animals, and invertebrates. Over 10,000 species have been documented in the park: Scientists believe an additional 90,000 species may live here.” This Park should not be degraded by just “another drive through the woods” which is what the proposed North Shore Road would provide. Three national forests surround the GSMNP and provide hundreds of miles of scenic driving opportunities through more than 1,600,000 acres of nearby Appalachian mountain land. Carving up a national park (i.e., the GSMNP) for the purpose of promoting economic development outside the park is deplorable and inexcusable.

Secondly, speaking of “all the people,” certainly all the people of this country, and even the world, benefit from the protection and maintenance of a priceless biosphere like the Great Smokies. The science of conservation has come a long way since the 1940s. We realize more and more the impact of human population growth and recreation on our dwindling resources.

Ed Abbey once said that “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” How true. If we build this road, it will create the worst national disaster since the building of the hunting preserve on Hooper Bald and stocking it with Russian wild boar or the importation of the wooly adelgid to attack the hemlocks and Fraser firs. We are talking about destroying the largest roadless tract of pristine wilderness in the U.S. The Great Smokies is the gem of the park system and the North Shore Corridor is the gem of the Smokies.

Usually when we humans disturb an area it is a negative force for nature, but it could be argued that this man-made lake created a barrier to development that has preserved wilderness. Please do not reverse this advantageous legacy by allowing a road to alter, degrade, and open the wilderness north of the lake. Certainly the balance of advantages to be had in the area favors people, and this includes the continued existence of wilderness. We begin to tip the balance in the wrong direction when a positive mainstay of an area is altered, so again, please do what you can to keep this road from happening.

Such action for me would show incredible disregard for nature's gifts. The park is currently overwhelmed on many fronts. The reasons for more construction and destruction do not measure up. The whole country is losing natural lands at an enormous rate. Can a few thousand acres not be left alone for future generations to experience as our forefathers experienced them?

A very small portion of the east is protected for all of us to enjoy and which protects the land in a natural state free of development and unchecked sprawl. Looking at a map some would say that the park (and national forests) are the only things preventing Asheville , Knoxville , Chattanooga and the other surrounding cities from merging into one large metropolis.

The rural, pristine character of all our communities must be preserved and treasured. Strip type highway/road development and commercialism do not attract visitors.

Ironically the same citizens that are for this road are against the further development of Swain County into more and more housing developments. They are starting to feel the crunch that people in more crowded areas feel. Roadless areas like this offer a relief from this setting for people, the flora and the fauna.

On the contrary, I think the more unique the mountain wilderness becomes in the GSMNP, the more advantages it will be in the long run for Bryson City . Wilderness means that there are not more horses in the area and more fishermen in the mountain streams. Wilderness means solitude, loneliness and untouched area. There are many other opportunities for fishing and horse riding, and this doesn't have to be in this unique Great Smokies southern wilderness area.

In the event of a monetary settlement, what's in the future for Swain County ? One word: wilderness. Have you hiking clubs read The Wilderness Act? It certainly pertains to your group. You might ought to read it. Presently the park service is constructing a new trail, the Benton McKaye Trail. They're utilizing heavy equipment, bulldozers...This trail will be the only access to the North Shore , with entrances in Bryson City and Fontana Dam. Fontana Lake will be closed to all motorized craft, as the wake from the motor vehicles will erode the shoreline. Therefore, access to the area will be by foot or canoe. The infirm will never visit their old home places, cemeteries, campsites or their favorite meditation spots. Fences won't be permitted around the cemeteries as they would impede the movement of the wildlife and degrade the experience of the wilderness enthusiast. Wild hogs will root the cemeteries and overturn the monuments. Money for fences was appropriated in 2005, but the superintendent's priority -- they used it somewhere else. There's not a fence around the cemetery yet. The wilderness permits the superintendent, whoever it may be, to control areas beyond the park, as wildlife migrates to and from these areas. The park view shed will also be controlled by the park service. The area affected by this not only includes Swain, Graham and Haywood Counties that border the park, but it also includes Tennessee and the Ohio Valley, through a region established by the clustering of parks in the southeast. The Smokies will be the hub controlling the cluster, responsibility for the direction and enforcement of all environmental rules and regulations throughout this region. Other regions will be established throughout the United States , eventually controlling the whole U.S. , through the dictates of the United Nations and the internal biosphere system through the New World Order.

In fact, since at least the 1980s and possibly longer, the Park Service has managed this area as wilderness. Its management plan requires that this area be manage in the way that prohibits facilities and long range transportation plans. Any changes to that would require rezoning from the management agreement.

A couple of things I noticed in the impact statement which concerned me, mention of possible adverse effects on the potential wilderness designation area. There are several I think that have been federally designated in this area. There have been several bills brought before Congress over several years that failed each time. And so, this is the first I've heard that there may be plans to designate this area a federal wilderness area, which we would oppose again. This area is not suitable wilderness. It is not a roadless area.

But a wilderness means that you don't just drive through. A wilderness road doesn't mean that you ride horses through and the wilderness doesn't mean that in every creek a fisherman stands. A wilderness means wilderness. It means lonesomeness, it means inaccessibility.

Road construction will cause the loss of potential wilderness in the park. Most of the lake shore area is currently managed as wilderness due to the high quality and remoteness of that part of the park. Both the road corridor and the strip between the road and the lake will be removed from wilderness consideration.

We urge that the entire wild section of the park north of Fontana reservoir be kept intact without any new roads. It constitutes a roadless area of more than 200,000 acres, and it has been proposed for designation as wilderness. This area is more valuable to the Nation as an uninterrupted natural zone than it could ever be with intrusion of new roads.

I don't like the Cherokee Hills Highway . It split all the big wilderness areas right down the middle and we got no where else to get away back there from horns blowing and the sound of cars and vehicles and enjoy nature.