The Forest Plan Report Card is endorsed by a coalition of more than 100 businesses and local community leaders and was drafted by organizations including Forest Keeper, I Heart Pisgah, Friends of Big Ivy, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest Plan has received an unprecedented, record-setting number of objections, including objections from the City of Asheville, Buncombe County Commission, and hundreds of businesses and organizations. 

The Forest Plan also received a record-setting 36,000 public comments. More than 96% of all comments support more protected areas for Pisgah and stronger protections for its old-growth forests, rare species, watershed, and recreational opportunities. 

The U.S. Forest Service dismissed public input in their final plan. Despite unprecedented public input calling for more protections, the final plan quadruples timber harvests while reducing protections for the country’s most popular and biodiverse national forest.

The Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest Report Card evaluates the 10 most important public values and issues expressed in comments, objections, and public hearings. Our team of analysts read thousands of pages of Forest Plan documents to analyze the plan around these 10 criteria themes. 

The Report Card holds the Forest Service accountable to the public and offers specific ways it can amend the plan. In its current form, it has no social license or public support, and it sentences the forest to decades of conflict, litigation, and community resistance.