- The plan quadruples timber harvests and authorizes 300 miles of new roads, but the Forest Service claims that increased logging and road building will have no impacts on rare and endangered species.
- The plan could have protected State Natural Heritage Areas, which shelter more than 70% of rare and endangered species. Instead, the Forest Service targets many of these Natural Heritage Areas for logging.
- The Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest is home to more species of salamanders than any other national forest in the country, but the plan offers no protections for rare salamanders.
- The plan emphasizes management for a few game species like deer and turkey at the expense of hundreds of rare species.
- The plan does not protect key species hotspots, especially dispersal-limited species.
- The plan fails to protect rare aquatic species from quadrupled timber harvests, roadbuilding, sedimentation, pollution, and pesticide runoff.
- The plan does not adequately protect 339 species of conservation concern.
- At least 20 rare species have most of their habitat placed in logging-priority designations.
