Shoring Up Homes for Soaring Squirrels
By Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
May 1–Shoring up homes
for soaring squirrels Plants and animals at the brink of extinction have a powerful, if controversial, protector in the Endangered Species Act. Under the 1973 act:
Bruce Henderson
The high-altitude curves of the Blue Ridge Parkway frame unmatched mountain views and a furry little dilemma.
The Carolina northern flying squirrel, which is endangered, glides from spruce to fir in the high ranges bordering parts of the 469-mile parkway. Potential squirrel habitat covers 138 overlooks and vistas, covering nearly 10 percent of the road’s length. There lies the rub.
To keep the views open to tourists — that’s why the parkway exists — crews periodically cut back trees and shrubs that get in the way. But the clearing can also chop squirrel territory into useless little bits, leaving less room for the wary aviators to forage or establish new territories.
Habitat fragmentation, as biologists call it, is one of the reasons the squirrel is in trouble.
The parkway has a solution that not everybody likes.
The proposal is now open for public comment: Selectively clear the overlooks, under the supervision of a landscape architect and biologists, keeping enough trees to satisfy the rodent. Past practice was to cut down anything in the way of a view every three years.
A key supporter of the parkway says the plan could backfire, blocking those treasured views and driving away tourists.
Like other national parks, the parkway suffers from a chronic lack of money and staff, said Houck Medford, executive director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. The foundation raises money that helps preserve the route’s scenic quality.
The parkway’s operating budget has been essentially flat for more than two decades, although it got a $700,000 infusion this year that will hire 47 more seasonal staff members. Nearly a fourth of its 237 permanent staff positions are vacant, with no prospects of filling them.
And parkway tourism is dropping, from the peak of 21 million visitors in 2002 to 17 million last year.
With all those troubles, Medford says the parkway can’t afford to devote more staff time and money to suit squirrels.
If the parkway commits to its plan, Medford predicts, it’s likely to fall behind on the labor-intensive work and eventually abandon vista maintenance in squirrel country. Views carefully designed decades ago could be lost for good.
The webzine National Parks Traveler, which covers the National Park Service, has prompted online discussion of the “cumbersome conundrum.” Opinions vary.
“We’re talking about squirrels, for heaven’s sake,” wrote one reader who favors the old routine. “Nothing is more determined when wanting to go where they want to.”
Protecting squirrels, vistas
Parkway Superintendent Phil Francis says federal laws give the parkway no choice in protecting endangered species. He sees no conflict with the park service’s duty to protect the route’s other “values” such as its famous views.But Francis acknowledged that vegetation could choke off some vistas if trimming crews take extra pains in squirrel areas.
“It certainly takes some added time, but I think we could get to it,” he said. “And I think the tradeoff, when you’re protecting species that might be forever lost versus temporarily losing some vistas, is well worth it.”
The squirrels have been declining in recent years, despite being listed as endangered since 1985. They live only in the Appalachians of North Carolina and Tennessee, feeding at night and nesting in tree cavities or the hundreds of nest boxes that biologists have installed.
Adapted to cold conditions like those now found in Canadian forests, the species has seen its range shrink since the last ice age. Logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ate more habitat, and the conifers they favor are now under attack by insects and air pollution.
The squirrels now survive on mountaintop islands being carved up by development.
Roads alone can hem them in — because they’re prey for bobcats, coyotes and owls, the squirrels don’t like to cross them on foot, said Chris Kelly, an N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologist who monitors the animals.
The parkway amounts to a relatively small bit of the squirrel’s remaining range. Only about a dozen squirrels a year are found within its boundaries, parkway biologist Bob Cherry said.
“Hopefully we’ll come up with something that protects the squirrels and protects the vistas.”
To comment
Public comments will be taken until May 20. To read an environmental assessment, and comment, visit parkplanning.nps.gov/documentsOpenForReview.cfm?
parkId=355&projectId=11396. Send comments by mail to Blue Ridge Parkway, Attn: Suzette Molling, 199 Hemphill Knob Road, Asheville, NC 28803.
Not so fast
Plants and animals at the brink of extinction have a powerful, if controversial, protector in the Endangered Species Act. Under the 1973 act:
–The endangered Carolina heelsplitter has curbed development in the Goose Creek basin of Mecklenburg and Union counties.
–Road builders carefully avoid Schweinitz’s sunflower.
–Army soldiers tiptoe around red-cockaded woodpecker nests at Fort Bragg.
–In North Carolina, 26 plants and animals alike are on federal endangered or threatened lists. blue ridge parkway
—–
To see more of The Charlotte Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charlotte.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.