“Why does the escarpment need protection? Can’t it do just fine on its own?” While the mountains have been taking care of themselves for millions of years, human influence has the potential to drastically alter the life systems that inhabit them.  For example, the Southern Appalachian mountains were once dominated by old-growth giants – trees that had been growing for more than 400 years! However, in the 1900s soon harvested these forests, leaving only a few old-growth stands.  The forests are recovering from clear-cutting, but the wonder of true old-growth forests is something this region will not see again for hundreds of years.

While timber harvesting has become more sustainable, other influences continue to threaten the SBRE ecosystems.  Conservation Action Planning has identified these high-priority threats to the SBRE:

Incompatible Development
Invasive Plants
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
Feral Hogs
Fire Suppression

Incompatible Development
The Threat:
           Considering how beautiful the SBRE is, it’s certainly no surprise that people want to live there!  Though large sections of the escarpment are now preserved, its position near many rapidly growing areas makes the SBRE vulnerable to continued development. For example, the Upstate of South Carolina is growing at an enormous rate. Developed lands doubled between 1990 and 2000, and Upstate Forever projects that if current growth ratios hold, Upstate development will more than double in size again (from 576,336 acres to 1,522,891 acres) by the year 2030.
As more and more land becomes residential or urban, it puts increasing pressure on the SBRE’s life systems and resources. Land that has been developed loses its biodiversity and the ability to sustain its original ecosystems.  In addition, development near a protected area often damages natural systems. Imagine, for example, paving a large area adjacent to a stream. When it rains on the paved surface, the water heads straight into the stream rather than being absorbed into the ground. As a result, the stream may flood under normal rain conditions, wiping out swaths of habitat and affecting other downstream communities. This small-scale example illustrates how activity on one piece of land can affect an entire ecosystem.
It is of utmost importance that organizations work together with developers to plan for low-impact growth. Even more importantly, those lands with immediate conservation value must be protected from incompatible development before they are irreparably damaged.

The Strategy:
            Though organizations approach conserving escarpment land from many different angles, most of them share a sincere commitment to protecting or conserving land. To date, agencies have succeeded in protecting:

• 81.3% of SBRE land in GA
• 48.1% of SBRE land in SC
• 26.7% of SBRE land in NC

but there is still much work to be done.  Private organizations, public agencies, and even grassroots movements continue to work toward purchasing or obtaining conservation easements on tracts in and around the SBRE. For a list of recent accomplishments, see our “Successes” page.

Invasive Plants
The Threat:
The legendary kudzu vine has familiarized many citizens of the American South with the dangers of invasive species.  Originally promoted as a method for erosion control, kudzu (Pueraria lobata) has overridden huge tracts of the Southern landscape. Without its native predators and competitors, the vine can grow a foot per day in the summer months, quickly rising to heights of over ninety feet and strangling whole forests!  Thanks to taproots that extend twelve feet below the soil surface and a natural resistance to herbicides, kudzu has proven nearly impossible to eradicate, making it a poster child for the dangers of invasive plants.

Invasive species like kudzu pose a major threat to biological diversity in habitats worldwide.  Able to reproduce and obtain resources more effectively than their competitors, invasive plants, animals, and diseases quickly override ecosystems and prevent biodiversity. While some invasive species are classified as “native,” non-native species are particularly destructive. Gardeners should be particularly aware of the dangers of invasive plants - though often distributed by imported goods, many invasive species take root in our natural areas after escaping from backyards! Be sure to ask your garden supplier for well-known non-invasive species when choosing ornamental plants.

The Strategy           
To help prevent the negative effects of invasive species, agencies such as the Partnership for the Southern Blue Ridge have worked to detect infestations, develop management plans, and implement control techniques for invasive species. To see how invasive species impact your area, download our Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS). This tool allows you to track information about specific infestation GPS locations and control efforts, as well as add observed invasive plant species locations and information into a national database.  With Google Maps or Google Earth, you can view the national distribution of database entries.  For more information about invasive species, visit the following webpages:

Invasive Species Links

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
The Threat
IIf you could fly through the ravines in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains, it wouldn’t take you long to notice something strange. Along the banks of many rivers and streams stand thousands of dead and dying trees, their branches bare even in the middle of summer.  These Eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis), as well as the less abundant Carolina hemlocks (Tsuga caroliniana) are facing a deadly enemy of the Blue Ridge’s natural ecosystem – a tiny, aphid-like insect called hemlock Woolly adelgid.

For the past 80 years, the hemlock Woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) has been slowly killing hemlock forests throughout the United States.  These non-native insects attach to the base of hemlock needles, sucking fluid from the tree and preventing it from receiving vital nutrients.  The adelgids then lay white, cottony eggs – very easy to spot – which hatch a second generation of parasitic insects. When a hemlock forest infected with HWA remains untreated, all of the hemlocks die.  
In the Southern Blue Ridge, the death of these trees profoundly alters the forest ecosystem.

Hemlocks play a vital role in regulating the moisture and temperature of streams and the forest floor. Many native creatures depend on the conditions that hemlocks create, while others rely on the tree’s lush canopy for habitat.

The Strategy
Control programs for HWA require either chemically treating the infected trees or releasing adelgid-eating beetles. The South Carolina Chapter of the Nature Conservancy recently completed a mapping project which determined the locations of hemlock stands within the Tryon, Landrum, North Saluda, and South Saluda subwatersheds.  Knowing the abundance and locations of these forests helps conservation organization prioritize their extensive HWA research and control programs.

In 2008, numerous volunteers chemically treated approximately 820 Carolina hemlocks in the course of two work days.  Further treatments, including releasing HWA-specific beetles in the Hickory Nut Gorge Area to combat remaining infestations, are currently under consideration. Americorps volunteers will perform “spot treatments” of HWA-infested Carolina hemlocks over the next year, continuing to protect the hemlocks and the plants and animals that depend on them.  For more information, contact Megan Sutton at (828) 460-4795, or follow the links below.

Invasive Species Links

Feral Hogs
The Threat
            Not everyone realizes that feral hogs are a problem in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but these invasive animals are a major ecological concern. First introduced to America by European settlers in the 1500s, wild hogs seriously damage native plant communities. Their feeding behavior – rooting – is extremely destructive; a large drove of hogs can destroy acres of land in a single day of foraging! In the process, hogs can completely consume important food sources (such as acorns) that animal communities rely on to survive.  Hogs degrade precious habitat, compete with native wildlife for food, and can threaten humans, pets, and domestic livestock with disease.  They continue to damage the SBRE area, as their high reproductive rates make them extremely difficult to control.

The Strategy
            Many landowners and agencies are battling feral hogs on an individual basis, attempting to control their populations in selected areas. However, both individual measures and traditional hunting strategies are proving ineffective against the SBRE’s hog populations.  In response, area agencies are collecting data on the specific location and impact of hogs in the SBRE. This information will allow organizations to join together, prioritize their trapping efforts, and take new, creative action against this debilitating invasive species.

Fire Suppression
The Threat
Over two hundred years ago, the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains were home to the Cherokee Nation. With a rich culture of hunting, farming, and trade, this prosperous Native American tribe had strong ties to the mountain landscape. Still, farming on the steep mountainsides was not an easy task. The Cherokee had many agricultural techniques that compensated for the terrain; as ecologists are beginning to document, what we today call “prescribed burning” was one of those techniques. However, 19th century European settlers rejected controlled burns as dangerous. Their “fire exclusion” policies carried into the current century, with unexpected consequences for the forest.

The Strategy
Only recently have agencies begun to rethink their traditional fire exclusion policies. In 2002, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Service, and various Department of the Interior agencies created the U.S. Fire Learning Network. Through regular meetings of both private and public stakeholders, the FLN determines best fire practices for the landscape, shares and discusses research, and disseminates information across the US.  The FLN also monitors the progress and success of fire projects across the states.