- Target:
- U.S. Forest Service; and Unicoi County Leaders
- Region:
- United States of America
Unicoi County features many ‘wild and scenic’ outdoors related reasons to live, work and play. We have many features, including the Appalachian Trail, the Nolichucky River, Pinnacle Trail, the Linear Trail, and Beauty Spot just to name a few. We invite and encourage people to visit and enjoy the outdoors in our county.
Hiking is the #1 use of our public lands. Waterfalls are especially enticing to visitors and they can be easily found on All Trails, in hiking guides, and other outdoor sources. We have several feature waterfalls in the county, Martins Creek Falls, Red Fork Falls, Sills Branch Falls. All on Cherokee National Forest property. The recent tragic death at Red Fork Falls has a solution. It isn’t to try to close the area, or post more signs, which the Forest Service acknowledges isn’t going to stop people. The safest and simplest solution is to build trails and viewing platforms for safe access to these waterfalls combined with signage and public information on safety around waterfalls. Sills Branch Falls already has a trail that is built and maintained by volunteers under the guidance of the Forest Service.
Eastern Tennessee Trails Association (ETTA) is a volunteer trail maintainer group that partners with the Forest Service to maintain Cherokee National Forest trails in our area. They partnered with Tennessee State Park resources to build the Whitehouse Cliffs Trail in Rocky Fork State Park in 14 months. They have offered to build and maintain safe trails for both Martins Creek Falls and Red Fork Falls. They are all volunteers and there would be no cost to do this work. Local trail and community organizations could provide the safety information guides to be widely available and distributed in appropriate places.
How many people have to be hurt, or worse, die before a desirable solution is implemented?
Let’s do our part to make Unicoi County known as a safe place to come to explore the outdoors. And give voice and support to the National Forest Service and Cherokee National Forest to implement a safe solution.
We, the undersigned, respectfully call upon the U.S. Forest Service and Unicoi County Leaders to seek safe solutions for access to waterfalls in Unicoi County. Partner and involve the community and community organizations willing to assist and volunteer in these efforts. We submit this plea to save lives and injuries of the citizens and visitors to our public lands. We support:
1. No more loss of life or injury at Red Fork Falls or Martins Creek Falls.
2. Safe passage to waterfalls through trails and viewing platforms.
3. Published Safety Guidelines and Information in print, guidebooks and social media.
4. Economic responsibility through partnerships and participation with volunteer organizations.
5. Positive effect and outlook on Unicoi County tourism
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Make Unicoi County Waterfalls Safe petition to U.S. Forest Service; and Unicoi County Leaders was written by Carrie Hovey and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.