CITIZEN-TIMES.com
By Julie Ball
July 9, 2003
ASHEVILLE - Lavita Johnson kept her statement short.
Referring to her two young children, she told National Park Service officials, "When they reach school age, they deserve to go to a good school."
Johnson was one of a number of Cherokee parents speaking out in favor of a controversial land swap proposal during a meeting Wednesday night in Asheville.
Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians want to get a tract of park service land known as Ravensford to build a three-school complex. Most of that land is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The tribe is proposing swapping a parcel of land near Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the Ravensford land.
The Asheville meeting was the second of three aimed at getting reaction to the park service's draft environmental impact statement, a document released last month detailing the agency's options.
The draft report does not make a recommendation, but it does conclude that swapping the land with the tribe would not "impair" park resources. The document has done little to settle the ongoing debate.
Some conservation groups opposing the swap say taking land out of the park for development, even for schools, sets a bad precedent. Wednesday night they took issue with the conclusions in the park service draft report.
"It is disappointing to read a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) document that is so clearly designed to produce an outcome regardless of the facts," said Greg Kidd with the National Parks Conservation Association.
Kidd said the document is "grounded in politics rather than science or good park service policy."
Steve Novak, an attorney for the environmental organization Wildlaw, said there appears to be "a total disconnect between the data (in the report) and the conclusions."
Ted Snyder, a Sierra Club representative, questioned why the park service hasn't turned over appraisal information about the two parcels. The park service can only move forward with a swap if the two tracts are similar in value.
But Carroll Crowe, a tribal member, said, "Why should we have to purchase this land? It was ours in the first place."
That sentiment was echoed by other tribal members.
"This is our land, was our land, and we want it back," Albert Crowe, another tribal member said.
Tribal officials say existing schools are old, crowded and badly in need of replacing. They say they've looked at other sites, but can't find anything suitable for the kind of complex they want to build.
With his 3-year-old daughter sitting in his lap, Michell Hicks said, "This is not about the value of land. This is about the education of our children."
"Tonight I ask you, don't deny us," Hicks said.
The National Park Service will review the comments before making a final decision, possibly by January of next year.
However, a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor and working its way through the House could take the outcome out of the hands of park service officials. That bill would force the park service to swap the land.
Contact Ball at 232-5851 or JBall@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.