A statement from the Southern Environmental Law Center:

Ashevill, NC - Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson announced today that the agency has identified a monetary settlement with Swain County, North Carolina, as its preferred alternative to building the proposed North Shore Road through the Great Smokies. Superintendent Ditmanson said the agency has begun drafting the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project, with the settlement as the preferred alternative. The FEIS will be release in September for a 30-day public comment period.

DJ Gerken: "It's well past time to bury this boondoggle and resolve the issue in this positive way for the park and the people. The 'road to nowhere' has been a dark cloud over the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the nearby communities for more than three generations.

"We laud Representative Shuler, Senators Alexander and Dole, and others in Congress who have taken leadership on this issue to press for a settlement," Gerken said. "With a monetary settlement, everybody wins. Anglers will still have some of the best streams in the East to fish, and hikers will have some of the best trails and wild country to roam - without the din of highway traffic nearby. The community will get a much-needed economic boost to make the best choices for investing in its future. And local citizens will still be provided access and transportation to old cemeteries inside the park boundaries."

The National Park Service is assesing the impacts of building a 34-mile road through the park on the North Carolina side, slicing through one of the largest unbroken tracts of mountain forest in federal ownership in the East. It would destroy habitat for rare song birds, black bear and other species, and impair a magnificent backcountry area valued by hikers, anglers and other outdoors lovers.

Plans for building the road date back to the late 1940s, when the federal government flooded a road Swain County, NC, when it built Fontana Lake. The National Park Service built a few miles of the road in the 60s, but abandon the project when it proved too costly and environmentally damaging. Since then, the county, state, SELC and many others have called on the federal government to provide Swain County a monetary payment to compensate for the lost road and close the issue. However, the area's former congressman and staunch road supporter, Charles Taylor, secured $16 million for the project as head of an appropriations committee in 2001. The park service, which until that time was opposed to building the road, was compelled to undertake an EIS process.

"Today, sound public-land management decisions trump politics," Gerken said. "Now it's up to our congressional leaders - Rep. Shuler, Senators Alexander and Dole - to bring the settlement for Swain County to fruition. It's time for the park service to wrap up this environmental review process as quickly as possible, using any leftover funds toward the $52 million settlement."

SELC is working with the Sierra Club, National Park Conservation Association, Trout Unlimited, NC Wildlife Federation, Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Western North Carolina Alliance and other conservation groups, along with civic leaders from the North Carolina communities near the park, to oppose the road.