Q & A with Wayne Jenkins, Executive Director of Georgia Forest Watch

Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself: where you’re from, where you live, family, pets, what you do to enjoy the outdoors...

A: I was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia but was raised in Norfolk, one of the state’s largest cities. I moved to the extreme southern Appalachians of northern Georgia in 1976 seeking a land-centric life rather than an urban one.  I had $20 in my pocket and the good graces of friends I had made on a visit a few years before. I eventually settled onto an organic farm, married Lori and raised two children who have since grown and moved to Colorado and Alaska. Early on while still single I would hike, fish and camp in the beautiful Chattahoochee National Forest.  I became aware of the expanding clearcutting and road building programs on the forest and the damage being done to trout streams and rare plant communities. While hiking with Lori one day we had a life-affecting experience of returning to a favorite grove of giant white pines along Mountaintown Creek and finding the area devastated by clearcutting. Shock, anger and dismay eventually coalesced into action for figuring out what we could do to stop this destructive practice.

Q: What is your professional background?

A: I come from the School of Hard Knocks. And while I have no formal education beyond high school I am a voracious reader on topics that interest me. Over the last 5-6 years, access to the internet and email has re-shaped and accelerated my learning approach, mostly in a positive way.

Q: How are you involved with Georgia Forest Watch?

A: I am presently the Executive Director. I started with the group in the mid 1990’s as a volunteer wanting to stop clearcutting, then worked as a volunteer district leader. I took on the responsibility to oversee a single district, ground-truthing scoping documents and responding to the NEPA process. I have also been a board member of GFW, and a hired consultant for 12 weeks, when I wrote a report on illegal ATV activity across the Chattahoochee National Forest in 2001-2002.

Q: Why GFW? Why stay involved with that organization for so many years?

A: Because we get things done. We helped bring a halt to clearcutting in 1996 with our successful appeal of Sierra vs. Martin, and the forest is better for that ruling. The leadership and members are a great bunch of Georgians united in their concern for this beautiful and diverse forest, plus we have a lot of fun!

Q:  Why are transportation issues in your state important?

A: We have a road base of over 1,200 miles of forest roads on 865,000 acres, and the agency does not have the budget to maintain these roads. Although the forest plan says roads for permanent closure should be identified, that is not being done. The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest is considered an “urban” forest with Atlanta’s burgeoning 5 million souls about an hour away; therefore recreational use of all types is huge. We have a big problem with illegal ATV use but the agency is working to address the problem with GFW pushing and supporting that effort. We do not really have much in the way of illegal cross-country 4-wheel vehicle problems.

Q:  I understand GFW had a recent success battling ORVs, can you please describe that success?

A: The old Anderson Creek OHV Area was permanently closed. For many years we worked to stop illegal abuse of this area in northern Georgia on the Blue Ridge Ranger District.  Motorized recreation was not appropriate on these steep highly erodible slopes. Silt was bleeding into trout streams, and the vehicles negatively affected wildlife and other forest users.    

Q: Why/how was your campaign successful?

A: I believe the agency people are beginning to view illegal ATV use as a real threat to streams and wildlife habitat and other recreational uses. Rehabilitation of areas is also expensive on their budgets. It was not always so. For years our volunteer district leaders and members have been reporting widespread illegal ATV activity to agency folks.  In early 2002 we issued a detailed report, partially funded by National Trails and Waters Coalition, using a Wildlands CPR protocol, on some of the illegal ATV use occurring on public lands in Georgia. This was well received by the media and with mixed emotions by the agency but they had to admit they had a problem. Anderson Creek, though a legal OHV Area, was completely out of control and became one of our focus areas. Our volunteers just kept going back to the area and reporting the situation to Forest Service folks and making the case. Over time it became obvious that the streams were becoming degraded and something had to be done. I believe the agency felt at some point we might bring a Clean Water Act complaint against them.

Q: What did you learn from it?

A: Don’t give up! You can work with the agency on an issue if you are willing to focus and set other issues aside for the moment. There are folks in the agency that have similar concerns about protecting the resource,  but they need a constituent base to back them up in order to do the right thing, especially in the face of a political hot-potato like the ATV issue in Georgia.

Q: How does the bulk of your work get accomplished? (employees vs. volunteers)

A: We have a staff of four, including a forest ecologist, plus we work with 12 key district leaders, our members and many other partner groups. The GFW board guides the organization’s structure and programs so it’s really a team effort, at the root of which lies everyone’s passion for our forests.

Q: What does the future hold for you with Georgia Forest Watch?

A: Well, the future’s a risky thing to predict. The leadership for GFW is on top of the newest slate of issues like climate change, alternative energy on public land issues, etc. We will continue working at the ground level through NEPA, collaboration, and relationship building with the agency for better management outcomes on the forest. The present forest plan has a restoration, forest health and wildlife management focus which of course can be used as a screen for getting out the cut but we will be there to push for sound forestry with a commonsense ecological approach.  As for me, personally, I take it one day at a time. I guess I’ll keep on working with GFW for as long as they’ll have me or I find something more fun to do.

Q: Where do you find your inspiration for your work?

A: In the forest. Also, it is a real blessing to find the “right livelihood,” work that I believe in with good, caring people. When you can point to an inventoried roadless area or general forest stand that you know you had a hand in protecting, or improved or halted a bad management proposal, then success feels concrete. It is hard and slow in Georgia to create the kind of progress our public lands and their owners deserve, but if people will work together for a common goal, patiently, then good work can be accomplished.