In mid-September, Kimberly Smith, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and The Wilderness Society’s southeastern states conservation specialist, presented the Roadless Rule rescission to commissioners and recommended that they give public comment.
That would have required merely signing a document as a governing body to indicate opposition to the Trump administration’s proposed rollback. They declined to sign and tabled the decision until Oct. 6, the next meeting. Swain County has two roadless areas — Cheoah Bald and Wesser Bald.
Smith sat in the audience Oct. 6 — hours before the U.S. Department of Agriculture would close public comment on the Roadless Rule — as County Manager Tommy Dills suggested commissioners revisit the subject. When the board discussed the rescission, it didn’t mention or respond to any point Smith had made earlier.
