Croatan

And this isn't just a Western North Carolina story.

Roadless areas stretch across the country, including here in North Carolina, from the mountains of Pisgah and Nantahala to the Croatan National Forest on the coast.

The current public comment period ends October sixth.

So rather than try to tell you what to think about all of this, I wanted to understand what's actually happening and what it could actually mean for the places we explore.

So, so there is definitely, um, a direct impact here.

To dive into that a little bit deeper, specifically for North Carolina, um, the Roadless Rule protects 172,000 acres of North Carolina's public lands, including 150,000 acres of mountains and streams in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, like you said.

But it also includes to the east 20,000 acres in the coastal Croatan National Forest that has pine savannas and wetlands.

The, the, the ecosystems and the places that people like us get to enjoy, um, is really vast with this.