Logging is one of those emotional issues that can get people quickly worked up. The U.S. Forest Service plan to log trees on 231 acres within an 11,000 acre section of the Globe area of the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina is on hold. The agency, which believes many people misunderstand the plan, has received more than 1,200 comments in this regard, most of them against the logging. Even U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. has gotten into the act, asked that the comment period be extended.

Since 1988, the agency has logged nearly 350 acres in the Globe-project area. The current plan calls for logging certain trees, but leaving trees that are about 10 years old. None of the areas would be clear-cut and about 30 percent of the canopy would be left standing. The forest is in the Blowing Rock area, a village on top of the mountains that features the Blowing Rock, an outcropping perched on a cliff at 4,000 feet above sea level.

Erik Crews, a landscape architect for the Forest Service in Asheville, has cut through all the emotional outcry by creating a computer simulation that show views from vantage points in Blowing Rock if the 231 acres were logged. He explained to the local media that the logged area would not be visible from the Blue Ridge Parkway, and that no trees would be cut at the peaks. Because there would be no clear-cutting, he said, there would be no large openings in the forest cover.