SAVE SANDY BOTTOM: A Wetlands Wonder

not all wild places are far from civilization.

One of the wildest and most spectacular wetlands in the world is right beside a busy highway near Asheville, N.C. The Sandy Bottom wetlands, about five miles south of Asheville in the French Broad River floodplain, is home to several rare and threatened species, including salamanders and turtles facing extinction.

The 10-acre parcel has been protected as wetlands since the Clean Water Act was established in the 1970s. Most of it is owned by the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and many of its students and faculty have been active in advocating for its continued protection.

North Carolina Department of Transportation is considering an expansion of the highway adjacent to Sandy Bottom wetlands. Widening the two-lane highway would wipe out the wetlands.

Sandy Bottom is a rare natural wetland community known as the montane floodplain slough forest, which is rated as critically impaired. It also provides habitat for the significantly rare lax manna-grass population. Over 366 species of plants and several rare amphibians and reptiles have been found there.

North Carolina has already lost 90% of the wetlands that used to be found along river valleys and bottoms like the French Broad.

Fortunately, the North Carolina Division of Water Resources is proposing to offer Sandy Bottom stronger protection. They have recommended reclassifying Sandy Bottom as a “Unique Wetland,” which offers additional protection to wetlands of exceptional or national ecological significance.

The new classification would require any new highway projects or other development projects to more carefully weigh potential impacts to the wetlands and the species they support.

Public comment on the reclassification ends January 31. The state’s Environmental Management Commission will vote on the proposal in May, followed by a final vote from the Rules Commission. If approved, the new classification would go into effect July 1.

Email comments to the Division of Water Resources specialist Adriene Weaver at adriene.weaver@ncdenr.gov.