Forestry officials told the Murray Ledger & Times (http://bit.ly/1PbWlb8) that logging and burning, which also has raised concerns, are tools the agency is using to improve the health of the woodland areas. Local leaders have been lobbying the forest service to focus on preserving the area's old growth hardwood forests and to stop logging and burning hundreds of acres to create oak grasslands. Bush said the recent logging and prescribed burning at Demumbers and Pisgah bays is simply part of a clean-up project to remove loblolly pines that were damaged in a 2009 ice storm.