The �Mon� is more than 900,000 acres stretching across 10 counties from the Maryland border south to Richwood and near White Sulphur Springs. It stands within a day�s drive of a third of the nation�s population. Since the national forest was designated in 1911, the Forest Service has gradually added special wilderness areas shielded from vehicles. Today, the forest includes five such areas � Cranberry Glades, Otter Creek, Dolly Sods, Laurel Fork North and Laurel Fork South.

Of four alternative plans now before the Forest Service, we think that Alternative 3 offers the best balance. It would add 15 more wilderness areas, or about 140,000 acres. Alternative 2, favored earlier by the Forest Service, would add only 27,700 more acres of wilderness. Logging, road building, motorized vehicles and mountain biking are allowed in national forests, but not in wilderness areas. Hunting, fishing, hiking and horseback riding are allowed.

The other alternatives would do too little to protect wilderness areas.

The forest management plan guides people in balancing the needs of hikers and kayakers with those of mining and timber. It balances the pressure of traffic, both for industry and recreation with the needs of the plants, fish and other wildlife that coexist in those fragile areas.

The West Virginia Wilderness Coalition, an alliance of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, has found even more public support for the forest�s role in conservation than in 1986, the last time the forest management plan was updated. The final plan is expected in April.

The original Wilderness Act of 1964 refers to places where �the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man and where man himself is a visitor.�

Today, urban zones sprawl relentlessly across the countryside, paving over arable farmland and eliminating forever million-year-old ecosystems. The urge to conserve has never been more necessary.

West Virginia�s future depends greatly on serving as a lovely, green, mountain retreat for the mushrooming population of the eastern seaboard. Protecting undamaged nature spots will enhance that role.