Mon Forest Comment Drive a Huge Victory for Wilderness!

As the dust settles on the Mon Forest �s 90 day public comment period on its draft management plan revision, it is clear that the people have spoken�a lot of them.  We�ve been informed that the Forest Service has received an unprecedented 15,000+ comments on their draft plan!  As many of you know, their �preferred� Alternative 2 poses a significant threat to the Mon by allowing a more than tripling of logging, increasing clear-cut sizes and reducing or eliminating protections for special places like Roaring Plains, Seneca Creek and others.   This massive turnout could not have been achieved without the hard work and creativity of many individuals.  Volunteers from across the state and region held house parties showing our �Vision for a Wild Mon� video, talked to groups, tabled at community events and helped with phone banking among other things.  This was a big team effort and it showed just how important the Mon�s wild places are to so many people.

  While the analysis of comments has yet to be done, we are confident that the vast majority of them will be in support of Alternative 3 and of recommending significant new wilderness areas for designation.  The Forest Service will not be able to ignore this overwhelming response and must act to improve their draft plan dramatically.    In addition to individuals commenting, there was an impressive response from the business community in West Virginia .   Over 75 business owners submitted comments to the Forest Service and Governor Manchin in support of Alternative 3.  A wide array of organizations also weighed in for Alternative 3 including several Trout Unlimited Chapters, Potomac Valley Audubon Society, West Virginia Native Plant Society, West Virginia Horse Council and many, many others.  A team of experts from the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Chapter of Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and West Virginia Wilderness Coalition worked together to draft an extremely comprehensive set of comments that covers every conceivable aspect of the plan in great detail.  We hope this will serve the Forest Service as constructive criticism on the hard work they put into developing the draft plan.  There is much room for improvement and we will be working hard to hold the Forest Service accountable to what the public has overwhelmingly demanded.

  While this is a big win for the Mon, the battle is far from over, particularly as new Wilderness recommendations are concerned.   The West Virginia Wilderness Coalition will be working very hard in a variety of ways to first, make sure the Forest Service recommends all deserving areas for designation in the final plan and secondly, continuing the momentum we�ve built up towards the introduction of a bill in congress that will make protection for these special areas a reality.  There is much work to be done still, which won�t be possible without your involvement. 

  With the public comment period at an end, we�ll be shifting our focus back to West Virginia �s congressional delegation.  We will again need letters from caring citizens to their elected officials in Washington D.C. in support of wilderness and encouraging them to introduce a solid bill.  Click here for an action alert with talking points for your letter to both Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, your Representative (Mollohan, Capito or Rahall) and Governor Manchin.  We will continue to distribute our �Vision for a Wild Mon� video for folks wanting to show it at house parties or other gatherings in their communities.  There are many other ways to get involved in the work we are doing in big and small ways. 

Background Info:

The Forest Service released a draft management plan revision for the Monongahela National Forest on Friday, August 12, 2005. The Forest Service’s Preferred Alternative (#2) threatens the future of the Mon’s wild lands by rolling back protections for roadless areas and failing to recommend an adequate number of new wilderness areas. Only Alternative 3, with changes, goes the furthest in recommending new wilderness areas and protecting the Mon’s remaining special wild places.

Alternative 3 goes the farthest in keeping the Mon the way it is now, wild and wonderful. It recommends Wilderness designation for most of the areas proposed by the WV Wilderness Coalition, as well as protection of our other roadless areas from logging and road building. Alternative 3 would serve to:

• Protect Watersheds: Intact roadless areas protected from logging serve to control water runoff, thereby helping to prevent flooding of communities downstream. In addition, wilderness and other roadless areas protect our communities’ clean drinking water supplies.

• Safeguard Fish and Wildlife Habitat: Game species - from black bear, wild turkey and deer to trout and other fish - thrive in undeveloped areas. Protecting fish and wildlife habitat is essential to ensuring West Virginia’s quality hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing opportunities, as well as protecting numerous threatened and endangered species.

• Protect Backcountry Recreation Opportunities including hunting and fishing, camping, hiking and backpacking, riding horses, bird watching, whitewater paddling and mountain biking.

• Enhance and Support New and Existing Economic Opportunities: Protected public land like Wilderness helps diversify and stabilize economies by attracting and retaining new businesses, residents, and a local workforce, in addition to generating travel and tourism revenue, one of the fastest growing segments of West Virginia’s economy.

• Protecting Wilderness: Wilderness designation makes all these important values a reality on the Mon. Alternative 3 recommends two additions to existing Wilderness areas and designation of nine unprotected wild areas.

While Alternative 3 is the best choice the Forest Service lays out in its draft plan, the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition recommends changes to the alternative in order to best protect the Mon for future generations:

• All potential wilderness areas identified by local citizens should be recommended for wilderness protection in the forest plan. Alternative 3 recommends additions to the existing Otter Creek and Cranberry wilderness areas, and wilderness designation for nine wild areas with no current statutory protection, including Seneca Creek, the western portion of Roaring Plains, East Fork of Greenbrier, Cheat Mountain, Turkey Mountain, Spice Run, Middle Mountain, Big Draft and Gaudineer. Alternative 3 fails to include seven additional areas identified by the WV Wilderness Coalition as essential wild areas including an expansion to Dolly Sods Wilderness, North Fork Mountain, Upper Shavers Fork, Lower Laurel Fork, part of Roaring Plains, Little Allegheny Mountain, and Laurel Run. These areas should be included in Alternative 3.

• The Forest Service should continue its policy of keeping backcountry areas known as “6.2 areas” free from logging and roads, including those proposed in Alternative 3. New 6.2 areas should not be recommended for lands that contain roads open to the public. This process would protect current public access to the Forest by avoiding road closures.

• Streams and rivers should not be compromised by earth-disturbing activity in and around waterways. The buffer areas near streams (where logging, road building and other development are prohibited) should more than double that found in the Draft Plan to safeguard our watersheds, ensuring fisheries protection, drinking water security, and flood prevention.