Charleston Gazette - Conservationists begin campaign against changes in forest plan
- Ken Ward Jr.

West Virginia conservation groups on Thursday launched their campaign against the Bush administrations rewrite of the Monongahela National Forest management plan.

In a prepared statement, the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition said the rewrite rolls back current protections and threatens the future of the Mon.

The coalition urged supporters of West Virginias world-class hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation to join efforts to protect existing roadless areas, safeguard remote wildlife habitat and recommend wilderness designations for the Mons last best wild places.

This proposed plan fails to protect West Virginias greatest natural treasure,said Matt Keller, coordinator of the wilderness coalition.

The coalition also announced that it has launched a new and improved Web site, www.wvwild.org, with information and continuing analysis of the U.S. Forest Services proposed management plan revisions.

Today, the Forest Service was scheduled to start the public comment period on its first major revisions to the Monongahelas management plan since 1986. Information from the agency about this effort is available online at www.fs.fed.us/r9/mnf/plan_revision/plan_revision.htm.

In its statement, the wilderness coalition said the Forest Services proposal would open thousands of acres of previously protected roadless areas to logging, while recommending only a small fraction of the Mons remaining wild areas for wilderness protections.

The new draft plan is a major step backward from our current management plan a plan which we West Virginians fought very hard to get the last time around, and one that has been very well-received over the past 19 years,said Mary Wimmer, a volunteer with the West Virginia Sierra Club.

The Monongahela, established in 1911, covers nearly 1 million acres in 10 counties. It is the fourth-largest national forest in the Northeastern United States, and is within one days drive of one-third of the nations population.

The coalition said the new plan would open all or parts of at least nine of the 16 backcountry areas in the Monongahela to logging and road building.

The group also noted that the Forest Service proposal would triple both the acreage and volume of logging and raise the maximum size of clear-cuts from 25 acres to 40 acres.

The new draft plan proves that we certainly cant count on the Forest Service to protect these lands,Wimmer said.