November 15, 2005
Officials confident in forest proposal

By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer
Charleston Gazette

On the final day of a 90-day comment period, backers of a plan to triple the number of wilderness areas in the Monongahela National Forest voiced confidence that public support for protecting wild land in the states largest national forest was overwhelming.

From what we've seen so far, we've far surpassed the level of support we got in 1986 during a previous revision of the Monongahela National Forests management plan, Dave Saville of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition said Monday.

During the earlier forest plan revision, public comments prompted changes in a plan that initially emphasized road-building and timber production to one that favored backcountry recreation and wildlife.

The forest got something like 3,500 comments back then, and we think there will be well over 10,000 comments this time, said Saville. We know West Virginians cared deeply about the Monongahela then, and we know there's still a lot of concern for preserving it.

U.S. Forest Service officials are considering four management alternatives for the Monongahela, which now has five wilderness areas Cranberry, Otter Creek, Dolly Sods, Laurel Fork North and Laurel Fork South.

The alternative identified by Forest Service planners as the preferred alternative Alternative 2 would add three new wilderness areas Dry Fork, Cheat Mountain and Roaring Plains West and expand the existing Cranberry Wilderness. Alternative 2 would add 27,700 acres to the federal wilderness system, in which road building, logging, motorized vehicles and mountain bike use are banned but hunting, fishing, hiking and horseback riding are welcome.

The Wilderness Coalition, an alliance of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, favors Alternative 3, which proposes the creation of 15 wilderness areas totaling about 140,000 acres in the 919,000-acre forest.

Alternative 1 would basically maintain the status quo in forest management, while Alternative 4 would favor dramatically increased timbering and mining activity.

Alternative 2 increases the amount of land open to logging and increases the maximum size of clear-cuts from 25 to 40 acres, said Matt Keller, coordinator of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition.

It fails to protect the forest its as plain and simple as that, said Saville. Alternative 3 does a better job of protecting watersheds from flooding, of preserving the supply of drinking water, and safeguarding fish and wildlife habitat. It also protects non-wilderness backcountry recreation areas better, and helps tourism by providing more backcountry recreation opportunities, which are getting rare in the East.

Joining Saville and Keller in a conference call with reporters on Monday were Richwood Mayor Bob Henry Baber and Randolph County resident Ed Kachmarek.

I see it as laying in the infrastructure for making West Virginia the Colorado of the East, Baber said of the additional wilderness areas and other protections offered by Alternative 3.

While we need lumber to supply our mills, we need to move beyond the extraction mentality, and recognize there are areas we need to protect. ...You've got to look at the long haul for what's good for Richwood and for West Virginia, Baber said, adding that the Cranberry Wilderness, which abuts Richwood, is a major tourism draw.

While Richwood's mayor favors adding more wilderness areas, the towns council recently went on record as opposing them.

We've always argued a bit among ourselves and were doing that now, Baber said.

City councils near the southern edge of the Monongahela in Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs have gone on favor as favoring the Wilderness Coalitions stance, as have the convention and visitors bureaus in Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties.

Kachmarek, who lives near the Otter Creek Wilderness, said he supports the Wilderness Coalitions stance primarily due to the superior quality of hunting and fishing experiences in wilderness areas. The quality of game is better in wilderness areas, and there's no place better for serenity and solitude, he said. You also find healthier deer and a better buck-to-doe ratio.

Twenty or 30 years from now, well have much less land that would qualify for wilderness, he said. Well never have a better chance to add wilderness to the Monongahela.

While some of the most vocal opposition to the new wilderness areas comes from mountain bikers, Keller said the Wilderness Coalition backed away from plans to include Canaan Mountain and Tea Creek from its list of proposed wilderness areas, since they contain many well-established single-track trails.

We removed 36,000 acres of prime wilderness just for mountain bikers, Keller said.

I'm one of the founders of the West Virginia Mountain Bike Association and I'm still an avid mountain bike rider, said Saville. So are most of the people in the Wilderness Coalition. But I don't feel that I need to ride my bike over every single trail in the forest. Even if all our wilderness proposals are accepted, more than 75 percent of the forest would still be open to mountain biking.

Forest Service planners will spend the next few months analyzing public comments. A formal response to them is expected in late March, followed by a final environmental impact statement.

The final plan will probably be some modification of an existing alternative, said Saville. We think Alternative 2 is a little weak to use as a starting point. Were hoping they'll take Alternative 3 and modify it.

To contact staff writer Rick Steelhammer, use e-mail or call 348-5169.

The public comment period for the draft plan runs from Aug. 12 to Nov. 14.