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Wild idea
Congress could do right
September 5,
2008, Charleston Gazette Editorial
As the U.S. Senate
reconvenes this month, one of the issues senators could act on is a
bill to designate another 47,000 acres of West Virginia's
Monongahela National Forest as wilderness.
The bill is packaged with
90-some other public lands bills, many of which have bipartisan
support.
State and federal forestry
officials, hikers, hunters, fishers, churches, and environmental and
local economic development groups have weighed in on the proposal
during the last two years. No one is perfectly satisfied with either
the parcels that were included or left out, but the finished bill
has wide support for the compromise and conservation that it
represents. Congress could not ask for a better-reasoned proposal.
The House of
Representatives passed it 368-17 before recess. Now it is up to the
Senate. We hope senators approve by the same overwhelming margin.
The bill would extend
wilderness status and protection to areas just north and south of
the existing Dolly Sods Wilderness area, a tiny expansion for the
Otter Creek Wilderness near Elkins, a spot in the southern tip of
Webster County connected to the Cranberry Wilderness and small areas
of Big Draft and Spice Run between Lewisburg and Marlinton.
These areas are already
within the national forest. "Wilderness" designation would give them
a more thorough and permanent level of protection, subject to change
only by an act of Congress. Hunting and fishing are still allowed in
wilderness areas, but people may enter only on foot or horseback.
Vehicles are prohibited. The rest of the forest is managed for
mining, timbering and other uses. Wilderness areas are off limits to
those activities.
Earlier drafts involved
143,000 acres, but most were removed in response to how people use
those areas of the forest. For example, some boundaries were
adjusted to leave access for the state to lime certain streams to
improve trout habitat.
As human development
encroaches ever farther from the East and up the mountainsides from
towns, conservation-minded people, both inside West Virginia and
out, believe that people today should leave something relatively
unspoiled for future generations.
This tendency is felt by
merchants and economic development officials, as well as to
birdwatchers and nature hikers. Both see the value in preserving
pockets of what gives West Virginia its character.
The Senate should make
sure to tend to this important issue in the busy weeks before
Congress breaks for the election. Too much work has gone into this
proposal for it to be wasted.
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