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Wilderness protection campaign begins |
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By
Rick Steelhammer |
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Forty
years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the national Wilderness
Act into law, a new effort is under way in Among
those seeking to add new wilderness areas to the Mon is Ed Zahniser of Zahniser,
who works for the National Park Service�s national publications
office, is a member of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition, a joint
venture of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the state
chapters of the Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society. The
coalition hopes to create enough public and congressional support to
bring wilderness status to at least parts of 14 large, remote tracts
identified by �One
of the remarkable things about the The
Mon�s 14 prospective wilderness areas were identified as part of a
periodic review of its forest-management plan. In November, Forest
Service planners are scheduled to assess whether a public need exists
for designating any or all of the remote tracts wilderness areas.
Ultimately, Congress will decide which, if any, of the areas will become
part of the national wilderness system. Under
a wilderness designation, hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding and
backcountry camping are allowed, but logging, road building, campground
development, mineral extraction and motorized vehicle use � including
mountain bikes � are not. �The
forest�s planning process provides a good opportunity to make people
aware of these areas, and get the public involved in the decision-making
process,� Zahniser said. �It�s not the last shot we�ll have at
wilderness designation for these places, but it�s a good one.� To
qualify for wilderness status, prospective tracts of federal land in the
East must consist of at least 5,000 acres, contain no more than one-half
mile of improved road for each 1,000 acres, and have or be regaining
�a natural, untrammeled appearance.� West
Virginia has five Monongahela National Forest wilderness areas �
Cranberry, Dolly Sods, Otter Creek, Laurel Fork North and Laurel Fork
South � encompassing more than 78,000, or about 9 percent of the
forest. �The
average national forest is about 18 percent wilderness,� said
Zahniser. According
to Matt Keller, wilderness coordinator for the West Virginia Wilderness
Coalition, less than 4 percent of the nation�s wilderness-designated
land can be found east of the The
most recent addition to the national wilderness system in Support
for wilderness areas historically has been strong among William
Ramsey Laird was one of 10 original co-sponsors of the Wilderness Act
during his nine-month term in the Senate, after the death of Sen. Harley
M. Kilgore, D-W.Va. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., was one of the
bill�s champions during floor debates in the early 1960s. Former Rep.
Ken Hechler, D-W.Va., was instrumental in introducing and passing the
Eastern Wilderness Act of 1975, which paved the way for creation of the
Dolly Sods and Otter Creek wilderness areas. �I�ve
been to Dolly Sods many times,� said Zahniser, who has lived in Among
prospective wilderness areas the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition is
seeking to protect are: �
A 12,000-acre addition to the 35,864-acre Cranberry Wilderness Area,
which would create one of the largest wilderness areas in the East. �
A 25,000-acre Seneca Creek Wilderness, including 8 miles of Seneca
Creek, considered one of the nation�s best wild trout streams. The �
A 7,443-acre Spice Run Wilderness rising from the �
A 6,500-acre Roaring Plains Wilderness just south of Dolly Sods,
encompassing some of the state�s most rugged terrain and spectacular
landscapes. What
makes a wilderness? Here�s
how Howard Zahniser defined it in the opening words to the Wilderness
Act: �A
wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works
dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth
and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a
visitor who does not remain.� �Wilderness
is very important as a contrast to our consumeristic and materialistic
way of life,� added his son. �It provides opportunities for solitude
and reflection away from the world we have constructed and gives us a
chance to experience interdependence with all of life � the whole
community of life on earth. As Aldo Leopold said, it�s an antidote to
our biotic arrogance � our notion that we can alter anything on earth
with no long-term consequences.� Although
Zahniser�s father died four months before his Wilderness Act became
law, �he knew it had enough votes to pass � it was just a matter of
getting the bill reported,� Ed Zahniser said. �He
devoted the last eight or nine years of his life to the wilderness bill.
Probably the hardest part of it was keeping a coalition working and
focused for that length of time.� Zahniser
said he calls his mother, now 86, on each anniversary of the bill�s
passage, to remind her of her husband�s achievement �and of her own
sacrifice.� To
contact staff writer Rick Steelhammer, use e-mail or call 348-5169. |