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THE MON NEEDS OUR HELP NOW MORE THAN EVER
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2005

This month is the launch of one of the biggest conservation efforts in the history of West Virginia to help protect the Monongahela National Forest and we need your help

After years of speculation and endless hours of debate the U.S. Forest Service is expected to come out with its revised management plan for the Monongahela National Forest this month – in fact, by the time you read this the plan will likely have already been announced.  Once this draft plan is released, the public will have only 90 days to submit comments.  We hope you will take the time to comment and inform your friends and neighbors about this important issue and encourage them to let their voices be heard.

This issue of the Mountain State Sierran is focused on the Forest Service’s draft Management Plan and our efforts to launch one of the largest conservation efforts in the state’s history.  Enclosed are articles analyzing the Forest Plan, the plan’s impact on wilderness and the wilderness proposal and other special places and values we cherish, as well as a history of forest planning on the Mon and numerous articles on all the outreach efforts we will be launching in the coming weeks and months.  

This ambitious conservation campaign will not be an easy goal to reach.  Forest planning nationwide started right here on the Mon thanks in part to concerned West Virginians.  In the last round of planning, in the mid 80s, conservationists generated an enormous public outcry, in what became the largest public response to any Forest Plan in the eastern U.S., and one of the highest in the nation.  Almost 4000 substantive comments were generated in support of protecting the Mon as a refuge for wildlands, backcountry recreation and wildlife habitat and nearly 18,000 signatures in support of protecting the Mon were sent to the Forest Service in Elkins.  Over 90% of those comments were from West Virginians.

With your help and the help of other concerned West Virginian’s we hope to eclipse this record and let the Forest Service and our lawmakers know that West Virginian’s want to continue our proud history and protect the Mon like we did nearly 2 decades ago.

This planning process and comment period is deeply important because the Forest Service will be evaluating all potential uses of the land, including wilderness.  While we have yet to learn all the specific details of each alternative, nor the Forest Service’s preferred alternative, it is clear that only draft Alternative #3, which recommends 11 new Wilderness areas, would enable protection of a significant amount of the Mon’s remaining wild lands.  Other alternatives would open up many of these special roadless areas and other important backcountry areas, protected in the current plan, to logging and road building.  Overall, the plan would also fall short of adequately protecting the Mon’s wonderful rivers and streams, and the drinking water and fisheries they provide our state, and leave many communities more prone to flooding.

This new plan and its impact on special landscapes in the forest is an important issue that affects us all.  America’s public lands are there for everyone to enjoy, and millions of people visit our wilderness areas each year to hike, hunt, fish, camp, and explore.  In fact, a new study released last week by the West Virginia Department of Tourism showed that the travel industry in West Virginia is a growing sector of our state’s economy, bringing in $3.4 billion in 2004 alone.  Most notably, the study reports an 11.4% growth rate in this industry each year since 2000.  

Unparalleled outdoor recreation found in the Mon’s beautiful wild lands plays an important role in ensuring a stable economy for our communities.  In addition to recreation dollars, tourists support related industries, from hotels and restaurants to transportation, arts and entertainment.  Last year alone, visitors directly supported more than 40,000 jobs with earnings above $760 million, and this number is growing. 

The Mon is also called “the birthplace of rivers.” Among the Forest’s rivers are the Potomac, Cheat, Greenbrier, Gauley, and the Elk.  Protecting the Mon will safeguard the headwaters of these and other important streams and rivers and provide clean drinking water for local communities including Richwood, Lewisburg, Craigsville, Marlinton, Webster Springs, Parsons, Rowlesburg, and many other West Virginia towns whose drinking water flows from within the Forest.  And equally important, protecting the Mon’s forest canopy and soils, these same communities will be better protected from flooding.

We hope that you will join our efforts to create the largest conservation effort in the history of West Virginia.  Please read through this issue of the Mountain State Sierran to find out how you and your friends and family can help.  This effort is about more than a simple forest plan – it’s about our way-of-life, our local economies and our future.  Please join the effort and help us protect the Mon for the next 2 decades and beyond.