Home > Newsletter Home > TOC > Article

Get Involved! Host a Wild Mon party with our newly released DVD!
click for print view

by Matt Keller | 2005

This fall you can play a vital role in helping to protect the Mon’s wildest places by inspiring others to send their comments on the plan. Party packs are available to folks interested in hosting a gathering of friends, family or coworkers to show them our new video, ‘A Vision for a Wild Mon.’

This fall you can play a vital role in helping to protect the Mon’s wildest places. The Forest Service’s draft management plan for the Mon was released August 12^th, and will evaluate options for new wilderness areas. Once the plan has been released, it is critical for West Virginians to send their comments to the Forest Service and tell them to keep the Mon wild.

That’s where you come in: help spread the word by hosting a Wild Mon Party. Here’s what you can do:

1. Get a Wild Mon Party Pack from the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition. The Party Pack includes a wilderness video, fact sheets, brochures, and other helpful information. Call or e-mail Matt Keller at 304-864-5530 or mattk@tws.org.

2. Set a date and get your neighbors, friends, coworkers, relatives, children, church members, business owners, and any other people who love the Mon together at your house or convenient community location.

3. Watch the newly released “A Vision for a Wild Mon” video produced by the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition to educate and inspire your group about our proud tradition of protecting our natural heritage. This exciting new video features some of West Virginia's most wild landscapes, located in the Monongahela National Forest, including areas deserving of wilderness protection.  The video also highlights threats to these primitive places, as well as ways you can help.

Narrated by West Virginia's own Larry Groce, famed voice, host and Artistic Director of Mountain Stage, “A Vision for a Wild Mon” shows a side of West Virginia that we cannot afford to lose: breathtaking, unique, irreplaceable wilderness that deserves to be protected forever. The video also features the music of Wolf Creek Session and Keith and Joan Pitzer.

4. Talk about your favorite wilderness areas. This is a party to celebrate the Mon and why we love it and must protect it. Remember that time you camped in Dolly Sods? What about the great fishing trip you took Cheat Mountain? And, don’t forget the stories about hikes to breathtaking overlooks in Roaring Plains and Seneca Creek. Share your stories and experiences with everyone.

5. Write the Forest Service and ask them to keep the Mon wild. Your party pack includes the address of the Forest Service option and suggested talking points for writing your letters. Get everyone at your party to write a letter. Encourage them to write about their favorite places and special experiences in the Mon’s wild places and tell why wilderness is important to them. We need to send the Forest Service as many comments as possible before the 90-day comment period ends (by the end of October).

6. Recruit two people at your party to host the next Wild Mon Party. We need to spread the word about the Forest Service’s draft management plan for the Mon and make sure our beloved forest is not opened up to commercial logging, road building and development. What better way than by hosting a Wild Mon Party?

The West Virginia Wilderness Coalition is available to answer any questions and to help you host a successful Wild Mon Party – possibly even including speaking at your event. To request a Wild Mon Party Pack or learn more about the Mon management plan, contact Matt Keller at 304-864-5530 or mattk@tws.org.