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Wild Monongahela Act Advances Through House of Reprsentatives
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by Dave Saville, WV Wilderness Coalition |
2008
Historic legislation moves through committee but loses Cheat Mountain proposed wilderness
The Wild Mon Act took its next step in the legislative process by being favorably reported out of House Natural Resources Committee. On April 2nd, a legislative markup was held for this bill in addition to three others including the Copper Salmon Wilderness bill in Oregon. The bill will now move on to the full House for approval. While this is a positive step, the version of the bill reported from committee was amended with one of the changes being a major disappointment for wilderness supporters.
At the request of cosponsor Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, the Cheat Mountain area was removed from the bill. We have been working hard and many phone calls and letters have gone in to all our delegation members to not only thank them for introducing the legislation, but encouraging its improvement through the addition of other special places. The Seneca Creek, Roaring Plains East & North and East Fork of Greenbrier areas are all well qualified to be designated as wilderness and broad support exists across the state for this. We were hoping the bill would actually be improved instead of weakened.
Governor Manchin recently expressed support publicly for changes to the Wild Mon Act which included the removal of the Cheat Mountain and Spice Run areas but also the addition of the east ½ of Seneca Creek and Roaring Plains East & North. The acreage reflected by these changes is roughly equal to the introduced version of the bill. The next step will be for the committee reported version to be decided upon by the full House of Representatives.
Senator Byrd and Senator Rockefeller still have an opportunity to improve the Senate’s version of the Wild Monongahela Act by adding Seneca Creek, Roaring Plains East & North and East Fork of Greenbrier. We expect that the legislative process will move along in that body in the very near future so it is critical to contact them and ask for these areas to be added.
Please call or email Senators Byrd and Rockefeller and let them know:
1. You appreciate their sponsorship of the Wild Monongahela Act (S. 2581)
2. You’d like for S. 2581 to be amended to include the Seneca Creek, Roaring Plains East & North and East Fork of Greenbrier Areas
Senator Robert C. Byrd
(202)-224-3954 Email via webform
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV
(202) 224-6472 Email via webform
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