Read West Virginia’s Wild Mountain Treasure: The Monongahela National Forest
Monongahela National Forest: Threatened Wildlands in West Virginia
The Monongahela National Forest (referred to locally as "the Mon") contains some of the wildest and most beautiful mountain forests in the East. These forests give life to a wide range of plant and animal species, including black cherry trees, black bears, and hundreds of species of birds. Unfortunately, the Forest Service's recently released management plan for the Mon fails to permanently protect economically and ecologically important natural areas and all but ignores nearly 13,000 public comments in support of more wilderness. Currently, less than 9 percent of the forest is part of the Wilderness System, far below the Forest Service's 18 percent national average.
Unwelcome Distinction
In 2001, the American Planning Association gave West Virginia the dubious distinction of being number one in the nation for sprawl (on a per capita basis). Massive highway construction fuels development that threatens both federal and non-federal forests, increases the hazard of serious flooding, and worsens air pollution.
Such threats underscore the significant failings in the Forest Service's revision of its management plan for the Monongahela National Forest, one of which is its completely inadequate recommendations for additions to the Wilderness System. A major purpose of our national forests is to protect those values, such as natural quiet, old growth forests, and certain critical habitats, that have largely disappeared from other forested lands. Wilderness designation provides permanent protection for these important values.
As excessive logging and development forces diminish important natural values on surrounding non-federal forests in West Virginia, our wildlands protection work on the Mon becomes even more critical.
A Beautiful Place
This beautiful national forest is within a one-day drive of at least a third of the population of the United States and contains some of the wildest remaining forestlands in the East. These special wild places shelter a rich variety of plants and wildlife: black cherry trees, yellow birch, primrose and rare clovers, black bears, hundreds of species of birds, rare salamanders, snowshoe hares, bobcats, native brook trout, and a variety of imperiled fresh water fish.
Our Work and Partners
The Wilderness Society is bringing its grassroots, analytical, and policy skills to work with local partners with three goals in mind:
- Acquire new lands to expand the national forest;
- Protect more wilderness; and,
- Promote ecologically based management of the Mon to benefit both local communities and a diversity of forest users across the region.
A broad coalition of grassroots groups and activists is united around Monongahela wildland protection. After assisting in the inventory and evaluation of potential new wilderness areas and in developing a formal proposal, The Wilderness Society's Wilderness Support Center, located in Durango, Colorado, is helping the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition build grassroots support for the introduction of a wilderness bill. This coalition was formed in 2002 and is comprised of the WV Highlands Conservancy, the WV Chapter of Sierra Club, and TWS. Our coalition is supported by numerous businesses, organizations, and individuals around the state and region.
The Forest Planning Process
In May 2002, the Forest Service announced that it would revise the resource management plan for the Mon, providing conservation advocates the first opportunity in 15 years to influence Forest Service policies that would govern that forest's management for the next 10 to 15 years. That opportunity resulted in the submission of nearly 13,000 public comments on the draft plan, of which more than 90 percent supported more wilderness on the Mon than the Forest Service was recommending. By large margins, the public favored an approach closer to that proposed in the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition's Citizens' Wilderness Proposal, which identified a total of 15 new wilderness and expansion areas.
Fortunately, the decision to protect wilderness in the Mon is in the hands of Congress-and West Virginia's congressional delegation. The Wilderness Society is working with the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition to make sure that Congress understands that the public's voice is not being heard by the Forest Service. We are urging Congress to pass strong wilderness legislation that goes beyond the insufficient recommendations in the final management plan.
Wilderness Campaign
More than 20 years have passed since any lands in West Virginia were added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. The West Virginia Wilderness Coalition is working to change that in the near future. After carefully researching and identifying 15 areas deserving of designation as new wilderness or additions to existing wilderness, the coalition in 2004 offered its formal proposal to the Forest Service covering these areas. Unfortunately, the final management plan released by the Forest Service largely ignored the coalition's popular proposal.
The failure of the Mon's current forest management plan to adequately protect wilderness acreage, or to take into account the vast public support for more wilderness, has pushed the battle into the halls of Congress. Today, less than 9 percent of the forest is part of the Wilderness System. Much more is still wild and deserves protection. The West Virginia Wilderness Coalition, of which The Wilderness Society is a founding member, will be pressing the state's congressional delegation to adopt the recommendations for wilderness acreage outlined in its Citizens' Wilderness Proposal. The Proposal includes these priority areas left out of the new Forest Service plan: Big Draft (creates 5,300-acre wilderness on Anthony Creek in southern WV), Dolly Sods Expansion (adds 7,144 acres to the north end of the 10,215-acre area), East Fork of Greenbrier (creates a 9,5730-acre area in the headwaters of the Greenbrier River watershed), Seneca Creek (creates a 23,985-acre area covering most of Spruce Mountain and 10 miles of Seneca Creek), and Spice Run (creates a 7,254-acre remote wilderness just south of Calvin Price State Forest). A map and area descriptions can be found at the coalition's Web site.
Seneca Creek
Covering nearly 24,000 acres of contiguous Forest Service land, the proposed Seneca Creek Wilderness Area contains many notable features, including critical habitat for the federally-endangered West Virginia northern flying squirrel and a diverse spectrum of flora. High elevations on Spruce Mountain support red spruce, balsam fir, and mountain ash, as well as heath barren plants such as blueberries, huckleberries, and reindeer and sphagnum mosses. This alpine ecosystem transitions to mixed northern hardwoods as it drops down toward Seneca Creek. The area provides exceptional habitat for black bear, wild turkey, deer, raccoon, fox, and a wide variety of birds, to name a few of the many species present. Also, of all the wilderness candidates, Seneca Creek contains the highest number of streams (14) whose water quality and topography are good enough to support reproducing native trout populations, providing some of the best trout fishing in the Mid-Atlantic region. Outstanding scenic vistas abound, accessible from a wide-spread system of hiking trails. The gorge section of the sharply-defined, forested valley of Seneca Creek drops approximately 1,400 feet in elevation, or nearly 150 feet per mile. As a result, hikers along the Seneca Creek Trail are treated to exceptional waterfalls of all sizes, shapes, and sounds.
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