West Virginia's congressional delegation is expected to co-sponsor or otherwise support a “Wild Monongahela Act” to set aside more than 47,000 West Virginia acres for federal protection, the Sunday Gazette-Mail reports.
The legislation encompasses seven parcels, including Big Draft, "a 5,200-acre oak and hickory forest just five miles from White Sulphur Springs," the Charleston newspaper reported. "The areas would become the first new wilderness areas in West Virginia in nearly 25 years."
The proposal "includes three additional areas covering nearly 20,000 more acres of wilderness than was proposed by the U.S. Forest Service in a plan issued in September 2006," the story also notes, but is "less ambitious than wilderness expansions being promoted by various state environmental and conservation groups."
The Gazette-Mail also offers a graphic as well as detailed maps showing how the legislation would expand existing wilderness areas and create new ones.
Depending on who now owns the land affected, county officials may wince at the removal of additional territory from their potential property tax rolls.
20 January 2008
Getting the Big Drift, er, Draft
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3 comments:
Just more billion dollar welfare.
Judging by the maps at the Gazette-Mail, it appears that all (or almost all) of the land is already owned by the Forest Service. This is just a change in how it is being managed.
The Forest Service wasn't allowing much in the way of logging in these areas, anyway. The area being added to the Cranberry Wilderness was already classified as "backcountry."
The main differences will be that people won't be able to bike the area, the FS can't take four-wheelers in for maintenance, and you will only be able to use dead, fallen wood for camp fires.
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