Virginia: Forest plans and the latest in new wilderness

Photo from West Virginia and Regional History Collection, West Virginia University Libraries:
Virginia: State's history reveals clear-cutting legacy 

“People are knocking on the door, trying to get the administration’s
attention and Congress’ attention,” said David Hannah, conservation
director of Wild Virginia. The Charlottesville-based group focuses on
conservation-related issues in the George Washington National Forest.

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Hannah said the changing of the guard in Washington signals a better
chance for key efforts in Virginia’s George Washington and Jefferson
national forests by Wild Virginia and allies, including: 1) Expanding
Virginia acreage designated as Wilderness or National Scenic Areas,
and 2) Permanently barring commercial logging and new road building on
thousands of acres of national forest by making a 2001 rule that
governs forest roadless areas a law. At the same time, a landmark
revision of the George Washington National Forest management plan is
nearly finished, adding another element to a rolling boil of issues
for a state that has more national forest than almost any other east
of the Mississippi River.

On a cold early February night, some 100 people crowded into an
elementary school gymnasium in Woodstock to hear the U.S. Forest
Service outline its latest thinking on a management plan for the 1.1
million-acre George Washington National Forest. The plan update is the
first in 15 years. (Jefferson National Forest operates under a
separate plan, updated in 2004.) It addresses wilderness areas, old
growth forests, logging, roads, wind energy, prescribed burning and
more. That meeting and others held before it were the place to try to
nudge the Forest Service toward stronger protections or, conversely,
less regulation. In Woodstock, those gathered in the gym got the
clearest signals yet about the new plan, expected in draft form this
spring. “We haven’t had any fistfights yet,” forest planner Ken
Landgraf joked as he opened the meeting up for public comments. The
Forest Service recommendation to identify four new or expanded
wilderness areas in the new plan drew comments from both sides — each
somewhat critical for different reasons.

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