Wilderness Roadless Area Release Act

H

hollowdweller

Joined
Sep 22, 2003
Messages
13,182
This is bad news for us if it passes.

From the local paper:

The act seeks to release the U.S. Forest Service's inventory of roadless areas that have not been designated wilderness areas, or not yet been recommended for wilderness protection, from continued management as de facto wilderness areas. Wilderness study areas managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management would receive similar treatment.

According to the proposed legislation, the federal lands in question, identified as having the attributes for possible wilderness designation since the 1970s, "have been adequately studied for wilderness designation," and should return to multiple-use management. Multiple use management could include such activities as logging, grazing, mineral and oil and gas development.
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"
In West Virginia, the act would eliminate protection for iconic wild places in the Monongahela National Forest like Seneca Creek, Tea Creek or Canaan Mountain," said Mike Costello, coordinator of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition.
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http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201109134973

In the last wilderness bill Seneca Creek and Tea Creek nearly made it into designation. The article says that the dems in the senate will likely prevent it from passing but still it's scarey for me here.

Seneca Creek:
falls2.jpg

strawberrymeadow.jpg

senecackfield.jpg



Tea Creek:

http://www.hollowdweller.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1889
 
HD, in your experience or research, how likely are the lands you are concerned about to be turned over to commercial exploitation? Is it possible for the USFS to protect certain areas from development? In other words, do they automatically allow everything, or are they selective in what they permit depending on the scenic beauty, fragile ecosystem, or historic recreational use?

Here in Colorado, vast amounts of USFS land are in multiple use, yet remain untouched wilderness.
 
Yes, potentially disastrous, and sponsored by my representative, I'll vote against him for sure.
I contacted my Senator and got some blah, blah, I can't say I will can't say I won't answer.
The representative's intention is to open everything up to gas drilling and development.
 
I’m always torn although this definitely looks like big oil/gas companies are pushing for access. I believe we need to have a balance, but many of our wilderness areas are treasures themselves and most are often very delicate and vulnerable to destruction when opened to resource-grabbing industries. In a perfect world, gas/oil extraction would be an extremely low impact, very small footprint and short-duration activity…unfortunately, we’re not there yet. I do agree with the article that the local population should have the biggest vote and know the area best if there were to be some activities such as limited logging or gas/oil exploration.

My biggest issue is that many of these companies are from out of the region/state and they often come in, offer no local jobs, have a significant impact on the local environment and leave a mess behind.

I’m not a Dem, but I fully support protection and (locally) controlled management of wilderness areas. I unfortunately see this occurring in a lot of places in the future because Federal/State governments are not going to have the funding to maintain and will lease out these lands to minimally regulated mineral, oil/gas developers, logging and grazing. I grew up in the PNW where logging was (and is) a very contentious topic of discussion. If not managed properly, you cut off animal migration or ranging areas, you turn areas in to severe soil erosion areas, etc. The flip side is that logging roads made natural fire-breaks, selective area-logging was actually healthy (albeit ugly) on the ecology when done on smaller scales and if it’s a local operation…the trees are their resource and replanting and management were a significant part of the business.

Keep us updated HD…there are some truly beautiful areas that really need to be protected for future generations to experience. I hope your local government officials really make the right decisions on behalf of the real treasured resource…our unmolested wilderness.

ROCK6
 
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