Monongahela Wilderness Update- 2/22/08

On February 21st, 2008 West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin and the Department of Natural Resources made public a plan to increase and expand the Monongahela Wilderness legislation now before Congress. This new plan was developed in a behind closed doors meeting with the Governor, Steve Brown of the DNR and Dave Saville of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition on February 8th, 2008.

No maps or lists of trails that will be closed or restricted have been made available to the public yet. The West Virginia Mountain Bike Association has been told that at least three new Wilderness areas have been added and they all include trails that will be closed to bicycles and restricted to trail maintenance and special events. These areas are mostly in Representative Capito’s 2nd Congressional district. They are Roaring Plains East and North and Spruce Knob/ Seneca Creek.

None of these areas were recommended as Wilderness in the U.S. Forest Service’s 2007 Forest Plan Revision. The West Virginia Mountain Bike Association has continuously requested to the Governor, the DNR and our Congressional delegation that we be included in talks regarding any designations that prohibit or restrict bicycle use. We have never been included in any discussions about the specifics of any of these restrictive designations even though we have been repeatedly assured we would be.

It is now our belief that nearly 100 miles of trails in our “special places” are possibly going to be closed to bicycle use. Some of these trails are featured in guide books and are in the areas that offer the most looping, off highway and backcountry experiences in the Monongahela National Forest. We will keep you posted on the specifics if and when they are made public.

In the mean time, please contact Governor Manchin, Steve Brown/DNR and your Representatives and Senators and tell them to include mountain bikes, not exclude them:

Steve Brown, DNR Elkins: stevebrown@wvdnr.gov (304) 637-0245

Governor Manchin's site: http://www.wvgov.org/

Senator Byrd’s email page: http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html

Senator Rockefeller's email page: http://www.senate.gov/~rockefeller/services/email.cfm

Congressman Mollohan's site, click send email: http://www.house.gov/mollohan/bio.htm

Congresswomen Capito :https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

Congressman Rahall's email site:
http://www.rahall.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=521&Itemid=162