Wilderness is advancing on Davis

The Senate took one step closer to passing a bill that would make Dolly Sods North into designated wilderness as part of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area. Also included from the Valley would be the Flat Rock Roarding Plains section south of Dolly Sods.

Here is a map from the WV Wilderness Coalition web site showing the sections to be redesignated as Wilderness: http://www.wvwild.org/WildMonMap.pdf

Here is today's most detailed article I could find on the subject, though more will follow since the vote was only last night. The Campaign for America's Wilderness is one of several organizations allied in the effort to set aside these and other lands across the country. http://www.leaveitwild.org/news/releases/1405

In the Valley there can be found a subset of opions that that I will call unconventional. These are anti-Wilderness views. Close cousins to anti-National Park views. And, yes, there is also a move to consider consolidating public lands in the Valley to create a National Park, though that is years away, if it ever happens. The anti-Wilderness thinking goes something like this: the Federal Government is a bad actor. They encroach on private rights. They say they are here to help and end up restricting our use of the land for fun stuff like ATV's or mountain bikes or horse riding or motocross, or just plain hiking on trails. The anti-wildernss set claims that despite claims that strong protections help the local economy,it actually throttles the local economy by eliminating recreational uses and extractitive uses such as logging and mining.

I'm not sure I agree that the proposed additional Wilderness designations hurt Canaan Valley. I happen to believe that protections are good, so long as we are able to use the land in relatively non-invasive and non-motorized ways. I am an avid mountain biker but I don't want to be allowed to ride just anywhere in our most pristine lands. I want some limited riding in our most pristine lands and I want unlimited riding in more typical lands nearby. The Federal protections discussion is a complex debate and one that has more compromise in its solution than it has winners and losers.

Now let's get down to what's good or bad for Davis and the Valley when it comes to land protections. Long term, it is probably best to add Dolly Sods North as well as Flat Rock Roaring Plains. That said there should be opportunities to traverse them by mountain bike, horseback and skis. To offer a quality lifestyle in the Valley, we do not need recreational networks of mountain bike trails in the pristine heights of Dolly Sods and Flat Rock/Roaring Plains. But we do need that in other nearby, less pristine areas. As an economy, Davis will benefit from these protected designations. With these more subtantial destination parks, the area becomes more nationally recognized as the valuable natural gem that it is. This attracts visitors, but it also attracts home buyers who want to be near pristine and protected lands. If a bigger wilderness grows the Davis economy, how does it do it? Consider the demographic that cares about protected lands and will partially choose to visit or live in the area because of the high Federal protections. These people want a mountain lifestyle for starters. Next, they are choosing a lifestyle location for a business or retirement based partially on the risk that the area's wild areas will be managed well. Being surrounded by thousands of acres owned by Allegheny Power or Pocahantis Land (mining holdings) represents the highest risk to their lifestyle; these guys let nearly anything happen on their land and perpetuate the company town model in Canaan Valley -- I believe these large holdings around Canaan are bad for the economy here because they create a certain lawlessness and inject an uncertainty into the future of the area.

Once lands are protected in a variety of ways depending on the specific lands, we get a portfolio of federal, state and non-profit managed lands that, together, establish the Triple A Rating that says residents can be assured that they are living in an area that won't lose its prized natural assets. People buy homes, retire, open businesses, spend at local businesses and generate an economy. To my mind, the idea that less federal or state protected lands for Canaan equals a stronger economy is misguided. While making designations we do, however, need to be sure we are not choking off forms of recreation and tourism that are appropriate and valuable for the area.