Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., introduced a bill Tuesday that designates seven parcels of federal land within the Monongahela National Forest as wilderness locations and, if passed by Congress, would grant the areas certain protections from outside developments such as windfarms.

Reps. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., joined Rahall, who chairs the House Nature Resources Committee, in sponsoring the wilderness legislation designed to protect nearly 50,000 acres.

The bill would allow for the expansion of three existing federal wilderness areas within the Monongahela National Forest and establish four new ones, according to Rahall’s office. The bill would permanently allow the U.S. Forest Service to manage the land with an emphasis on non-motorized settings and a natural environment.

Five federally designated wilderness areas covering 78,0410 acres already exist in the Monongahela National Forest at Otter Creek, Dolly Sods, Laurel Fork North and South, and the Cranberry Wilderness.

“This legislation is about the heart and soul of West Virginia. Our southern mountains have been yielding their coal for generations and our northern ridge lines are being targeted by the merchants of wind power,” Rahall said. “More development is coming, and in most cases, it is welcomed.”

However, Rahall said future generations will judge us “on our stewardship of this land” because our “roots are planted deep in our misty hollers and our majestic mountains.”

“So I believe that it is of paramount importance that we, once again, set aside some of God’s handiwork in our forests by preserving these federal lands in their pristine state,” he said.

In 2006, the U.S. Forest Service updated its land management plan and evaluated 18 roadless areas in the Mon for potential wilderness designation. Of those, seven have been included in Rahall’s bill.

The areas under consideration are: Big Draft, a 5,242 acres located five miles from White Sulphur Springs; Cheat Mountain, 7,955 acres, including a waterfall called High Falls of Cheat; Cranberry Expansion, adding 12,032 acres to the Cranberry Wilderness; Dolly Sods Expansion, adding 7,215 acres to the existing wilderness; Dry Fork Expansion, adding 740 acres to the Otter Creek Wilderness area; Roaring Plains West, 6,820 acres located southwest of Dolly Sods; and Spice Run, a proposed 7,124-acre area near the western boundary of the Greenbrier River.

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@

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