Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 26, 1994 TAG: 9407270012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FORKS OF BUFFALO LENGTH: Medium
Still, he was smiling behind the rain dripping down his hood. This was a good day for the director of public works in Amherst County to hike through the proposed Mount Pleasant National Scenic Area.
The storm runoff buttressed his argument that a scenic-area designation by Congress would prevent erosion caused by logging and protect the area's drinking water supply.
Even the timber industry, however, backs the effort by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, to make the 7,580 rugged acres the nation's seventh federally protected scenic area.
So do conservation groups that fought for months last year to get the area designated as Virginia's 17th wilderness area. So does Virginia's entire congressional delegation. Two months ago, Republican Sen. John Warner introduced an identical bill. Two weeks ago, the House Agriculture Committee passed the legislation in a unanimous voice vote.
``It has remarkable broad-based support,'' Goodlatte said. ``It has a good shot at passing this fall.''
The designation is similar to one given the Mount Rogers region in Southwestern Virginia, one of 10 national recreation areas. It would ban most commercial logging but would not be as restrictive as wilderness designation.
At a congressional hearing on the legislation in April, U.S. Forest Service administrator Lyle Laverty was the only speaker opposed to the designation.
In a statement, Laverty said the legislation was unnecessary because about 5,900 acres around Mount Pleasant already are protected from timber harvesting by a special management designation.
But French said that designation does not provide permanent protection for a fragile portion of the county's watershed.
Goodlatte, a first-term Republican, campaigned against the idea of wilderness areas. He said the designation tied the hands of professional timber managers, complicated fighting wildfires and insect infestation and hindered access by prohibiting motorized travel.
``At first, a lot of people felt wilderness or nothing,'' Goodlatte said. ``I think this is a good balance.''
``It is a compromise between wilderness and just general management,'' said Larry Phillips of the Forest Service's regional office in Atlanta.
Phillips said the push for wilderness designation has diminished, while the effort to obtain national scenic or national recreation designation has increased.
``I think you'll probably see more use of the scenic and recreation designation as more people find out about it,'' agreed Jim Miller, a recreation specialist for the Forest Service in Washington.
Ernie Dickerman, the preservationists' point man in getting 16 wilderness areas designated in Virginia, said he still prefers the stronger protection.
``In a practical sense, we felt this was the way to go,'' Dickerman said of the scenic-area designation. ``This is an experiment. It remains to be seen whether it really works out as well as the wilderness act.''
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, still plans to push for wilderness designations in the Jefferson National Forest.
Boucher and Goodlatte's predecessor, Democrat Jim Olin, sponsored the legislation that led to all but one of Virginia's wilderness areas.
Ten areas of the Jefferson National Forest are recommended for wilderness. Boucher said he's waiting for the best candidates to surface from public hearings on the agency's management plan revision.
In two years, he expects to seek more wilderness designations.
``If the timber industry still resists, we're in a stronger position to sponsor legislation even over the opposition,'' Boucher said. He called scenic or recreation area designation ``a fall-back position. If it's politically infeasible for wilderness, the next best thing would be something less.''
by CNB