Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990 TAG: 9004250165
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WISE LENGTH: Medium
L. Sue Greer, who has done research on the area and its impact on the region, said a ski area and a scenic highway were among the plans that got changed because of objections from citizens.
Phil Shelton, another faculty member, cited the Vietnam War as another factor because it siphoned off federal funds that might otherwise have gone toward development. "We might have had a war in Konnarock instead of Vietnam," he said, referring to the community where landowners organized to prevent government land acquisition by eminent domain.
The recreational area has acquired hardly any land since 1978, he said, but he believed that was largely due to lack of money because the legislation creating the area instructed the U.S. Forest Service to accelerate recreation development.
"Yet the plans remain on the books," Greer said, even though the Forest Service has not followed through on them. "Some of that has been due to lack of funds on the federal level, and some of that has been due to increased Forest Service sensitivity to the feelings of the people."
Congress created the Mount Rogers area in 1966. It covered 154,000 acres in Washington, Grayson, Smyth, Carroll and Wythe counties, Greer said, but the Forest Service owned only half that.
"People were reassured that the experts knew what they were doing and all would be satisfied in good time," she said. "All they saw was a one-page newspaper description of all the wonderful things that were going to be done."
Then the government began buying land, some from willing sellers and some through eminent domain. Entire communities were eliminated, and some of the newly acquired property deteriorated, Greer said, "where the lands looked worse than they had in terms of the qualities they had been purchased for . . . largely because support for maintenance wasn't there from Congress."
Mount Rogers and Whitetop, Virginia's two highest mountains, had been privately owned before the recreational area was created and are now owned by the government. Greer said the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which required environmental impact statements where government projects were planned, helped citizens in the five counties see the bad as well as the good that could come from the recreational area plan.
Small landowners concerned with the loss of their communities through forced sales to the government combined with people concerned about environmental issues to oppose the more ambitious parts of the development plan, Greer said. The Forest Service gave in to almost all the objections in its new master plan, dropping the ski area and scenic highway, among other things, she said.
Greer said there are alternatives to outright government purchases of land for the recreation area.
"One alternative is the use of scenic easements . . . a restriction on your use," she said. "You can't subdivide it. You can't put up a business. You can't make changes that will affect the scenic quality of the land." But landowners who want to be able to do what they want with their property often object to this, she said.
Greer was unsure how much impact the recreation area had on the five counties, because other influences occurred during the same time to spur development - such as the completion of Interstates 81 and 77 and revenue-sharing funds from the federal government. "But obviously it had some impact."
She said the recreation plans originally tied in with Appalachian Power Co. plans to put a hydroelectric dam on the New River and create a recreation lake. Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act that prohibited dam construction on the river, so the original plans for water and winter sports in the same area never came about.
by CNB