ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
FOR SEVEN years, seven miles of the Appalachian Trail in Giles County have created controversy and contention, as the U.S. Forest Service has considered changing the path of the famous hiking trail. The aim is to avoid the Hoechst-Celanese plant and the view it offers of towering smokestacks for hikers crossing the New River on the U.S. 460 bridge.
A field of 15 or more options for a new path has been narrowed to three, including one to pretty much leave the trail where it is. Changing the path will require sorting through a tangle of conflicting interests and concerns. At least one of those concerns - fear of crime - is unwarranted, and should not be a factor in the decision.
Of the two proposals to avoid the industrial plant, one would shift the trail east to near the Giles County community of Clendennin, then bring it back to 460 to cross the river. The other would reroute the trail through Narrows, and across the New River on the Virginia 61 bridge.
Some landowners in both areas cite safety concerns in saying they don't want the Appalachian Trail near them. However, the Appalachian Trail Conference office in Newport reports no known instances of hikers causing problems for adjoining landowners.
Rather, the source of residents' alarm reportedly is recent violence involving trail users in other areas. They presumably have in mind the killings this past spring, just off the trail in Shenandoah National Park, of two women.
Those slayings remain unsolved, which is unsettling. But, like all violent crime, this frightening event must be kept in perspective if fear of the aberrant is not to control daily life.
It is not landowners but hikers - made vulnerable by the isolation they seek - who have been the victims of those few craven souls who, through the years, have committed heinous crimes along the trail. Yet crime has not deterred hikers, nor should it.
Six killers have claimed nine victims on or near the Appalachian Trail since 1974. Each year, meanwhile, about 4 million people have visited or hiked some part of the 2,159-mile trail. The overwhelming number come seeking the challenge and solitude of the wilderness. They ought to be regarded as welcome visitors.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB