SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 67
(By Senators Facemyer, Minear, Plymale, Bowman, Helmick and
Sprouse)
Requesting the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest
Service, in developing proposed alternatives for the
Monongahela National Forest Plan Revision, fully consider the
many values of well-managed forests to the State of West
Virginia.
Whereas, The health, economic well-being and cultural
traditions of West Virginia's citizens have historically been, and
continue to be, dependent upon the wealth of natural resources
provided by the working forests within the state; and
Whereas, The natural resources of the State of West Virginia,
particularly its timber resources, are immovable, permanent,
renewable assets belonging to the people of West Virginia; and
Whereas, Local municipalities and other public jurisdictions
in West Virginia have had their educational, public safety and
transportation infrastructure deprived of timber revenue totaling
hundreds of millions of dollars due to the actions of political
activists dedicated to forest abandonment; and
Whereas, Federal wilderness designation by the United States
Congress is a permanent, irrevocable condition that will forever deprive West Virginians and the nonresident visiting public of
nearly all economically productive uses and reasonable access to
recreational opportunities in the Monongahela National Forest; and
Whereas, Professionally prescribed active timber management
supplies an important source of sustainable raw materials for West
Virginia's forest-based industries and rural manufacturing
economies; and
Whereas, Imposing additional wilderness acreage would diminish
the biological diversity of the Monongahela National Forests
wildlife habitat types due to the prohibition of all wildlife
habitat and timber management and would eliminate the opportunity
to seek to perpetuate the best quality and combination of wildlife
habitats; and
Whereas, The Division of Natural Resources is charged by the
people of West Virginia to protect and conserve our fish and
wildlife, including those existing within the proclamation
boundaries of the Monongahela National Forest as well as the
acreage either currently designated or proposed as federal
wilderness, using sound scientific principles inherent in active
wildlife management practices; and
Whereas, Compelling peer-reviewed and widely accepted
scientific evidence documents that:
1. Some of the most interesting and diverse natural
communities in eastern North America will be lost without active forest management;
2. Providing habitat for the greatest diversity of wildlife
species over the long term involves managing a mosaic of forest
conditions; and
3. Providing both young and mature forest habitat through
forest management contributes to the biological diversity of the
forested landscape; and
Whereas, The governing bodies and economic development
authorities of the counties of Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas,
Randolph and Tucker, each of which encompasses some portion of
Monongahela National Forest lands, have formally and publicly
opposed the designation of additional federal wilderness acreage in
the Monongahela National Forest; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Legislature hereby requests the United States
Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, in developing proposed
alternatives for the Monongahela National Forest Plan Revision,
fully consider the many values of well-managed forests to the State
of West Virginia; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Legislature hereby recognizes that
any expansion of federal wilderness and/or the imposition of any
other unreasonably restrictive land management measures would
result in losses in recreational opportunity and severe economic
harm to more West Virginians than would be benefitted; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the Senate is hereby
directed to forward a copy of this resolution to West Virginia's
congressional delegation; the Governor of the State of West
Virginia; Clyde Thompson, Supervisor of the Monongahela National
Forest; and the county commissions of each county with land in the
Monongahela National Forest.
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