The Jefferson National Forest's 715,000 acres include 57,000 acres in 11 Wilderness Areas. The Wilderness Society and other Virginia conservationists have identified much more Wilderness that warrants protection. An important first step toward that goal is to ensure that the U.S. Forest Service recommends them for Wilderness designation, and thus for careful management, in its new Forest Plan.
The Southern Appalachian Mountains sustain the most diverse plant life of any temperate region in the world: 130 species of trees, 2,250 species of vascular plants. These mountains are, as a consequence, rich in animal life as well. Science has identified 175 species of birds, 65 of mammals and an estimated 25,000 invertebrates.
Virginia's Jefferson National Forest shares in this bounty. Many plant and animal species native to New England and Canada extend their ranges southward into Virginia. Among them are northern wood sorrel, bigtooth aspen, mountain ash, red squirrels, red-breasted nuthatch, saw-whet owl and golden-crowned kinglet.
First Challenge
Wilderness is the surest defense of this biological richness. And a first challenge in permanent Wilderness protection for Virginia is to ensure that candidate areas remain wild, their Wilderness values intact, when the Congress gets around to deciding their future. The Forest Service's recommendation of an area for Wilderness designation is an important step toward permanent Wilderness protection in Virginia.
Not only does that recommendation suggest that the agency won't log or build new roads in areas it recommends for Wilderness designation, the recommendation itself carries some weight with the Congress when it debates specific wilderness designations. That's why The Wilderness Society and other Virginia Wilderness advocates are paying such close attention to the Jefferson National Forest Plan that is now in process.
20 New Areas
Forest plans, in effect, zone the forest for a range of uses, from logging to Wilderness. Conservationists will press the Forest Service to recommend for Wilderness protection as many as 20 new areas on the Jefferson as the forest plan, due for release in draft form in early 2003, moves to its final form. Conservationists are also hopeful that the Forest Service will propose additions to existing Wilderness areas on the Forest and are bolstering that hope with intensive participation in the planning process.
There are 11 Wilderness areas on the Jefferson National Forest today, encompassing 57,000 acres of the forest's 715,000 acres or 7 percent. The areas are generally small, averaging around 5,200 acres.
Conservationists have a clear blueprint for boosting that protected Wilderness considerably, starting with Wilderness recommendations in the revised forest plan. There is urgency in the work because the existing forest plan, with its emphasis on road building and timber production, has seriously compromised the ecological integrity of the Jefferson.
The next forest plan will govern the forest for upwards of a decade and a half; if it is no better than the present one, we stand to lose much of the wildness that remains.
Some of the Best of the Best
Among areas conservationists are most eager to see protected are these:
Garden Mountain
This area borders around five miles of the Appalachian Trail, the famous footpath that follows the Appalachian Mountains along its 2,150-mile route from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. Fourteen states claim a portion of the Trail, but none comes close to Virginia's Trail mileage: 545, more than a quarter of the total.
The Garden Mountain proposed Wilderness is an area of 3,461 acres. Spectacular cliffs and rock formations occur here. And there are trace fossils of worm tracks where the animals burrowed along the surface of sand beds over 400 million years ago.
Both the Appalachian Trail and Walker Gap offer expansive views of Burkes Garden, a high-elevation pastoral valley. Garden Mountain includes the headwaters of Lick Crick, which is both a native trout stream and home to the endangered Tennessee Dace. A 2.4-mile trail follows Lick Creek and its many beaver dams, ponds and marshes.
Seng Mountain
Even the Forest Service sees wildness in Seng Mountain's 6,423 acres, characterizing 95 percent of the area as showing little or no sign of human alteration. About two-thirds of the area is suitable for secluded backcountry recreation. It also contains 216 acres of possible old growth forest.
Rowlands Creek and Jerry's Creek form a 10-mile loop trail that passes the picturesque Rowlands Creek Falls. Seng Mountain itself rises to over 4,000 feet in elevation. Two creeks in the area hold populations of wild brook trout. And two rare plants-umbrella-leaf and Tower mustard-are known to exist in the area.
The North Fork of the Pound
The southern boundary of the 4,756-acre North Fork unit is a reservoir that provides water for the community of Pound. To protect its watershed, the community passed a resolution in 1995 asking the Forest Service to prohibit clear cutting in the area. Today, the Forest Service lists most of the Pound's rich forest cover as unsuitable for logging because of the area's scenic and recreational values.
Trails with a variety of challenges exist in the area. Along the reservoir are the Laurel Fork primitive hike-in campground, the Cane Patch campground and facilities for water recreation. A tougher trail is the 1.5-mile Laurel Fork Trail that features interesting rock formations and a variety of vegetation and wildlife.
The Phillips Creek Loop is easier, a self-guided nature trail that winds past on old homestead, remnants of a moonshiner's still and the lovely Phillips Creek Falls. An unmaintained trail runs along the ridge top and connects to the Cumberland Mountain Trail to the east.
Other Areas Deserving Protection
Other new, individual areas Virginia conservationists are eager to see permanently protected as Wilderness, and their acreages, are:
- Raccoon Branch, 4,384 acres
- Crawfish Valley, 18,659
- Hunting Camp-Little Wolf Creek, 8,586
- Brush Mountain East, 3,844
- Brush Mountain, 5,997
- Brushy Mountain, 4,183
- Mottesheard, 6,555
- Little Walker Mountain, 9,815
- Cove Mountain, 4,490
- Wilson Mountain, 5,194
- White Oak Ridge-Terrapin Mountain, 8,000
- Devil's Fork, 4,525
- Roger's Ridge, 180
- Long Spur, 6,413 acres
- Little Horse Heaven, 4,744
- Broad Run, 10,964
- Hoop Hole, 5,578
Conservationists also hope to achieve expansion for a number of existing wilderness areas to include lands excluded from the original designations. The areas and their acreages are:
- Shawvers Run, 1,215 acres
- James River Face, 1,100
- Thunder Ridge, 1,000
- Barbours Creek, 732
- Mountain Lake, three extensions, 5,980
- Peters Mountain, two extensions, 4,406
- Beartown, 4,400
- Kimberling Creek, 284
- Little Dry Run, 2,202
- Little Wilson Creek, two extensions, 1,760
- Lewis Fork, three extensions, 2,200
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