ShareThisBy CINDI LASH
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Ignoring the turkey buzzards swirling above his head, Sam Jinks pointed to gold and russet forests lining the canyon around him and the boulder-studded Blackwater River churning more than 1,000 feet below.
"People come here for the views," Jinks said, peering over a rock slab jutting high above Blackwater Canyon, a 12-mile gash of unspoiled mountain wilderness that is one of the most frequently visited and photographed spots in West Virginia.
"Why would you come here if there were no views, or no trees?" said Jinks, who operates a tour company and rents bicycles, kayaks and other recreation equipment in Blackwater Falls State Park above the canyon. "Why would people come here to look at condos?"
Similar questions have been posed by many people who live, work or visit the scenic region surrounding the canyon in Tucker County.
The county, which is home to the vast Monongahela National Forest, two state parks, wildlife preserves, ski resorts and white water river rapids, has become a popular recreation and vacation area for families and outdoors enthusiasts from West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
Company towns that once supported mining and lumbering operations now offer pretty bed-and-breakfasts, funky shops packed with antiques and handmade crafts, and spas offering massage and holistic therapies.
So a timber company's proposal to turn a trail through Blackwater Canyon into a rocky logging track has kicked up a controversy that has pitted longtime locals against weekend visitors and development proponents against conservation groups.
Some folks oppose the plan as a disastrous step toward commercialization of an irreplaceable natural resource and destruction of the tourism it attracts.
Others believe environmental concerns pushed by newcomers and groups whose members are largely from outside the region are overtaking landowners' rights and economic priorities in a county hungry for jobs.
"People call (the canyon) the crown jewel of the East," Tucker County Commissioner Salvatore "Sam" Eichelberger said. "It's absolutely gorgeous from any angle. But we talk and talk about it and, sometimes, we're just killing ourselves."
The dispute has percolated since 1997, when Allegheny Wood Products, of Petersburg, W.Va., bought nearly 3,000 acres in the canyon from Allegheny Power. That land was the only privately owned property in the 10,000-acre canyon.
Most of the canyon and the river running through it lie on publicly owned land in the national forest or state park, where visitors can access trails and spots to view the spectacular Blackwater Falls and other waterfalls.
Since then, Allegheny Wood Products and a coalition of environmental groups have clashed over the company's timbering of the land and a proposal to build housing there. For a time, the company used all-terrain vehicles to take workers in and helicopters to hoist logs out of the canyon.
Environmentalists, who are pushing for creation of a national park in the area, filed lawsuits aimed at protecting endangered species and their habitats in the canyon. Increasingly, the canyon became an issue in West Virginia politics as voters quizzed candidates for governor and other offices about its use.
In 2001, Allegheny Wood Products applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, which manages the national forest, for access to the publicly owned Blackwater Canyon Trail. The trail runs on a steep, narrow grade above the river that once carried trains serving coal and lumber industries in Thomas and Davis, north of the park.
Allegheny Wood Products sought an easement so that its logging trucks could reach about 300 acres of company land between the railroad grade and the river. The company owns half of the grade; the Forest Service owns the other half.
In its application to use the publicly owned side of the grade, Allegheny Wood Products officials said they needed access to thin and improve timber stands on a 10- to 15-year basis, prevent insect or disease infestation and correct drainage problems causing erosion and landslides.
"We just want to be able to use our own land," spokeswoman Donna Reckart said. "If we are shut down and our property rights are taken away, who will be next?"
The Forest Service studied the potential effect of the company's proposed easement on the environment, historic sites and endangered species in the canyon. It released a draft statement in December saying it favors a reciprocal easement that would give the service and Allegheny Wood Products access to each other's land.
That arrangement would permit the Forest Service to go onto the company's land to manage recreation and historic assets along the trail. The company could spread gravel for truck access and close the trail while cutting or hauling logs. It would refrain from timbering on weekends and holidays and the trail would not be cleared of snow in winter, allowing cross-country skiing.
The Forest Service said it would work with the company and state and federal preservation agencies on a plan to protect rows of brick beehive coke ovens, stone archways and other relics along the trail. Those structures date to the region's early coal and coke industries and are eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Forest Service sought public input on that plan this year and will announce its decision late next month or in January, said Bill Shields, a spokesman for the Forest Service.
Members of The Wilderness Society, the Friends of Blackwater Canyon and other state and national environmental groups have voiced objections and want the Forest Service to deny or impose restrictions on the easement.
The National Trust for Historic Places and other organizations are concerned about damage to the relics. Some worry how bats, flying squirrels and other endangered species will fare if their habitats are disturbed by road construction or noisy trucks.
Others worry that rocks used to create the logging road, increased traffic or restrictions on trail use will discourage visitors who support outfitters, eateries and inns in Thomas, Davis and Canaan Valley.
Blackwater Canyon Logging Decision
Its kinda interesting that Allegheny Wood Products is taking the position that the Blackwater Canyon is an open and closed property rights issue.
The lands in question, in the Blackwater Canyon and, coincidently, in the Cheat Canyon (another controversial purchase by AWP), were both lands held by the electric utility Monongahela Power Company. Mon Power has been granted monopolistic power to provide electricity to citizens of WV. With the granting of this public trust, Mon Power (or any predecessor) was also granted the right of imminent domain.
What was Donna Reckart saying about property rights? Where does it stop?
If we really want to focus on property rights, then why don't we look at the history of the land, its relationship to the power of condemnation and threat of exercising condemnation granted for the purpose of providing an expressed public service (power generation and transmission)? The fact is that the power company never used this land for the intent for which it was held. Once we realize this land was held by the power company, and it seems logical it was used in the company's rate base - for which its captive consumers were bound to providing a statutory 6% rate of return to the stockholders of the company - the public had actually paid the power company for the land.
There is no doubt the AWP owners knew they were buying a controversy when they purchased the Blackwater Canyon (as supported by its subsequent purchase of the Cheat Canyon) because they were bidding against the state of WV and the national forest, in both cases.
This man's opinion is that once land is held in the public trust, it should be up to the public to determine a fair disposal of that land. Power Company lands that are purchased under condemnation, or even threat of condemnation, for the intent of serving the public good lose the individual property rights argument if those lands are used for anything but utility's stated purpose.
Let the AWP folks cry about property rights, while we, the people, get the screws put to us when we try keep our public trust holdings intact.