Shenandoah Mountain and the National Forest Plan

If you recreate in the George Washington National Forest regularly, as most of us do on our bicycles, then you have a vested interest in what happens to to the million plus acres of National Forest land located close to the Burg. While much of the media attention as of late has revolved around natural gas drilling and specifically hydraulic fracking, there is much much more in the 15 year management plan than a de facto "ban" on fracking. While unlikley that most folks will wade through the massive land management plan that encompasses all 1.1 million acres of the George Washington National Forest, some of the biggest implications of the plan our right in our backyard.

Shenandoah Mountain is a biological HOTSPOT according to the Nature Conservancy

Hopefully over the years many of you have heard about or seen mention of the Friends of Shenandoah Mountain organization (FOSM). With local advocate Lynn Cameron taking the lead, and SBC co-owner Thomas Jenkins as co-chair, FOSM has worked tirelessly for over a decade to build grassroots support for an extensive proposal to permanently protect Shenandoah Mountain from industrial development and essentially ensure that the mountain remains largely unchanged from how you experience it today. Other than the fracking piece of the Forest plan, the FOSM proposal for expanding the Ramseys Draft Wilderness area and a new Little River Wilderness area. For all the juicy details of the proposal you can look at a map below and also the FOSM Website has great explanations. 

FOSM started with an agreement between the mountain bike community and a committed group of Wilderness advocates. Our local public radio station, WMRA explained the tricky situation nicely this morning, "It has supreme recreational opportunities. People have been enjoying hunting and fishing in the area for decades, hiking, backpacking, camping, horseback riding, and more recently, it’s become one of the most popular places in the East for mountain biking.

Detailed map of the proposal. Including the proposed Wilderness areas and the National Scenic Area that would encompass much of the moutain

Most of you know how phenomenal the mountain biking is up on and around Shenandoah Mountain

Mountain biking adds a fascinating wrinkle to this story. For decades, Cameron and others had hoped to protect Shenandoah Mountain as a wilderness area. But because wilderness is a very restrictive designation that bans mountain biking, the mere mention of it has a tendency to make mountain bikers: THOMAS JENKINS: Defensive. Definitely defensive at first, because wilderness was a bad word when it came to mountain biking."

 But the big story for mountain bikers is the potential for the Ramseys Draft Wilderness boundary (western boundary) to be moved in order to open the Shenandoah Mountain Trail to mountain bikers. As Thomas Jenkins stated on WMRA this morning, "If the plan goes forward, there will be a loss of mountain bike-accessible trails due to wilderness expansion. At the same time, there is a game-changer of a wilderness boundary actually being moved to open up a trail that currently isn’t open to mountain bikes. That, on a national level, is something that we don’t know has happened before."

More than hikers and mountain bikers enjoy recreating on Shenadoah Mountain

The proposal has been endorsed by over 220 area businesses and organizations and by diverse George Washington National Forest stakeholders, including the Virginia Forestry Association, Ruffed Grouse Society (James River Chapter), The Nature Conservancy, and National Wild Turkey Federation to name a few.

What does all of this mean? Well really no change at this point but it does mean one step closer towards Congress taking action on the Friends of Shenandoah Mountain Proposal. From the FOSM press release about the plan:

View from the top of Grooms ridge. Photo from Lynn Cameron.

Scenic Area designation would permanently protect the Shenandoah Mountain area from commercial energy development and other activities that could mar its natural character and degrade its supreme recreational opportunities.

The designation would potentially serve as a tourism draw that could help the local economy. Shenandoah Valley Travel Association (SVTA) President Sergei Troubetzkoy said, “SVTA supports this designation and firmly believes that it has the potential to draw more tourists to the Valley.“
Friends of Shenandoah Mountain will continue to work toward preservation of one of the crown jewels of our National Forest for the use and enjoyment of future generations.