By Jason Halbert, Appalachian Restoration Campaign, A Project of Heartwood

 Many people have asked me, "Why a national park? Why not let the US Forest Service (USFS) buy the land and manage it as a national recreation area or a wilderness area, or even let the state buy it and add to the existing state park system?"

These are excellent questions. The Blackwater Canyon area contains much diversity including elevational, soil, forest type, floral, faunal, geologic and most importantly for this discussion, political. How we humans enact our societal and personal desires on the landscape is of great complexity and controversy. The Blackwater Canyon effort is an example of the long struggle to preserve pieces of an already fragmented landscape. Blackwater Canyon National Park resonates with the American public, the traditions of conservation and the National Park System, and the modern ideas of landscape planning.

One of the challenges this country faces is the ecological and economic impact of 300 years of mostly random divisions and boundaries on the landscape.

It is important to understand the context of public lands in America. A brief and insufficient picture follows. The very concept of public lands, as Frederick Turner writes in Rediscovering America: John Muir in His Time and Ours, was an "odd and unlooked-for consequence of the American Revolution....Suddenly the infant nation found itself nominal possessor of vast, largely uncharted lands lying west of the Appalachians." It was Maryland and the other tiny states who opposed the Articles of Confederation feeling the threat of larger states and their vast western claims. Realizing the fragility of the newly formed Union, the larger states gave their claims west of the Alleghenies, as they were called then, to the newly formed federal government thus helping pass the Articles.

But the idea of the federal government owning vast amounts of land while many white men sat landless in the eastern cities did not bode well for a restless populous and thus, as Turner lists, acts like the Ordinance of 1785, the Preemption Act of 1830, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Act of 1850 (Railroad Land Grants), the Homestead Act of 1862, and the Timber Culture Act of 1873 were passed over time to guarantee the extermination of the Indians and tame the west. It is a shameful history and we still have not learned our lessons (witness Black Mountain and forced relocation of Navajo), but these acts shaped our mindset, our landscape.

Most of the lands that comprise West Virginia were sold to private interests. The 26,000 plus Blackwater Manor was one such tract. The Monongahela National Forest was not authorized as a federal purchase unit until 1911 with the passage of the Weeks Act. This act allowed the federal government to purchase lands in cooperation with states as national forests. West Virginia, ravaged by logging companies already moved westward, begged the federal government to purchase lands creating the Mononahela National Forest. Like the National Park System which some have criticized as "monumentalism," devoid of any ecological planning, the National Forest System is a patchwork of fragments. The eastern national forests have been called "the lands nobody wanted." Yet the creation of public land units, and park units in particular, is as much a part of our history as the Civil War, or the automobile.

Yellowstone National Park was the first in 1872, created almost solely for the commercial

interests of Jay Cooke’s Northern Pacific Railroad which received the property during what has been called the "great land grab." The prospects of one rail line into such an area meant a monopoly on visitation.

The Adirondack Park, not a national park but equally inventive and large, was created by amending the New York State Constitution in 1885 to insure that these lands, which supplied a steady water supply for the Erie Canal and the Hudson River, both transportation backbones, would remain "forever wild." But, it was the fight for Yosemite in the late 1880’s and early 1890’s that defined the embryonic American Conservation movement.

Turner writes of Muir and his close friend and fellow conservationist Robert Underwood Johnson, then editor of Century:

Most Americans have never regarded wilderness with respect and admiration. True, wildness can be said to have some stature in the American psyche. I remember studying American archetypes in an anthropology class, and the "frontiersman" is seen as a great influence on our culture even to this day. Daniel Boone, I read, was said to move his cabin at first site of a neighbor’s chimney smoke. But wilderness, an ironic creation in that its destruction gave birth to its meaning, represented something to conquer, like the devil. At the root of the fight over Blackwater Canyon lies this disdain, a deep cultural misunderstanding of our relationship to all things wild.

Despite the some eloquent descriptions scattered in the literature, the early chronicles of Randolph County, Virginia, as the area of Blackwater was then called, are full of contempt for wild country. The high plateau of the Alleghenies and the headwaters of the North Fork of the Blackwater were described by Lord Fairfax’s surveyors in 1746, "This river called Styx from the dismal appearance of the place being sufficien to strick terror in any human creature." (sic)

And in 1853, David Hunter Strother, also known as Porte Crayon, wrote in Virginia Wilderness:

Strother may have concluded otherwise, but the American ideal had little room for idle land, or uncut wild forests. Still, many had longer visions and fought hard to protect the places we now cherish. My generation may never see the magnificent Hite Canyon in Utah, some say more grand than the Grand Canyon, as it is under Lake Powell and behind the Glen Canyon Dam. David Brower walked the canyon before it was flooded and turned into a house boat nightmare. The point is that political will is what creates these places, however scattered or random. National parks provide, more than any other land designation, for Americans to have access to wild country.

The National Park System, with its myriad designations of battlefields, monuments, historic sites, rivers, and parks, retains the only mission solely dedicated to conservation. Even the US Fish and Wildlife Service is in the business of logging, mining, grazing and resource intensive operations. In sharp contrast, the Mission of the Park Service states:

"The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world."

Management that proposed Blackwater Canyon National Park by the National Park Service (NPS) instead of, say, the USFS is key to the desired economic and environmental impact to Tucker County, the state of West Virginia, and Central Appalachia. Without this designation, this area will remain economically stagnant, and ecologically fragmented.

The NPS states: "As directed by Congress (16 USC 1a-5), the National Park Service will study and monitor areas to determine if they are nationally significant, and if so, whether they have potential for inclusion in the national park system. Planning for the future of the national park system is guided by a framework of themes representing all the aspects of America's natural and cultural heritage." Blackwater fits this description.

DRAFT 1 of the proposed Blackwater Canyon National Park map encompasses three identified existing management regimes and a handful of private lands with individualized management. The USFS already owns 65% of the proposed park acreage of 38,910, and manages these areas under the Monongahela National Forest Plan (see accompanying map covering the Tucker county area). Allegheny Wood Products (AWP) owns the 3,000 acre heart and has already selectively logged 1,600 acres and drawn plans for the Canaan Mountain Resort and condominiums. The remaining land is privately held by various landowners, and need not necessarily be included. These areas, A & E, were included as logical extensions to larger primary roads, providing increased access, visibility, and ecological connectivity to other existing public lands. In addition rare, threatened and endangered species locations encourage the boundary selection. Obviously, some of these areas will not be purchased as the Park Service has a Congressional mandate to not condemn land of unwilling sellers, in most cases. The area east of Coketon and Douglas and south of Davis could be included, but not as much of it is private and already developed. Draft 2 is in the works.

The two state parks, Blackwater Falls and Canaan Valley, could be included but would remain units of the state. Expanding the park beyond to include areas like the Fernow Experimental Forest, Otter Creek and Dolly Sods Wilderness Areas and other areas, has been suggested. The feasibility of a new park seems to diminish when the amount of private lands within the boundary increases. This is not fact, but observation and common sense. Whatever the outer boundary, the key tracts are the 3,000 acre south rim owned by Allegheny Wood Products, and the canyon as a whole.

The wealth and diversity of resources in this area provide the basis for national natural and cultural significance required in a national park suitability analysis. Rare threatened and endangered species, waterfalls, 2500 abandoned coke ovens and related sites of the Blackwater Industrial Complex, the steepest rail grade in the east (1,236 feet in 10 miles), the longest continuous rapids in West Virginia, the most famous scenic view in West Virginia at Lindy Point, and many other attributes are a few resources detailed in the 90-page West Virginia Highlands Conservancy report on Blackwater Canyon National Park.

The Blackwater River is slowly recovering from acid mine drainage and is still awaiting Wild & Scenic River designation. Big Run Bog, with many rare plants, lies on the north rim and is a proposed Research Natural Area, and is a National Natural Landmark. The rail-trail, part of the American discovery Trail, is a serious attraction for tourists. These areas and resources would gain permanent protection under National Park status.

The USFS clearly does not have the Congressional mandate to manage this area to its fullest potential, if that potential includes a strong economic base for Tucker County and West Virginia.. Although that agency is slowly waking up to public opinion and increasing demand to stop commercial resource extraction, it has yet to embrace the idea that national forest lands are more than standing timber. Witness the Wild & Scenic River designation which has idled at the Monongahela National Forest Headquarters. Still, the USFS is an essential player in the process. Whatever the designation, protection of the Canyon is a high priority for USFS.

This map will change as more information is gathered regarding the resources of the park. Indeed, many of the documents containing cultural resources such as the historic and archaeologic sites in the Canyon are still in draft form at the USFS. Clearly the rail grade, its arched stone bridges, the historical industrial complex of Coketon and Douglas, once the world’s leader in coke production for use in steel mills, are all deserving of protection and public viewing. The NPS has the ability to bring people from far away to learn and research these sites for the benefit of West Virginia heritage and the education of all.

Allowing the USFS, or even the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, to manage the Blackwater Canyon area would not allow for the full economic benefit that a national park brings. Indeed, studies have shown that counties with national parks as opposed to state parks or other public lands receive far more visitation and tourist dollars, upwards of five times. The national park idea is our oldest public lands model, and is firmly etched in the American psyche. West Virginia deserves a world-class national park, and the Blackwater Canyon is worthy of such designation.

It will be the "Pride of West Virginia."

Resources:

http://www.nps.gov/planning/mngmtplc/npsmptoc.html

Crayon, Porte. Virginia Illustrated. Harper Brothers, New York 1957.

 Smith, Lawrence, J. Blackwater Country. McClain Printing Co., Parsons, WV 1972.

 Turner, Frederick. Rediscovering America: John Muir in His Time and Ours. Sierra Club Books, 1985.

West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, et al. The Blackwater Canyon: Getting to Know it Better; Helping to Protect it Forever. WVHC, 1998.

Blackwater Canyon National Park Draft 1(D1) Statistics as of June, 1999

 Proposed Park Acres: Tract A - Private 5,606.74, Tract B - USFS 5,738.92, Tract C - AWP 2,950.80, Tract D - USFS 19,527.27, Tract E - Private ............... 5,086.09.

 Total of D1 boundary ....... 38,909.82

 Total Federal ownership D1........ 25,266.19

Total Private Land D1 Boundary 13,643.63

Unknown Private land within boundary .............. 10,692.83

 % Federal ................................... 65%

%Private ..................................... 35%

% Private excluding AWP lands 27%

 Tucker County

USFS ....................................... 96,177.37

USFWS ........................................ 765.14

Federal Land Ownership in Tucker Co. 96,942.51

 Total Proposed Federal ....................... 110,586.14

Tucker County ..................................... 276,335.67

% Fed w/ Proposed in TC ........... 40%

Known Endangered Species Site Counts inside proposed boundary: Allegheny Woodrat 3, Cheat Mountain Salamander 9, Green Salamander 1, Rock Vole 2, Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel 5.

 This proposal is in DRAFT form, all figures are subject to change.