John Crites, a wealthy timber company owner, has threatened to bring criminal charges against people who walk on a popular hiking trail through the Blackwater Canyon. I recently joined forty other hikers to peacefully defy Mr. Crites' threats. We hiked ten miles of the Blackwater Canyon Rail-Trail, through the heart of the Canyon. What we saw was saddening.

At the trail entrance, Mr. Crites’ huge "No Trespassing" sign dwarfs the Forest Service notice that welcomes foot travelers to enjoy the Canyon trail. Fresh, jagged tree stumps flanked our path. We hiked past steep hillsides where sturdy, maturing trees were crashing to the forest floor – to await the clatter of helicopters that will haul the trunks away to a sawmill.

We felt angry and ashamed. Our "Crown Jewel" is being tarnished and sacrificed for private profit. How did we get into this mess – and how can we get out of it?

For over four generations, the Blackwater Canyon has lain undisturbed, recovering from devastating turn-of-the-century logging. Today, after eight decades of regrowth, the trees in the Canyon are just beginning to create a diverse, maturing forest habitat. But like sleek year-old livestock, these now "marketable" trees, many with centuries of life remaining to them, are also ripe for profitable, commercial logging.

During these decades of healing and restoration, the winding hillside trails and paths of the Canyon – its remote glens and hollows, its crashing waters and limpid pools – have been open to public access and use by hunters, fishermen and fisherwomen.

The Canyon has been a Mecca for biking, kayaking, birding, caving, hiking, picnicking, and more. About ten years ago a national conservation group even paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the right-of-way on the same hiking trail that Mr. Crites is now trying to close.

Three years ago, there were active negotiations about buying the power company’s land in the Canyon for the Monongahela National Forest. But in the middle of the negotiations, the utility company abruptly sold their land to a private broker, who immediately re-sold it to Mr. Crites.

Now a good portion of West Virginia’s Crown Jewel is in the hands of a company whose goal is to make profits. A company with sawmills to feed, a company with international orders for prime West Virginia hardwoods.

And a company that can see even more profits and "commercial potential" in this unique and desirable landscape. Mr. Crites has filed plans to build private condominiums on the pristine Canyon rim. He also wants to build a private, permanent, fifty-foot-wide access road in and through our own Blackwater Falls State Park.

This is what happens to land when the profit motive is paramount, and this situation is unacceptable for the Blackwater Canyon.

I remember standing on a broad stone ledge several years ago at the Coopers Rock Overlook, outside of Morgantown, when we celebrated the state’s acquisition of the Overlook Viewshed. This visionary land deal was one of then-Governor Gaston Caperton’s greatest single acts of leadership for our State.

I also remember another inspiring day, standing on a tuft of wet moss at the National Wildlife Refuge in Canaan Valley. I recalled how Congressman Alan Mollohan, Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, and other state leaders had joined with grass-roots people in helping protect this wonderful ecosystem for us all.

These land preservation efforts were built on the same kind of overwhelming public sentiment and pressure that is calling for the public protection of the entire Blackwater Canyon. As Congressman Mollohan and many experts have observed about wise economic development in special natural places like the Canyon, "you don’t build on the unique resource – you protect it, and you build in the communities around it."

"Conservatives" and "liberals" alike support public acquisition of the entire Canyon. Several state newspapers have spoken out for moving the entire Canyon into public ownership.

Where the people are speaking, the politicians will follow. West Virginia Congressman Bob Wise, a gubernatorial candidate, has called for an end to logging in the entire Canyon, and its protection as a public resource. So have gubernatorial candidates Jim Lees and Denise Giardina, and Charleston House of Delegates candidate Perry Bryant. The public pressure to preserve the Canyon is growing. And given that support, I believe that a day is coming – next year, a year later, or however long it takes – when a plan that protects the entire Blackwater Canyon is in place.

When that day comes, we will gather together at the Canyon, as we did at Coopers Rock and Canaan Valley, to inaugurate and celebrate our new public treasure.

Perhaps we will gather on a sunny fall day, around a great stone outcrop, under a cloud-dappled blue sky, ringed by brilliant, multicolored foliage. Or perhaps we will gather in a meadow on a soft spring morning, watching a river of swirling white fog slowly roll and turn and twist, deep in the folds of the dark green Canyon walls.

On that day, we will look out over West Virginia’s Crown Jewel, knowing that it is protected for future generations. We will know that the Blackwater Canyon is no-one’s to "own." It is entrusted to all of us – to care for and to cherish.

We will know that the Blackwater Canyon is not an object of commerce, where the highest bidder calls the tune. It is our sacred land.

The public campaign to Save the Blackwater Canyon continues to gather momentum. National conservation groups with money and expertise stand ready to help move the Blackwater Canyon into protected status. The year 2000 will be crucial in this effort. Please act now! Write or call your elected officials, especially members of Congress and the Governor. Write to local newspapers. And contact the Save the Canyon Campaign [(304) 345-7663] to learn about more that you can do. Speak out – and your voice will be heard!

Judith Schoyer Rodd is Senior Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy