Logging in the Blackwater Canyon is harming endangered species and their habitat, a federal agency investigating the matter has concluded. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended that Allegheny Wood Products (AWP) halt logging in part of the canyon and apply for a permit under the Endangered Species Act before continuing.

David Densmore, supervisor of the Service’s field office in State College, PA., has requested a meeting with Allegheny Wood to try to resolve the situation. "Contrary to the Service’s earlier understanding of AWP’s land-use plans for this area, logging and other activities may now have occurred in unsurveyed habitat that may support the Cheat Mountain salamander," Densmore wrote. "Moreover, unspecified future activities may also adversely affect the other federally listed species likely to be using Blackwater Canyon," he wrote.

Densmore wrote to Allegheny Wood on Dec. 22, three weeks after Bill Tolin of the Service’s Elkins office toured parts of the company’s logging operations in the canyon. The letter was obtained Friday. It was released to environmental groups earlier in the week. Previously, the service had said Allegheny Wood President John Crites had cooperated with their agency and was complying with rules intended to protect endangered species. In several interviews, Service officials said they did not think the logging was going to harm the endangered salamanders, bats and squirrels that live in the Tucker County canyon.

In late October, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Sierra Club and other groups filed a formal notice of intent to sue the Fish & Wildlife Service and AWP over alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act.

The law generally prohibits the "taking" of a species that is listed by the government as being in danger of extinction. The US Department of Interior defines "taking" to include not only directly killing endangered species, but also damaging or destroying habitat that is vital to those species’ survival. Under the law, taking of an endangered species in the course of otherwise legal activity can be done only under an incidental "take" permit. To get such a permit, AWP would have to cooperate with the Fish & Wildlife Service to construct and implement a habitat conservation plan consisted with the act. In their notice of intent to sue, environmental groups alleged that AWP had not sought such a permit, and that the Service had not done anything about it. In his December 22 letter to AWP, Densmore related details of Tolin’s December 2 visit to the logging operation. Densmore said that two sites known to support the endangered salamander and squirrel "remained secure." However, Densmore said that future plans for the canyon are not clear. _