I may have written to you before, but I am so AGAINST the BLACKWATER CANYON TIMBERING, ETC., that I must express to you my honest, love that I have for that special area of my beloved State. I have taken family trips from Parkersburg to the Blackwater area since I was a child in the early 1950's. I then in turn took MY children to my beloved area, for our family trips and experiences.

Now, my son & I go back to our "second home" every year at least once. I was sickened by the first signs of the "acquirement" on our 4-wheel drive journey when I saw some of our favorite and special places roped off with plastic tapes, not allowing anyone to even stop to take a trail, or an overview site. I was later angered even more, when I saw a "security guard" walking the area....we stopped and ask him what was going on? He replied that the land had been obtained and it was his "orders" to keep people on the road and not [allow them] to any of the "owner’s" areas. I almost cried. My son & I also trout fish, hike, camp, etc., putting our dollars into the area’s economy.

The land before this new acquirement was owned by either the R.R. or the Power Co. It was "public" land for years – my grandfather always went to Backbone Mountain to deer hunt way back into the decade of the 30's. That land is no longer, "public" – hunt clubs now rent it and do not ALLOW anyone else on it. Who does it hurt? I talked to people in the area and they said it had hurt their economy since the "public" hunters could no longer camp along the areas. The once overflowing camp sites full of deer hunters are empty and so are the pockets of local businesses.

Then comes the Blackwater Canyon issue. I felt powerless to STOP it! I am just ME – who can I get to help stop this???? I haven’t been back in a year or more, now, as I couldn’t stand the sight of what they are doing or trying to do. It would make me sick. So my son and I have been going to other areas to do our fishing...

I know what it’s like not to have a job, but at what cost? There are NEW technologies, today – we DON’T have to give our natural resources AWAY! YES, I’ll eat less, have less, if it means I can still have "my" mountains!!! I backpacked my son on our backs through the Canyon Rim Road section 32 years ago, I want to let my granddaughters "tag along" on our walks on the trails, etc. I am afraid it will ALL be GONE, before they are old enough to take to our "special" places...

It still makes me get all choked up & cry, when I even think about what they are doing. I can’t afford to join your Conservancy at the present time. I am fighting my own "personal" fight. But, when I DO get some income, I plan to join. As this is all VERY SERIOUS business and very PERSONAL to me. I also have VERY strong opinions about the commercialization of the Cannaan Valley and Blackwater areas. I like to see the "locals" employed, but it is getting so expensive [in that area] that the "average" West Virginian CAN NOT AFFORD [the prices] anymore. Are we trying too hard to import the Washingtonians to the area for skiing and such? We want to "cut off our own noses, to save our faces?" Let them travel the way the rest of us do, any way you can...

The idiots who plan these highways, "don’t know their *** from a hole in the ground," anyway. Look how they built the campground at Stonewall Jackson Lake....I was told by someone who knows that they were not [going] to cut the trees when they made the campground, but, "oops," [when] somebody wasn’t looking, they cut ALL the trees and you camp in the hot sun!!!! STUPID!!! Who thinks up these ideas? Better, yet who watches them as they do them?

I could write a BOOK, but this is so hurtful to me as a native born, back to the 17^th century lineage of my whole family. They cut the trails, improved the land for habitation, but then they were even duped out of their "tomahawk" rights, by land speculators, way back, then.

Thanks for listening to this.

Susan Snider... PROUD TO BE A MOUNTAINEER