In an agreement with Jim Sconyers and the Sierra Club, Allegheny Wood Products, Inc., has agreed to temporarily halt most timbering in Blackwater Canyon and notify Mr. Sconyers and the Sierra Club prior to resuming timbering or other activity in the Canyon. The only timbering that is exempt from the agreement is a twenty acre tract that is part of the property which Allegheny Wood Products bought from Allegheny Power Company and a one hundred fifty acre tract which is outside the former power company land. Even with this agreement, Allegheny Wood Products could timber on that land. The one hundred fifty acre tract is closest to the Indiana bat caves.

The agreement is only temporary. It does not address future timbering or development plans such as housing developments. While the agreement is silent on the question of other development, it explicitly recognizes that Allegheny Wood Products intends to "manage the Blackwater tract for a sustained source of high quality timber." So long as AWP notifies the Sierra Club and Mr. Sconyers of its plans to resume timbering or other development plan in the Canyon, nothing in the agreement prevents AWP from doing so. Neither does it prevent AWP from exchanging the land in the Canyon or selling it to another entity which would not be bound by the agreement.

The agreement exempts "best management practices" on the land. Best management practices are a series of recommended practices designed to prevent road building or other activities from causing erosion or stream pollution. Under the terms of this agreement, AWP could return to the Canyon to carry out these practices. The agreement does not address the destruction of endangered species which is possible if these best management practices are not carried out carefully and with appreciation of the dangers to endangered species.

The agreement is prospective only. It does nothing to address any violations of the Endangered Species Act or other destruction of the Canyon which AWP may have committed in its previous timbering and road building in the Canyon. The agreement contains AWP’s position that it has not violated the Endangered Species Act in the past. Although a casual reading of the agreement might lead one to believe that the Sierra Club and Mr. Sconyers agree with AWP’s position, the agreement does not explicitly indicate any agreement and describes the belief that AWP had not violated the Act as only its position.

Neither does the agreement indicate that Mr. Sconyers or the Sierra Club would approve of future logging in the Canyon. While it announces that such logging is AWP’s intention, it is silent on the question of whether Mr. Sconyers or the Sierra Club would approve of such logging. From previous statements by both Mr. Sconyers and the Sierra Club it would be fair to assume that they would not approve of future logging in the Canyon.

So far as future violations of the Endangered Species Act are concerned, the agreement only obligates AWP to "initiate discussions" with the Fish and Wildlife Service about compliance with the Act. It does not obligate AWP to any take any concrete steps to protect endangered species. Neither does it assure that the Sierra Club or Mr. Sconyers will have any role in those discussions, any notice of when and where discussions are occurring, or any formal opportunity to influence the course of those discussions. Neither does the agreement increase the access of the general public to those discussions and decisions which may come from those discussions. So long as AWP carries out these discussions, the Sierra Club and Mr. Sconyers have agreed not to take legal action pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.

It is fair to assume that in its public and private announcements AWP will use this agreement as an indication that it has adequately addressed the threat to endangered species which logging in the Canyon poses. This is not true. By the agreement, AWP pledges to temporarily halt most logging in the Canyon, a step which there is every indication it would have done regardless of the agreement. It does not address the threat to endangered species which past and future logging pose. Neither does it permanently stop the logging or other development of Blackwater Canyon.

The agreement is only binding upon those who were parties to it. The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy has previously filed a notice of intent to sue pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Because the Conservancy was not a party to the agreement, it is not bound by it.