A Virginia conservation group is proposing the creation of the East’s largest wilderness area in a 65,000-acre tract of mostly roadless land in the George Washington National Forest along the Virginia-West Virginia border.

The Ernie Dickerman Wilderness, the vast majority of which lies on the Virginia side of the border, is being proposed by Virginians for Wilderness, a group which played a role in bringing wilderness status to several smaller tracts of Virginia national forest land in years past.

It would stretch from the south boundary of the U.S. Navy’s communications base at Sugar Grove in Pendleton County southward to U.S. 250 in Virginia’s Highland and Augusta counties. It would encompass the existing 6,500-acre Ramsey’s Draft Wilderness and a long stretch of Shenandoah Mountain, which makes up the Virginia-West Virginia border in Pendleton County, plus stretches of the Little and North rivers in Virginia.

The area is named in honor of Ernie Dickerman, a charter member of The Wilderness Society who helped draft the federal Wilderness Act of 1964 and played a role in the creation of several Virginia wilderness areas following his retirement in 1976. Dickerman died in 1998.

The wilderness proposal is still in the conceptual stage, and is not being studied by the U.S. Forest Service, or advocated by a congressional sponsor, said Robert F. Mueller [a former director of the WVHC] of Staunton, VA, founder of Virginians for Wilderness.

Since the "dominant ideology in the Forest Service now is against adding new wilderness areas," Mueller said, "we’re trying to capture the imagination of the public. It’s a process that takes a while, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done."

Mueller said that while the proposal is starting to get some support from "some of the more open-minded people in Virginia," not all environmental groups have come out in favor of it. "Some groups resent anyone else proposing something on what they see as their turf," he said.

The same basic area was proposed for wilderness status as the Shenandoah Wilderness Area in 1985. "It was supported by The Wilderness Society, but nothing much has been said about it since," according to Mueller.

"In the East, there are very few opportunities to create a wilderness area of this size," Mueller said. "The only other place that comes to mind is in the Monongahela National Forest, where they could add the Cranberry Backcountry to the Cranberry Wilderness."

While western wilderness areas often exceed 100,000 acres, the East’s largest national forest wilderness is the 45,000-acre Pemiwegasset Wilderness in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. "Most wilderness areas in the East are under 10,000 acres," Mueller said.

Having a large wilderness area in this region would help preserve dwindling plant and animal species and encourage biodiversity by maintaining an unfragmented, relatively undisturbed habitat.

"The shape of the area being proposed is one large bloc that’s not all strung out, which lends itself to wilderness assets," Mueller said. The proposed boundaries exclude all private lands, state roads and intensive recreation zones, with the exception of one small, remote picnic area, he added.

Mueller said a wilderness of the size envisioned by his group could serve as a laboratory in which to conduct baseline studies on the effects of climate change and pollution.

Only 2 percent to 3 percent of national forest lands in the mid-Atlantic region have been dedicated to wilderness use, compared with 17 percent nationwide, he said. Residents of the East, he maintains, deserve better access to big wilderness areas.

"People have accused me of exploiting Ernie Dickerman’s name for this cause," Mueller said. "Well, I have been, and I’m sure Ernie wouldn’t mind. This is a most appropriate way to honor his memory."

More information on the wilderness proposal can be found at the Virginians for Wilderness homepage at <www.spies.com/~gus/forests/vfw/>