Sierra Club enlists the public for help in a fight against the rend of the roadless declation.

ELKINS, W.Va. — The roadless designation for about 20 percent of the Monongahela National Forest could be considered for a rollback if the President’s desire to end the roadless rules is put into effect.

President Trump has sought to remove the roadless designation which he said would enable better access to some federal lands to battle forest fires. Daria Jones, Chair of the Sierra Club West Virginia’s Public Lands Committee disagrees. Jones said having roads in those areas of the National Forest would actually create more fires by enabling more access.

“What the roadless rule does is it’s one of the most successful conservation efforts ever and it protects nationwide our National Forests everywhere,” she said.

The Sierra Club will have an open meeting Tuesday night at Davis and Elkins College to talk more about the roadless rule and explain why it should be maintained.

“We want this meeting to be more educational, so we’re going to talk about the history of the roadless rule and why it’s special because we want to keep it and what the rollbacks would mean for our Mon forest,” she said.

There are far larger tracts of federal land in the western United States which have roadless rules. Here in West Virginia the amount of space is considerably smaller. About 200-thousand acres of the 1-Million acre Monongahela National Forest is under roadless protection.

“Most of this acreage is all of our special places like Spruce Knob, Seneca Creek, Canaan Mountain, Roaring Plains, Cheat Mountain, Tea Creek and the Gauley. The forest service has announced plans to roll back the protections,” she said.

“These roadless areas are some of the last intact wild forests we have” said Daria Jones, Public Lands Committee Chair for the WV Sierra Club. “They protect clean drinking water, provide critical wildlife habitat, and offer unmatched opportunities to hunt, fish, hike, and camp.”

The meeting will include several presenters to talk about the history of the rule and why it is important. It’s slated for Tuesday, April 14th at 7:00 – 8:30 PM in Elkins, WV at the Robert Byrd Center, Conference Room B at Davis & Elkins College.