The Forest Service is considering major changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law that ensures that the American people get to have a say about how public lands are managed. They are proposing to cut the public out of project planning. This means we’ll have no chance to speak up to protect our favorite trails, vistas or picnic areas from logging, road building, and even pipelines. 

“Under the new rule, the Forest Service will have nearly complete discretion to approve commercial logging projects, build new roads in areas that are important for nonmotorized recreation and wildlife, close roads that are important for public access, and even approve pipeline or utility rights of way, all without science-based review and public accountability,” says Sam Evans, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Make sure the Forest Service knows it's your right to weigh in by submitting a comment at OurForestsOurVoice.org. 
​The deadline for comments is Monday, August 26.

Created by our friends at the Southern Environmental Law Center

This email is being sent on behalf of North River District Ranger, Mary Yonce. 
 
Dear Interested Forest Users,
 
The North River Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests is seeking comments on the Draft Environmental Assessment for the North Shenandoah Mountain Restoration and Management Project (NSM Project). The project proposes restoration actions on about 9,243 acres of the approximately 128,000-acre planning area located in Rockingham County, Virginia and Pendleton County, West Virginia.
 
This project has been designed to move the existing conditions within the North River Ranger District towards desired conditions describe in the 2014 Revised Forest Plan for the George Washington National Forest (Forest Plan). The Draft EA documents the site-specific analysis for implementing the proposed action, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).
​
Information on the proposed action and associated analysis documents can be viewed online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=50342. These documents also are available for review at the district office in Harrisonburg, VA. Printed copies of the Draft EA are available upon request.
 
We welcome your involvement and encourage your review of and comments on this analysis. Specific comments on how to improve the proposal, what you prefer in other alternatives, or important things you think we missed in the alternatives, are very helpful. We can better respond to your comments if you are as specific as possible and if you cite the location(s) in the document of the section to which you are directing your comments. If you reference other documents in your comments, please attach complete copies, or links to them. If complete copies are not available, please provide the cover page and applicable pages from them.
 
Substantive comments provide factual information, professional opinion, or informed judgment that is relevant to the action being proposed. Substantive comments are specific, comparative, or solution oriented. A substantive comment provides the reasons why and goes beyond just expressing an opinion. While all comments will be considered, substantive comments related to the alternatives the most useful.
 
A public meeting about the project is scheduled for August 22, 2019, from 1 pm to 3 pm. at the Bridgewater Town Hall located at: 201 Green St, Bridgewater, VA 22812. During that time, the interdisciplinary team will provide overview information and answer questions about the NSM Project. Official comments will only be accepted in writing per 36 CFR §218.2.
 
Comments may be submitted through the project comment page located here:
 
https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public//CommentInput?Project=50342. 
Electronic comments may be uploaded as Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx), portable document files (.pdf), rich text format (.rtf), text (.txt), or hypertext markup language (.html) files. Comments may also be mailed to Mary Yonce, North River District Ranger, 401 Oakwood Drive, Harrisonburg, VA  22802, or hand­ delivered to the above address on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Please reference North Shenandoah Mountain Restoration and Management Project in the subject line.
 
Comments must be submitted by 30 days from date of the legal notice published in the Harrisonburg Daily News Record. This notice is expected to be published on Thursday, August 15, 2019. Only those who submit timely and specific comments during this comment period will be eligible to object. In order to file an objection, each individual or representative from each organization submitting comments must either sign the comments or verify identity upon request.
 
Please contact Kevin Kyle, Zone Silviculturist, at (540) 984-4101 if you have questions concerning this project. Thank you for your continued interest in the management of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

From our friends at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), who represented the Virginia Wilderness Committee in several lawsuits against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline:

​Fish and Wildlife Service permit did not protect endangered species
July 26, 2019

We’ve long argued against the necessity of the poorly-routed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which slices through environmentally sensitive and sacred areas on its way from West Virginia, through Virginia, and into North Carolina. Today’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to throw out an important pipeline permit because it failed to protect threatened and endangered species in the pipeline’s path is further evidence that the project has not been well-planned or properly analyzed.

“In its rush to help this pipeline company, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to protect species on the brink of extinction—its most important duty,” says Attorney Patrick Hunter. “This pipeline would blast through some of the last populations of these rare animals.”

Construction on the natural gas pipeline has been stopped since December 2018 when multiple permits were called into question or overturned, including those from the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Forest Service, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Those permits are still outstanding.

“Dominion’s permitting problems are entirely self-inflicted—it chose a risky and unreasonable route and didn’t let the Fish and Wildlife Service do its job,” Hunter continues. “Dominion keeps trying to bend the law to its objectives by exerting political pressure on federal agencies instead of following the law like everyone else is required to do.” 
SELC is representing Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, and the Virginia Wilderness Committee in the case. 

Among the many problems for this pipeline is a federal court decision that the Forest Service erred in allowing the pipeline to carve through national forests and was not authorized to allow the project to cross the treasured Appalachian Trail.

Now, the project is several years behind, and more than $2 billion over its original $6 billion budget. If constructed, ratepayers will be expected to pay for the pipeline while the energy companies collect a 15 percent profit. For now, there is no clear path forward for Dominion to construct the pipeline on its current route.

Compelling evidence shows that the ACP is unnecessary for anything other than Dominion and Duke Energy profits.
​
For more information on this unnecessary pipeline and its devastating impacts: Check out StopTheACP.org for more.
​https://www.southernenvironment.org/news-and-press/news-feed/federal-court-strikes-down-atlantic-coast-pipeline-permit

At this past Saturday's Annual Meeting and 50th Anniversary Celebration, held at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Charlottesville, the VWC board voted in the two slated board members.  We welcome Bark Koelher and Tim Mahoney to the VWC board and look forward to all that they will bring to the organization.

Bart Koehler has been VWC's Special Advisor for about a decade and has been helping us for several decades, but now joins the board as a member.  Bart is one of the most respected wilderness leaders in the United States.  He worked 19 years with The Wilderness Society and from 1999-2011, was Director and then Senior Wilderness Campaign Director of TWS’s Wilderness Support Center in Durango, CO. After being the coordinator of the American Wilderness Project for several years, Bart has been trying to learn how to retire while being on the boards of directors of a number of wilderness conservation groups across the country.

During the course of his four-decade career, he has helped many bedrock grassroots groups, including the Virginia Wilderness Committee, secure permanent protections for numerous areas encompassing over 10 million acres of public land...from Wyoming to Alaska, from Nevada to New Hampshire, and beyond.   Bart helped with successful passage of wilderness legislation for Three Ridges and The Priest in 2000 and Virginia Ridge and Valley Act in 2009.

Although he lives in Florida, Bart’s ties with Virginia Wilderness Committee go back to the 1970s when Bart learned the ropes of wilderness advocacy from our own Ernie Dickerman.  After Ernie’s death, Bart helped VWC team up with mountain bike leaders to develop the Shenandoah Mountain Proposal, and he continues to advise us.  In his spare time Bart is also a singer-songwriter. One special song by Bart is "The Ernie Song", which he wrote as a tribute to our own Ernie Dickerman. 

Tim had a 40 year career in conservation and public lands, working for Sierra Club, The
Wilderness Society and the Pew Charitable Trusts and as a private consultant, representing
groups such as the League of Conservation Voters, Campaign for American Wilderness, Alaska
Native corporations, and land conservancies in the Northwest and Southern California. In all,
he worked on wilderness legislation for lands in 40 states, including the Alaska National Interest
Lands Conservation Act, the 1984 Virginia Wilderness Act and the Omnibus Public Land
Management Act of 2009. The nature of this work involved coordinating with leaders in state
and local campaigns, direct contacts with members of Congress, the Administration and staff, determination of strategy for campaigns and direct negotiation.

Tim first learned from and worked with Ernie Dickerman in the 1970’s when he worked for The Wilderness Society. In 1991, he and his wife Sharon Newsome purchased a log home on Little North Mountain in Shenandoah County with a sweeping view of the Valley, Massanutten Mountain and the Blue Ridge. They moved full time to the Valley following retirement in 2015 where they live with their little dog Max and Tim’s two Kubotas. Tim is active in the local Take A Hike group and a member of Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.

Virginia Wilderness Committee's
50th Anniversary Celebration and Annual Meeting Agenda
August 3, 2019
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm 
Ivy Creek Natural Area Education Building
1780 Earlysville Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901
 
 
3:20            Welcome 

3:30            Presentation of the 1st Annual Virginia Wilderness 
                   Committee “Wilderness Hero Award” by David Carr
                 
4:00            Special guest speaker, Dr. Rupert Cutler, will share 
                   experiences stemming from his involvement in the  
                   protection of Wilderness areas across the United States 
                   as assistant executive director of The Wilderness Society
                   and as the assistant secretary for Natural Resources and
                   Environment of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 
4:30            Questions and answers
                   Brief Campaign updates
                   Election of Officers

The Forest Service is proposing to eliminate public participation and science-based analysis for nearly every decision affecting national forests, from timber sales to road construction to pipeline rights of way. If the proposal moves forward, the public won’t receive notice or a chance to object to specific projects in the future.

The Forest Service is required by law to take public comments on this proposal, but if we don’t speak up now, it could be our last chance. ​

Public participation is essential for good decisions affecting public lands. When the Forest Service considers allowing logging, road-building, mining, or fracking on our national forests, it must balance those uses with impacts to wildlife, clean water, backcountry areas, recreation on rivers and trails. That balancing act is impossible without listening to the people who would be affected by its decisions.

Our friends at the Southern Environmental Law Center have developed a digital resource at OurForestsOurVoice.org  that allows members of the public to easily generate and submit comments on the docket, at Regulation.gov, opposing the Forest Service’s proposed NEPA rule rewrite.  

Make your voice be heard by visiting OurForestsOurVoice.org by August 12. 

​The Virginia Wilderness Committee (VWC) is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding. In celebration of its achievements, VWC will be hosting an event on Saturday, August 3, at the Ivy Creek Natural Area to share with its members and other guests the milestones and challenges of the last 50 years, while looking forward to future opportunity.
 
Special guest speaker, Dr. Rupert Cutler, will share experiences stemming from his involvement in the protection of Wilderness areas across the United States as assistant executive director of The Wilderness Society and as the assistant secretary for Natural Resources and Environment of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 
In the wake of the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and in anticipation of decisions being made about Eastern public lands, the Wilderness Society organized a series of local Virginia meetings to encourage grass-roots participation in the Wilderness movement. In Richmond on May 24-25, 1969 the Virginia Wilderness Committee was formally established. 
 
From that time, VWC has been a driving force behind public land protection in Virginia. VWC has been behind the identification and legislative pushes of all 215,000 acres of designated Wilderness areas in Virginia and the three National Scenic Areas. VWC continues this tradition of activism today with ongoing efforts to establish new Wilderness Areas at Rich Hole and Rough Mountain, Beech Lick Knob, Shenandoah Mountain, and other areas.
 
The event will be held on Saturday, August 3, from 3-5 pm at the Ivy Creek Education Building, located at 1780 Earlysville Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901.

Claire Mitzel, Staunton News Leader 
Published 6:30 a.m. ET June 27, 2019
​
The supervisors also approved a resolution in support of a proposal to designate George Washington National Forest land on Shenandoah Mountain a National Scenic Area.

The proposal would offer the 90,000 acres across Augusta, Rockingham and Highland counties permanent protection from industrial development and fracking, Lynn Cameron told the supervisors Monday during their staff briefing.

Cameron is co-chair of Friends of Shenandoah Mountain, a group working to preserve the wilderness and promote active management. She said she has spent more than a decade working on the proposal.

Surrounded by close to 15 supporters, she said on Wednesday that the approval was a "big step forward."

"I'm just thrilled the county has taken a position on this," Cameron said.
The designation requires federal legislation from Congress, but Cameron said every bit of support helps.

"(Legislators) would not want to introduce legislation without (localities') support," she said.
She said Augusta County is the first county to support the proposal. Friends of Shenandoah Mountain is working to get support from Rockingham and Highland counties, too.

She said the National Scenic Area designation has other benefits, too: clean water, increased tourism to the region, flood protection and outdoor recreation.

There would be four embedded wilderness areas:

• Skidmore Fork
• Little River
• Lynn Hollow
• Bald Ridge Addition to Ramseys Draft Wilderness

The existing roads on Shenandoah Mountain would remain open, and activities currently allowed would remain, like hunting, fishing and hiking. 

Cameron said that 400 businesses and organizations throughout the region, state, nation and world have endorsed the proposal. George Washington National Forest's management plan also recommends the proposal, she said.

Pastures Magisterial District Supervisor Pam Carter said on Monday during the staff briefing that she was impressed with the cross-section of businesses and organizations who supported the resolution.

There are currently seven National Scenic Areas in the U.S., with three in Virginia, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
​
"This fits with all the other good things we have going on," Cameron said of Augusta County.

Maintaining wildlife movements and migrations is one of the most important wildlife conservation strategies of the 21st Century.  Wildlife move both daily and seasonally to survive. However, the habitats animals rely on continue to be fragmented by housing, roads, fences, energy facilities, and other man-made barriers.  Today the need for wildlife's ability to move may be greater than ever.  An expanding U.S. population is bringing more people and development into conflict with wildlife and their historic habitats.  And climate change is fundamentally altering landscapes, forcing many animals to relocate.  Yet the United States has no laws on the book to support wildlife movements or maintain wildlife habitat corridors. 
 
The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act (S.1499, H.R.2795), introduced by Representatives Beyer (VA!) and Buchanan, and Senator Udall, would create a national program for maintaining wildlife migrations, movements, and wildlife corridors to ensure that wildlife will face fewer struggles to reach food, water, shelter, and breeding sites.
 
The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2019 is a momentous step forward for 21st century wildlife management.  It will help so many species—from black bears, elk and mule deer to turtles and monarch butterflies—adapt to the rapid environmental changes resulting from human pressures on the environment and climate change.
 
Take action to help wildlife move in a changing world: send a message to your members of Congress, urging them to co-sponsor and pass the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2019.
 
 
Virginia Congressional Delegation—Contact Information 

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D) 
https://www.kaine.senate.gov
Abingdon Office
121 Russell Road, Suite 2 Abingdon, VA 24210 Phone: (276) 525-4790 Fax: (276) 525-4792 
Danville Office
308 Craghead Street, Suite 102A Danville, VA 24541
Phone: (434) 792-0976
Fax: (434) 792-0978 
Manassas Office
9408 Grant Avenue, Suite 202 Manassas, VA 20110
Phone: (703) 361-3192
Fax: (703) 361-3198 
Richmond Office
919 East Main Street, Suite 970 Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: (804) 771-2221
Fax: (804) 771-8313 
Roanoke Office
611 S. Jefferson Street, Suite 5B Roanoke, VA 24011
Phone: (540) 682-5693
Fax: (540) 682-5697 
Virginia Beach Office
222 Central Park Avenue, Suite 120 Virginia Beach, VA 23462
Phone: (757) 518-1674
Fax: (757) 518-1679 
Washington, DC Office
231 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4024
Fax: (202) 228-6363 
 
U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D) 
https://www.warner.senate.gov
Abingdon Office
180 West Main Street, Room 235 Abingdon, VA 24210
Phone: 276-628-8158 
Norfolk Office
101 W. Main Street, Suite 7771 Norfolk, VA 23510
Phone: 757-441-3079 
Richmond Office
919 E. Main Street, Suite 630 Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: 804-775-2314 
Roanoke Office
110 Kirk Avenue, SW Roanoke, VA 24011 Phone: 540-857-2676 
Vienna Office
8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Suite 200 Vienna, Virginia 22182
Phone: 703-442-0670 
Washington, DC Office
703 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Toll Free: 1-877-676-2759
(VA residents only)
Phone: 202-224-2023 
 
District 1: Rep. Rob Wittman (R) 
https://wittman.house.gov
Hanover Office
6501 Mechanicsville Turnpike, # 102 Mechanicsville, VA 23111
Phone: (804) 730-6595
Fax: (804) 730-6597 
Stafford Office
95 Dunn Drive, # 201 Stafford, Virginia 22556 Phone: (540) 659-2734 Fax: (540) 659-2737 
Tappahannock Office
508 Church Lane
P.O. Box 3106 Tappahannock, VA 22560 Phone: (804) 443-0668 Fax: (804) 443-0671 
Washington, DC Office
2055 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4261
Fax: (202) 225-4382 
 
District 2: Rep. Elaine Luria (D) 
https://luria.house.gov
Eastern Shore Office
25020 Shore Parkway, Suite 1B Onley, VA 23418
Phone: (757) 364-7631 
Virginia Beach Office
283 Constitution Drive
One Columbus Center, Suite 900 Virginia Beach, VA 23462 Phone: (757) 364-7650
Fax: (757) 687-8298 
Washington, DC Office 534 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4215 
 
District 3: Rep. Bobby Scott (D) 
https://bobbyscott.house.gov
District Office
2600 Washington Ave., # 1010 Newport News, VA 23607 Phone: (757) 380-1000
Fax: (757) 928-6694 
Washington, D.C. Office
1201 Longworth House Office Bldg Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-8351
Fax: (202) 225-8354 
 
District 4: Rep. Donald McEachin 
https://mceachin.house.gov
Central Virginia Office
110 North Robinson St, # 403 Richmond, VA 23220
Phone: 804-486-1840
Fax: 804-269-4139 
Hampton Roads Office
131 N. Saratoga St, Suite B Suffolk, VA 23434
Phone: 757-942-6050 
Washington, DC Office
314 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-6365
Fax: 202-226-1170 
 
District 5: Rep. Denver Riggleman (R) 
https://riggleman.house.gov
Charlottesville Office
686 Berkmar Circle Charlottesville, VA 22901 Phone: (434) 973-9631 
Danville Office
308 Craghead St, Suite 102-D Danville, VA 24541
Phone: (434) 791-2596 
Washington, DC Office 1022 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4711 
 
District 6: Rep. Ben Cline (R) 
https://cline.house.gov
Harrisonburg Office
70 N Mason St, Suite 110 Harrisonburg, VA 22802 Phone: (540) 432-2391 Fax: (540) 432-6593 
Lynchburg Office
916 Main St, Suite 300 Lynchburg, VA 24504 Phone: (434) 845-8306 Fax: (434) 845-8245 
Roanoke Office
10 Franklin Rd SE, Suite 510 Roanoke, VA 24011
Phone: (540) 857-2672
Fax: (540) 857-2675 
Staunton Office
117 S Lewis St, Suite 215 Staunton, VA 24401 Phone: (540) 885-3861 Fax: (540) 885-3930 
Washington Office
1009 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5431
Fax: (202) 225-9681 
 
District 7: Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) 
https://spanberger.house.gov
Glen Allen Office
4201 Dominion Blvd, # 110 Glen Allen, VA 23060 Phone: (804) 401-4110 
Spotsylvania Office
9104 Courthouse Rd
Room 249
Spotsylvania, VA 22553 Phone: Coming soon.
Call (202) 225-2815 for now 
Washington, DC Office 1239 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2815 

District 8: Rep. Don Beyer (D) 
https://beyer.house.gov
District Office
1901 N. Moore St., # 1108 Arlington, VA 22209
P: (703) 658-5403
F: (703) 658-5408 
Washington, DC Office 1119 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 P: (202) 225-4376 
F: (202) 225-0017 
 
District 9: Rep. Morgan Griffith (R) 
https://morgangriffith.house.gov
Abingdon District Office 323 West Main Street Abingdon, VA 24210
T (276) 525-1405 
F (276) 525-1444 
Christiansburg District Office 17 West Main Street Christiansburg, VA 24073
T (540) 381-5671 
F (540) 381-5675 
Big Stone Gap Office Federal Courthouse
Big Stone Gap, VA 24219 T (276) 525-1405
By Appointment Only 
Washington, DC Office 2202 Rayburn HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 T (202) 225-3861 
F (202) 225-0076 
 
District 10: Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D) 
https://wexton.house.gov
Sterling Office
21351 Gentry Drive, # 140 Sterling, VA 20166 Phone: (703) 234-3800 
Washington, DC Office 1217 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-5136 Fax: 202-225-0437 
 
District 11: Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) 
https://connolly.house.gov
Annandale Office
4115 Annandale Road, Ste. 103 Annandale, VA 22003
Phone: (703) 256-3071
Fax: (703) 354-1284 
Prince William Office 2241-D Tacketts Mill Drive Woodbridge, VA 22192 Phone: (571) 408-4407 Fax: (571) 408-4708 
Washington, DC Office 2238 Rayburn HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-1492 

​Virginia’s shale barrens are a distinctive feature of the geology and ecology of the state’s western highlands. The rich plant life found in this rocky terrain is one reason the Central Appalachian region qualifies as a biodiversity hot spot.

Many of the shale barrens in Virginia are located in the George Washington and Jefferson national forests. The largest of these is the 3,000-acre Rough Mountain shale barren, mostly in Bath County, near the Cowpasture River. As we have seen in the case of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, even special resources like unique shale barrens on public lands are at risk for development if not protected. Fortunately, the large Rough Mountain shale barren has been protected as part of the Rough Mountain Wilderness since it was designated in 1988 and so is considered permanently off-limits to development.

In October of 2017, U.S. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine introduced the Virginia Wilderness Additions Act. The bill was referred to the Senate floor as part of other legislation, but did not make it to a final vote. This January, the Virginia Wilderness Additions Act of 2019 (S. 247) was reintroduced in the Senate by Senators Kaine and Mark Warner. The legislation would expand Rough Mountain Wilderness and the nearby Rich Hole Wilderness by a combined 5,600 acres.
 
Like the Cowpasture River area, Rich Hole Wilderness is also in the George Washington National Forest, mostly in Rockbridge County. If the bill becomes law, these additions would create a nearly contiguous block of wilderness totaling more than 20,000 acres in the Lower Cowpasture River region, reinforcing protection of the region’s shale barrens.

Both bills—the one introduced in 2017 and the one introduced earlier this year—have had the support of
a diverse coalition of stakeholders. This year’s bill (S. 247) has been referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. No companion legislation has yet been introduced in the House of Representatives.

The casual hiker or naturalist may walk past a shale barren thinking he or she has seen just another rocky patch along the trail. But shale barrens deserve a closer look in order to appreciate their many features and the fragile life they support.

Shale barrens are usually found on steep, southern-exposed mountain slopes in western Virginia and eastern West Virginia (as well as in the western Maryland and western Pennsylvania) at elevations from 1,000 to 2,600 feet, often in tracts of several dozen acres. They are relatively dry, and their rocky surfaces soak up the heat of the summer sun. Their generally sparse vegetational cover nonetheless varies from one barren to the next and within a barren. Some shale barrens present a crumbly, rocky surface covered with little more than Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia rangiferina); others resemble a wispy prairie of Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Eastern Needlegrass (Piptochaetium avenaceum), and Poverty Oatgrass (Danthonia spicata); still others have sparse and stunted tree cover usually of Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana), Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra), Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra), and Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), sometimes above a carpet of Reindeer Lichen.

These isolated islands of habitat host many rare species of plants as well as butterflies. At least 15 species of wildflowers are endemic to Central Appalachian shale barrens, including Shale Barren Rockcress (Boechera serotina), White-haired Leatherflower (Clematis albicoma), Shale-barren Ragwort (Packera antennariifolia), Kates Mountain Clover (Trifolium virginicum), Shale Barren Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum allenii), Shale Barren Evening-primrose (Oenothera argillicola), and Shale-barren Pussytoes (Antennaria virginica).

Rare animals hosted by shale barrens include butterflies such as the Appalachian Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus centaureae wyandot), the Olympia Marble (Euchloe olympia), and the Columbine Duskywing (Erynnis lucilius), and moths such as the Sweet Underwing (Catocala dulciola) and the Pine Barrens Underwing (Catocala herodias gerhardi). In a seeming case of the downtrodden doing what it can to help the oppressed, the globally critically imperiled Appalachian Grizzled Skipper butterfly pollinates the federally endangered Shale Barren Rock Cress. According to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the main threat to these plant and animal communities is from introduced invasive weeds, though some shale barrens near roads are also threatened by quarrying. More positively, the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) is abundant on shale barrens.

Citizens who appreciate shale barrens and the biodiversity they support should welcome the designation of additions to the existing Wilderness areas as an effective public policy tool to protect these ecosystems.

The creation of a federal Wilderness affords the highest level of protection for public land under federal law.
Just to the northeast of the areas covered by S. 247 are several other shale barrens, including Ratcliff Hill, Big Cedar, and Reubens Draft. While these areas are protected to an extent by designation as special biological areas, they do not have Wilderness status. These unique places are all close to the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and opponents cite the pipeline project and its associated construction and operation as having the potential to negatively impact these fragile and incredibly diverse mountain ecosystems.

Society members who support bills such as S. 247 could send a message to Virginia Senators thanking them for their support of the bill.
​--Tom Engle is a member of the board of the Virginia Wilderness Committee and lives in Augusta County, near Middlebrook. He was in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1986 to 2017.

Find the entire publication here: https://vnps.org/download/vnps/vnps_newsletters/Sempervirens%20Spring%202019.pdf