Winter 2020 Newsletter
Wilderness Additions and Where Things Stand for VWC
Little River Watershed from Reddish Knob by Brad Striebig
The Virginia Wilderness Additions Act, designating 5,600 acres of the George Washington National Forest as Wilderness, remains arrested in the House of Representatives, and our window to move this bill to the President’s desk is slowly closing. The Virginia Wilderness Committee (VWC) and our allies in Washington, D.C., are making one last push to bring this bill to fruition. Efforts are underway to try to persuade House leadership to take up the Wilderness Additions Bill. We are also exploring options to have the bill attached to another piece of legislation during the lame duck session. The House is currently scheduled to be in session from November 16th to December 18th. This bill may not have the national gravitas of Covid; however, VWC has been victorious in moving bills, including both The Priest and Three Ridges Bills, during past lame duck sessions. We hope that the Wilderness Additions Bill will be as successful.
Several of our other projects have also slowed down in efforts to reduce the spread of the Corona virus. The Rural Historic District that we hoped to pursue in Rockbridge and Amherst Counties has been placed on hold due to the necessity of going door to door to talk to homeowners within the proposed district. However, we continue to lay the groundwork for this campaign by consulting county GIS databases to determine the ownership patterns of the parcels that we have identified as necessary to achieve success. Using this information, we will be able to hit the ground running sometime in 2021.
The same can be said for the Great Dismal Swamp proposed Heritage Area. The pandemic has also affected efforts to establish a new Heritage Area in the Great Dismal Swamp. VWC continues to be a part of the collaborative of stakeholders that is working to protect the cultural heritage and wildlands of the swamp for future generations.
We are more hopeful for progress on the issue of mineral rights underlying the Little River watershed on Shenandoah Mountain. Little River lies in the heart of the largest concentration of mostly unfragmented forest land on our Eastern National Forests and is an excellent candidate for Wilderness designation. Over the past two years, we have been working to determine ownership of the parcels, and VWC recently submitted a proposal to the owners of one of the parcels. We are anxiously awaiting their reply. As noted in the article “Fund the Mineral Rights Purchase,” we hope to successfully conclude a process that was started over ten years ago. VWC is persistent in our continued efforts, and we persevere even in the face of rewards that take time to achieve.
Finally, VWC continues to work to create a new Virginia Mountain Treasures for the Jefferson National Forest. The last Mountain Treasures for the Jefferson was completed in May 1999. VWC has updated the GIS data for this project and has begun to draft descriptions for each Mountain Treasure. This project will follow the same format as the old version and the George Washington National Forest Mountain Treasures publication VWC completed in 2007. As we move forward, we plan to develop online Story Maps for each area included in the Jefferson Mountain Treasures. This new publication is intended to raise awareness of the still unprotected wildlands of the Jefferson National Forest
Several of our other projects have also slowed down in efforts to reduce the spread of the Corona virus. The Rural Historic District that we hoped to pursue in Rockbridge and Amherst Counties has been placed on hold due to the necessity of going door to door to talk to homeowners within the proposed district. However, we continue to lay the groundwork for this campaign by consulting county GIS databases to determine the ownership patterns of the parcels that we have identified as necessary to achieve success. Using this information, we will be able to hit the ground running sometime in 2021.
The same can be said for the Great Dismal Swamp proposed Heritage Area. The pandemic has also affected efforts to establish a new Heritage Area in the Great Dismal Swamp. VWC continues to be a part of the collaborative of stakeholders that is working to protect the cultural heritage and wildlands of the swamp for future generations.
We are more hopeful for progress on the issue of mineral rights underlying the Little River watershed on Shenandoah Mountain. Little River lies in the heart of the largest concentration of mostly unfragmented forest land on our Eastern National Forests and is an excellent candidate for Wilderness designation. Over the past two years, we have been working to determine ownership of the parcels, and VWC recently submitted a proposal to the owners of one of the parcels. We are anxiously awaiting their reply. As noted in the article “Fund the Mineral Rights Purchase,” we hope to successfully conclude a process that was started over ten years ago. VWC is persistent in our continued efforts, and we persevere even in the face of rewards that take time to achieve.
Finally, VWC continues to work to create a new Virginia Mountain Treasures for the Jefferson National Forest. The last Mountain Treasures for the Jefferson was completed in May 1999. VWC has updated the GIS data for this project and has begun to draft descriptions for each Mountain Treasure. This project will follow the same format as the old version and the George Washington National Forest Mountain Treasures publication VWC completed in 2007. As we move forward, we plan to develop online Story Maps for each area included in the Jefferson Mountain Treasures. This new publication is intended to raise awareness of the still unprotected wildlands of the Jefferson National Forest
Fund the Mineral Rights Purchase: Help Designate Little River Wilderness
Proposed Little River Wilderness by Jeannie Holden
Over three decades ago, the Virginia Wilderness Committee (VWC) first proposed designating the 28,000-acre Little River Roadless Area in Augusta County as Wilderness because of its size, remoteness, and outstanding natural character. Today, we have a smaller 12,600-acre Little River Wilderness proposal with the remaining 15,400 acres of the roadless area slated for protection as part of the Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area. By reducing the Wilderness boundaries, we were able to gain essential support from the mountain bike community and other forest interest groups, including the George Washington National Forest (GWNF) Stakeholder Collaborative. At last we are close to making our goal to designate Little River Wilderness a reality. Unfortunately, a 3,000-acre portion of the Little River proposal is underlain by privately-owned mineral rights, a potential obstacle for Wilderness designation. VWC has an opportunity to purchase these mineral rights, and we need your help.
Our Little River proposal will support the strongest protection for the core of the Little River Roadless Area and its endemic species, like the Cow Knob Salamander and Shenandoah Mountain Salamander, its habitat for black bear and 250 species of birds, its crystal-clear brook trout streams, and its outstanding opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation. The best vantage point from which to see the Little River proposal is Reddish Knob which, at 4,397 feet, is the second highest point in the GWNF. From the parking lot on top, you can look east into the unspoiled Little River watershed and surrounding ridges: Buck Mountain, Big Ridge, Grooms Ridge, Middle Mountain, and Timber Ridge, all of which are all part of our current Little River Wilderness proposal.
Reddish Knob achieved national attention in 1999, when President Bill Clinton chose it as the site to announce his nationwide Roadless Area Conservation Rule that would prohibit development and fragmentation of Inventoried Roadless Areas in our national forests. Several VWC members were present to witness Clinton’s monumental announcement with Little River as a glorious backdrop behind the speaker’s podium. Though the Roadless Rule offers some level of protection for Little River, VWC is committed to pushing forward for Wilderness protection for the central 12,600-acre core of the Little River Roadless Area.
A positive recommendation from the Forest Service is very helpful to any successful Wilderness designation. The 2014 Revised Land & Resources Management Plan for the GWNF recommends our proposed 90,000-acre Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area, but with a pared-down 9,500-acre Little River Wilderness Study Area (WSA), 3,000 acres less than we proposed. This 3,000 acres is underlain by privately held mineral rights that were retained by the original owner of the land when it was deeded to the Forest Service. In other words, the Forest Service owns the surface, but someone else owns the mineral rights beneath the surface. The owner of those rights is assured reasonable access by law if they should decide to extract minerals in the future, leaving this special natural area vulnerable to fracking for natural gas or other extraction. Though the Forest Service did not feel comfortable recommending the 3,000 acres with private mineral rights for Wilderness, they indicated they would reconsider their recommendation if we are able to acquire the rights or have them donated to the Federal government.
The private mineral rights are comprised of three separate tracts near Hearthstone Lake. After doing title searches, we contacted owners of two of these tracts. The owners have declined the opportunity to donate the mineral rights to the Forest Service but would entertain an offer to purchase the rights. Our goal is to acquire the mineral rights at fair market value and get them into the hands of the Forest Service, thereby removing a major obstacle to the Forest Service recommending Wilderness designation of the entire 12,600 acres. For VWC, this is a task worth undertaking.
This is where we need your help! We need to raise $6000 to purchase the mineral rights from these private owners. By purchasing them, we will prevent any sort of mineral extraction from this pristine area and pave the way for Wilderness designation of the entire 12,600-acre Little River Wilderness. Your donations will move the process one more step forward in permanently protecting Little River.
Our Little River proposal will support the strongest protection for the core of the Little River Roadless Area and its endemic species, like the Cow Knob Salamander and Shenandoah Mountain Salamander, its habitat for black bear and 250 species of birds, its crystal-clear brook trout streams, and its outstanding opportunities for solitude and primitive recreation. The best vantage point from which to see the Little River proposal is Reddish Knob which, at 4,397 feet, is the second highest point in the GWNF. From the parking lot on top, you can look east into the unspoiled Little River watershed and surrounding ridges: Buck Mountain, Big Ridge, Grooms Ridge, Middle Mountain, and Timber Ridge, all of which are all part of our current Little River Wilderness proposal.
Reddish Knob achieved national attention in 1999, when President Bill Clinton chose it as the site to announce his nationwide Roadless Area Conservation Rule that would prohibit development and fragmentation of Inventoried Roadless Areas in our national forests. Several VWC members were present to witness Clinton’s monumental announcement with Little River as a glorious backdrop behind the speaker’s podium. Though the Roadless Rule offers some level of protection for Little River, VWC is committed to pushing forward for Wilderness protection for the central 12,600-acre core of the Little River Roadless Area.
A positive recommendation from the Forest Service is very helpful to any successful Wilderness designation. The 2014 Revised Land & Resources Management Plan for the GWNF recommends our proposed 90,000-acre Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area, but with a pared-down 9,500-acre Little River Wilderness Study Area (WSA), 3,000 acres less than we proposed. This 3,000 acres is underlain by privately held mineral rights that were retained by the original owner of the land when it was deeded to the Forest Service. In other words, the Forest Service owns the surface, but someone else owns the mineral rights beneath the surface. The owner of those rights is assured reasonable access by law if they should decide to extract minerals in the future, leaving this special natural area vulnerable to fracking for natural gas or other extraction. Though the Forest Service did not feel comfortable recommending the 3,000 acres with private mineral rights for Wilderness, they indicated they would reconsider their recommendation if we are able to acquire the rights or have them donated to the Federal government.
The private mineral rights are comprised of three separate tracts near Hearthstone Lake. After doing title searches, we contacted owners of two of these tracts. The owners have declined the opportunity to donate the mineral rights to the Forest Service but would entertain an offer to purchase the rights. Our goal is to acquire the mineral rights at fair market value and get them into the hands of the Forest Service, thereby removing a major obstacle to the Forest Service recommending Wilderness designation of the entire 12,600 acres. For VWC, this is a task worth undertaking.
This is where we need your help! We need to raise $6000 to purchase the mineral rights from these private owners. By purchasing them, we will prevent any sort of mineral extraction from this pristine area and pave the way for Wilderness designation of the entire 12,600-acre Little River Wilderness. Your donations will move the process one more step forward in permanently protecting Little River.
Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area: Well Positioned to Move Forward
By Lynn Cameron, Co-chair of Friends of Shenandoah Mountain
The Wild East Women of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, by Marit Gay
It has been 16 years since VWC, The Wilderness Society, Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, and International Mountain Biking Association came to an agreement on a proposal to permanently protect the Shenandoah Mountain area, one of the most unfragmented tracts of National Forest land in the Eastern United States. The proposal consists of a 90,000-acre National Scenic Area that includes an expansion to Ramseys Draft Wilderness and three new Wilderness areas: Little River, Skidmore Fork, and Lynn Hollow. Friends of Shenandoah Mountain was formed as a coalition to build public support for the proposal.
The Friends group has spent the past 16 years educating the public about our proposal. We have asked businesses for endorsements, made presentations to organizations, met with neighboring landowners, and exhibited at fairs and festivals. We have experienced great success on all these fronts, and we are now working with three local governments from whom we need resolutions of support: the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham and Highland Counties. We had met with City Council members and County Supervisors, but Covid-19 struck just before we could schedule votes. We are ready to move forward as soon as conditions are safe enough to resume meetings with individuals, groups, and local government officials. Once we have these remaining resolutions of support in place, we will be well-positioned to move forward with legislation.
As some activities continue to be on hold due to Covid, Friends and our partner organizations have stepped up our stewardship efforts in the proposed Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area (SMNSA). The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) extended its area of responsibility to the North River District of the George Washington National Forest (GWNF), and now a growing number of PATC volunteers are signing up to maintain trails in the proposed SMNSA, some coming from as far away as Richmond and Northern Virginia. On Halloween, a PATC crew teamed up with Volunteer Maintainer Charlie Huppuch to work on the Confederate Breastworks Interpretive Trail, which is located on the southern end of the SMNSA. The group cleaned signs, installed new water bars to divert rain off the trail, cleaned limbs out of the trenches, reset fence posts, and dug out sidehill on sections of trail that were slumping down the slope.
Other groups are lending a hand, too. On Oct. 17, Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Wild East Women program led a work trip in Ramseys Draft Wilderness to cut back vegetation on an overgrown trail.
These stewardship efforts keep trails in good shape for the public to enjoy and augment our efforts to gain permanent protection. In addition to disproving the myth that trails cannot be maintained in Wilderness, these stewardship efforts will make SMNSA trails passable and presentable for visitation by media, Congressional staff, and most importantly, the public as we move forward with legislation.
Trail maintenance is a safe and rewarding activity, even during Covid. If you live close enough to help with trail maintenance in the SMNSA, please contact Lynn Cameron at [email protected].
The Friends group has spent the past 16 years educating the public about our proposal. We have asked businesses for endorsements, made presentations to organizations, met with neighboring landowners, and exhibited at fairs and festivals. We have experienced great success on all these fronts, and we are now working with three local governments from whom we need resolutions of support: the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham and Highland Counties. We had met with City Council members and County Supervisors, but Covid-19 struck just before we could schedule votes. We are ready to move forward as soon as conditions are safe enough to resume meetings with individuals, groups, and local government officials. Once we have these remaining resolutions of support in place, we will be well-positioned to move forward with legislation.
As some activities continue to be on hold due to Covid, Friends and our partner organizations have stepped up our stewardship efforts in the proposed Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area (SMNSA). The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) extended its area of responsibility to the North River District of the George Washington National Forest (GWNF), and now a growing number of PATC volunteers are signing up to maintain trails in the proposed SMNSA, some coming from as far away as Richmond and Northern Virginia. On Halloween, a PATC crew teamed up with Volunteer Maintainer Charlie Huppuch to work on the Confederate Breastworks Interpretive Trail, which is located on the southern end of the SMNSA. The group cleaned signs, installed new water bars to divert rain off the trail, cleaned limbs out of the trenches, reset fence posts, and dug out sidehill on sections of trail that were slumping down the slope.
Other groups are lending a hand, too. On Oct. 17, Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Wild East Women program led a work trip in Ramseys Draft Wilderness to cut back vegetation on an overgrown trail.
These stewardship efforts keep trails in good shape for the public to enjoy and augment our efforts to gain permanent protection. In addition to disproving the myth that trails cannot be maintained in Wilderness, these stewardship efforts will make SMNSA trails passable and presentable for visitation by media, Congressional staff, and most importantly, the public as we move forward with legislation.
Trail maintenance is a safe and rewarding activity, even during Covid. If you live close enough to help with trail maintenance in the SMNSA, please contact Lynn Cameron at [email protected].
VWC Welcomes New Board Member: Eric Giebelstein
This past August, instead of meeting beneath the trees on the Dickerman farm, the Virginia Wilderness Committee (VWC) Board and staff, like many other organizations, gathered via Zoom. In addition to discussing how we can best continue to protect and celebrate public land in Virginia, we welcomed a new member to the VWC board, Eric Giebelstein
Eric fell in love with nature growing up in the farmlands, woods, and waters of Iowa. Following his love of nature, he became interested in conservation and pursued a degree in Animal Ecology at Iowa State University. After graduating in 2006, Eric worked for the Illinois Natural History Survey in a fisheries management lab. Longing for topography, biodiversity, and adventure, he moved to Southern Appalachia in 2013 and began working for Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS). There, he fell in love with the idea of protected public lands and federally designated Wilderness and found a passion for public lands stewardship. He spent several seasons as a Wilderness ranger and trail crew leader, before moving permanently to Roanoke, Virginia, in 2017 in a program management role for SAWS.
In Roanoke, as a Regional Director for SAWS, Eric leads a team of field crews, Wilderness rangers and specialists, volunteers, and partners with the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests, the Monongahela National Forest, the Daniel Boone National Forest and the Ozark National Forest to help improve capacity for Wilderness stewardship, increase relevancy of Wilderness through education, and help the US Forest Service measure and preserve wilderness character
Eric brings an extensive knowledge of Wilderness history, Wilderness law and policy, and public lands stewardship to the Virginia Wilderness Committee. He hopes to engage in land protection efforts, education, and stewardship at VWC. In his free time, Eric enjoys running, hiking, biking, canoeing and exploring new wild places. He also loves cooking, homebrewing, and reading. Welcome to VWC, Eric!
Eric fell in love with nature growing up in the farmlands, woods, and waters of Iowa. Following his love of nature, he became interested in conservation and pursued a degree in Animal Ecology at Iowa State University. After graduating in 2006, Eric worked for the Illinois Natural History Survey in a fisheries management lab. Longing for topography, biodiversity, and adventure, he moved to Southern Appalachia in 2013 and began working for Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS). There, he fell in love with the idea of protected public lands and federally designated Wilderness and found a passion for public lands stewardship. He spent several seasons as a Wilderness ranger and trail crew leader, before moving permanently to Roanoke, Virginia, in 2017 in a program management role for SAWS.
In Roanoke, as a Regional Director for SAWS, Eric leads a team of field crews, Wilderness rangers and specialists, volunteers, and partners with the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests, the Monongahela National Forest, the Daniel Boone National Forest and the Ozark National Forest to help improve capacity for Wilderness stewardship, increase relevancy of Wilderness through education, and help the US Forest Service measure and preserve wilderness character
Eric brings an extensive knowledge of Wilderness history, Wilderness law and policy, and public lands stewardship to the Virginia Wilderness Committee. He hopes to engage in land protection efforts, education, and stewardship at VWC. In his free time, Eric enjoys running, hiking, biking, canoeing and exploring new wild places. He also loves cooking, homebrewing, and reading. Welcome to VWC, Eric!
Protecting and Caring for Wilderness
By Eric Giebelstein, VWC Board Member
Wilderness advocacy and Wilderness stewardship are important components of the protection of public lands. Two sides of the same coin—protect and care. They support each other, and when done well and in concert, they can be a powerful tool to properly care for the Wilderness resource, build community support, increase the understanding and relevance of Wilderness and public lands, and create strong relationships and partnerships that build trust between federal land management agencies, advocates, stewards, community members, and historically excluded communities
The most recognizable and appreciated form of Wilderness stewardship is trail maintenance. It is the work that compels visitors to enjoy the area, keeps people on the trail, and creates an inviting experience for first-time visitors. However, Wilderness is special and requires a broader approach for proper care. In essence, the goal of Wilderness stewardship is to keep a place wild—preserve Wilderness character, in the language of the Wilderness Act. It is important to approach the work with humility and a light hand, understanding that Wilderness is not just a recreation resource, but also intrinsically important as a natural and undeveloped resource that is encouraged to thrive with minimal human intervention (the term “untrammeled” in the Wilderness Act). It is also important to understand that all of those qualities--recreation, natural, undeveloped, untrammeled, and other features of value—have equal importance. Learn more about Wilderness character here. These different qualities bring the stewardship and advocacy communities together to care for the resource—encouraging the land managers to make good stewardship decisions and working with them to implement those decisions.
Wilderness stewardship is hard work. It requires the use of the most minimum tool necessary to care for the area. Often, that means the area is accessed on foot or on horseback, and all the work is done with traditional hand tools. Motorized equipment and mechanical transport are only used when they are the minimum tool necessary. This makes the work daunting and difficult, but very achievable with a vibrant stewardship community. When the stewardship community is present, they support the local communities by making these areas healthier, safer, and more accessible to the public. Coupled with good visitor education, this can lead to increased use with minimal increased impact, and additionally increase tourism and tourism dollars to the area.
Education can also grow relevance for Wilderness and connection to public lands. It is an important aspect of stewardship inside and outside of the Wilderness. When people connect Wilderness and other public lands with their benefits of improved air quality, good water quality, and climate resilience, the more relevant they become to those communities. Twenty percent of the freshwater in the US originates on national forests, and these forests capture and filter water for 180 million people and 68,000 communities. This is just one example of how public lands are relevant to everyone and how public lands play a vital role in environmental justice efforts. The stewardship community can play an important role in educating the public about the benefits of public lands and bringing the Wilderness experience and benefits to people so that they can advocate for increased protection of land.
Finally, the stewardship community plays an important role as a place-based caretaker and can be a vital bridge between stakeholders and public land managers—hearing the concerns of the stakeholders, coming to the agencies with those concerns in a spirit of partnership and shared stewardship, developing plans to address those concerns, and helping to do the work. When a vibrant stewardship community exists in an area, they can work with stakeholders to come to sensible management decisions and help them implement those decisions, thereby building trust among all parties.
Local stewardship organizations exist all over Virginia. If you’d like to get involved, here is a noncomprehensive list of stewardship and education organizations that do great work on the ground in Wilderness in the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests: Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, Appalachian Conservation Corps, Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club, Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club, Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS), Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, Outdoor Club at Virginia Tech, Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers, Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club, Blue Ridge Discovery Center. You can also find more information on organizations across the country at the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA).
The most recognizable and appreciated form of Wilderness stewardship is trail maintenance. It is the work that compels visitors to enjoy the area, keeps people on the trail, and creates an inviting experience for first-time visitors. However, Wilderness is special and requires a broader approach for proper care. In essence, the goal of Wilderness stewardship is to keep a place wild—preserve Wilderness character, in the language of the Wilderness Act. It is important to approach the work with humility and a light hand, understanding that Wilderness is not just a recreation resource, but also intrinsically important as a natural and undeveloped resource that is encouraged to thrive with minimal human intervention (the term “untrammeled” in the Wilderness Act). It is also important to understand that all of those qualities--recreation, natural, undeveloped, untrammeled, and other features of value—have equal importance. Learn more about Wilderness character here. These different qualities bring the stewardship and advocacy communities together to care for the resource—encouraging the land managers to make good stewardship decisions and working with them to implement those decisions.
Wilderness stewardship is hard work. It requires the use of the most minimum tool necessary to care for the area. Often, that means the area is accessed on foot or on horseback, and all the work is done with traditional hand tools. Motorized equipment and mechanical transport are only used when they are the minimum tool necessary. This makes the work daunting and difficult, but very achievable with a vibrant stewardship community. When the stewardship community is present, they support the local communities by making these areas healthier, safer, and more accessible to the public. Coupled with good visitor education, this can lead to increased use with minimal increased impact, and additionally increase tourism and tourism dollars to the area.
Education can also grow relevance for Wilderness and connection to public lands. It is an important aspect of stewardship inside and outside of the Wilderness. When people connect Wilderness and other public lands with their benefits of improved air quality, good water quality, and climate resilience, the more relevant they become to those communities. Twenty percent of the freshwater in the US originates on national forests, and these forests capture and filter water for 180 million people and 68,000 communities. This is just one example of how public lands are relevant to everyone and how public lands play a vital role in environmental justice efforts. The stewardship community can play an important role in educating the public about the benefits of public lands and bringing the Wilderness experience and benefits to people so that they can advocate for increased protection of land.
Finally, the stewardship community plays an important role as a place-based caretaker and can be a vital bridge between stakeholders and public land managers—hearing the concerns of the stakeholders, coming to the agencies with those concerns in a spirit of partnership and shared stewardship, developing plans to address those concerns, and helping to do the work. When a vibrant stewardship community exists in an area, they can work with stakeholders to come to sensible management decisions and help them implement those decisions, thereby building trust among all parties.
Local stewardship organizations exist all over Virginia. If you’d like to get involved, here is a noncomprehensive list of stewardship and education organizations that do great work on the ground in Wilderness in the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests: Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, Appalachian Conservation Corps, Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club, Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club, Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS), Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, Outdoor Club at Virginia Tech, Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers, Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club, Blue Ridge Discovery Center. You can also find more information on organizations across the country at the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA).