More than 180,000 acres of wild national forest land in West Virginia could soon be opened to logging and new roads. The Trump administration has proposed repealing the Roadless Rule, a federal safeguard in place since 2001 that bans road building and commercial timber cutting in certain undeveloped parts of national forests. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Forest Service should keep these protections in place.

The Monongahela National Forest, one of three West Virginia national forests with roadless areas, draws about 3 million visitors a year. Hikers, hunters, anglers and families of every political stripe head to places like Dolly Sods and Canaan Valley for quiet trails, clear streams and some of the wildest country left in the eastern United States.

This land has already been through a lot. By the early 1900s, nearly all of the Monongahela had been logged bare and burned. Dave Johnston of the Dolly Sods Stewards Program says the forest is still recovering today.

Roadless areas also serve as a buffer around designated wilderness. Olivia Miller, interim executive director of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, explained that cutting timber close to a wilderness edge can harm the soil and streams next to it. "You don't want logging to come right up to the border of a wilderness area," she told Mountain State Spotlight.

The Forest Service itself estimates that about half of formerly roadless areas across the country would eventually see roads built. The agency says repeal alone would not change the Monongahela's current forest plan, but without the rule, decisions about roads and timber in these areas would shift to local managers and plans that can be rewritten.

West Virginia's wild places belong to everyone who hunts, hikes, fishes and lives near them. Sign the petition to tell the USDA and the Forest Service to keep the Roadless Rule and protect these forests before the decision is final.