Birthplace of Rivers National Monument in the works

Efforts are underway to create a national monument in West Virginia. It would be the first in the state and the first of its kind on the east coast. Mike Costello is the Executive Director of the WV Wilderness Coalition. His organization was instrumental in recent (2009) federal legislation that designated over 37,000 acres of the Monongahela National Forest as Wilderness—affording it special protections. The coalition is now working in combination with many other organizations on a new initiative that would have more than one hundred thousand acres in the Mononghela National Forest designated as a national monument called the Birthplace of Rivers National Monument. “National monuments are special designations that aim to preserve special resources that exist on federal public lands,” Costello explains. “These can be historic resources; they can be cultural resources; they can be scientific, ecologically significant resources and in this particular area we have all of them. This is the epitome of what a national monument should be.” There are several national monuments here in the East United States—most are small, historical sites. Costello says, if designated, this would be the only large-scale wild lands monument on the East Coast. The project plans to include about 123,000 acres in and around the Cranberry Wilderness which includes the headwaters of the Cranberry, Williams, Cherry, Greenbrier, Gauley and Elk rivers...more

West Virginia was the only state to form by seceding from a state of the Confederacy during the Civil War, so they deserve all the wilderness and national monuments the feds can grant.  And good luck harvesting that coal.