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Sunday, July 29, 2001

By Ben Moyer, Special to the Post-Gazette

List some things named "Monongahela." There's the river, of course, and a town along its banks in Washington County, and a township farther upstream in Greene. But few Western Pennsylvanians, even those of an outdoor bent, would cite the Monongahela National Forest that sprawls over 900,000 acres in east-central West Virginia.

	The Falls of Hill Creek is one of the more scenic spots in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Ben Moyer)

The Monongahela's identity crisis is surprising because the forest is so close, barely two hours from Downtown east on the Turnpike and south on Route 219. It's slightly nearer to the city than the better-known Allegheny National Forest to the north.

"There is an understanding among people who work for the Forest Service that people tend to be more familiar with national forests in their own home state," said Julie Fosbender, director of the U.S. Forest Service Seneca Rocks Discovery Center on the Monongahela. "So, Pennsylvanians naturally think first of the Allegheny. We do get some visitors from the Pittsburgh area, but because we act as a portal for everybody coming from the East Coast, the bulk of our out of state visitors are from Washington D.C. and Baltimore."

The huge federal forest was named Monongahela because most of its mountain rains and melting snows end up in theMon somewhere upstream from Pittsburgh, principally via its Tygart Valley and Cheat River tributaries.

National Forests are managed by the Forest Service branch of U.S. Department of Agriculture according to a concept of "multiple use." Managers attempt to balance the sustainable production of timber with outdoor recreation, wildlife habitat, scenic values and watershed protection. There are 153 national forests covering more than 120 million acres in 40 states.

"There is so much for visitors to do here," Fosbender said. "For the active types there are some really diverse opportunities for fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain-biking, camping, canoeing, cross-country skiing and rock climbing. There are so many different options on the forest that people can tailor the experience to their skill level. For more casual visitors, there are scenic vistas and some outstanding features that can be viewed from the highway or on a short walk."

Fosbender said a good way to get a feel for the forest is to drive the Highlands Scenic Highway (Route 150), which leaves Route 219 just south of Slatyfork, winds over Black Mountain and joins Route 39 at the Cranberry Mountain Visitor Center midway between Richwood and Marlinton. The Center has maps, interpretive exhibits, information and a bookshop that focuses on the region's ecology, folklore and recreation. Hours are daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Ecologically, one of the Monongahela's most important features is the red spruce forest that cloaks the highest peaks and ridges. Because of its high elevation, the region once held some of the most extensive red spruce forests in North America but logging and fire destroyed all but a few remnants. Today, spruce forest is returning to the heights and dominates the view from roads and trails above 4,000 feet. Some of the best examples can be seen at Spruce Knob (4,861 feet above sea level and the highest point in West Virginia), Dolly Sods Wilderness and on Black Mountain along the Highlands Scenic Highway.

"Seneca Rocks is probably the best known landmark in the forest," Fosbender said. "People come to climb it and to just look at it, then they may go on from here to see Canaan Valley, the Blackwater Canyon or the Dolly Sods area."

Seneca Rocks is a toothy monolith of white sandstone that juts 1,000 feet above the North Fork of the Potomac River at the juncture of Route 28 and Route 33 in Pendleton County. From Route 28 and the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center, the massive outcrop appears not unlike the Pittsburgh skyline in outline and extent.

Along Route 39 in Pocahontas County, about 20 miles east of Richwood are the Falls of Hills Creek. There, a walkway leads to observation platforms overlooking three waterfalls. The upper falls drop 25 feet, the middle falls 45 feet, and the lower falls plunge 63 feet into the ravine below.

Dolly Sods is a storied part of the Monongahela marked by abuse and renewal. After the red spruce forests on the high plateau east of Davis in Tucker County were cut, fires burned so hot in the duff and debris that even the soil was destroyed, leaving exposed 50 square miles of jumbled bedrock. The forest that is gradually returning is so constantly lashed by western winds that the trees are stunted, twisted and inclined toward the east. Dolly Sods has an other-worldly quality that some find forbidding, while others revel in the wild character of one of the most altered, yet intriguing, landscapes in all of Appalachia.

More tranquil are the Cranberry Glades just north of Route 39 and the Cranberry Mountain Visitor Center. The Glades are more akin to arctic tundra than Appalachian woodland. As glaciers retreated northward 12,000 years ago, a swath of tundra vegetation was trapped in the high cool mountain valley and survives today as an ecological island, surrounded by southern forests. A raised boardwalk leads visitors along the edge of the Glades and interpretive stations tell the story of a vestige of the Ice Age marooned on the Monongahela.

Congress has officially designated five wilderness areas on the Monongahela. These tracts--Cranberry, Otter Creek, Dolly Sods (parts of Dolly Sods are accessible by car), South Laurel Fork and North Laurel Fork -- are managed with a minimum of human impact, there are no roads, and trails are minimally marked. The Forest Service advises that visitors to wilderness areas have the equipment and skills necessary to enjoy the forest safely.

The Monongahela is becoming known as one of the best places east of the Rocky Mountains for trout fishing. The Cherry, Williams, Blackwater and Cranberry rivers, the Shavers Fork of the Cheat, and the Potomac River headwaters are all stocked with trout. Many have recovering populations of wild fish and most have sections under special regulation where creeling trout is prohibited or restricted.

The fishing on the Monongahela has not always been so good, according to Don Phares, director of special projects for the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Phares has worked with trout and trout streams on the Monongahela for 37 years and has seen the fisheries come full circle.

"The Cranberry River is a good example," Phares said. "I watched the Cranberry die. It and all these streams up here once had native brook trout. When I started working here we stocked, but 20 percent of the fish people caught were wild native fish. By the 1970s that was down to zero and even stocked trout could not live in the streams."

Phares said what hit the high altitude streams of the Monongahela was acid rain and snow.

"The soil up on these mountains has no alkalinity in it," he said. "It can't buffer or neutralize any acid that falls onto it. The early logging and fires reduced the alkalinity even more. We collect and analyze the rainfall and we have documented that a pH of 4 or below is common, particularly in the early spring. As the rainfall became more acidic, the trout populations crashed.

"The Cranberry is a good example because it is a closed watershed. You have to walk or ride a bike or a horse in there, and there is no mining. There has been very little activity of any kind in there for 50 years, so if the acid is not coming from the air then where is it coming from? I believe there is proof here beyond the link between smoking and lung cancer. There aren't too many people who have studied this that don't believe it."

Pittsburghers who want to enjoy the Monongahela's solitude should consider planning a visit soon, Fosbender hinted, before the completion of Corridor H, the limited access highway that will link the mountains with the East Coast.

"Right now I can get in my car and be in D.C. in three hours," she said. "When Corridor H is finished it'll be two. We're already gearing up for the change."