Forests in the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge targeted for large-scale logging will be spared after conservation groups and citizens vigorously opposed plans to fell trees across one-fifth of the 16,653-acre refuge to increase habitat for certain wildlife species. The logging would have occurred every 40 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the land, will instead cut a limited number of trees to establish experimental habitat plots of young forests for species such as American woodcock. Conservationists were concerned the logging would harm a variety of other species who prefer intact forest ecosystems. The refuge’s forests, wetlands and high-elevation grasslands harbor some 580 plant species and 288 animal species.
More info: friendsofblackwater.org
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The article above appears in our May/June 2019 issue.
