Songwriter Jack Rollins died on New Year’s Day 1973 at age 66. The prolific composer wrote more than 500 songs but will always be remembered for two holiday favorites.
Rollins was born in Keyser in Mineral County in 1906. As a youth, he wrote poetry with his mother, who encouraged him to become a songwriter. He left home at 18 and worked in a glass factory, as a railroad baggage handler, and in a carnival. On the side, he started writing lyrics as a freelancer before joining a New York publishing company in 1948. The next year, he co-wrote “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” with Steve Nelson. The song sold more than a million copies.
Then, in 1950, he and Nelson penned “Frosty the Snow Man,” which was a big hit for Gene Autry. He and Nelson also wrote “Smokey the Bear” for the U.S. Forest Service. The character was originally known as Smokey Bear, but the composers added “the” to his name because it fit better musically.
Jack Rollins is buried in Keyser. He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
A federal court today ruled the U.S. Forest Service improperly granted permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross under national forest lands, including the Appalachian Trail.
In her 60-page opinion, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephanie Thacker bashed the agency for failing to protect federal land when it issued approvals to allow the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross the George Washington National Forest, Monongahela National Forest and the Appalachian Trail.
“We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,'” Thacker wrote, invoking Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax.” “A thorough review of the record leads to the necessary conclusion that the Forest Service abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources.”
Concluding remarks from 4th Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker’s opinion.
The opinion finds the Forest Service violated both the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. For example, the judge agreed with environmental groups’ arguments that the Forest Service shirked its responsibilities under NEPA by not doing an analysis of whether the pipeline could be approved with a route that goes outside of the national forest lands. The agency argued that FERC was responsible for that analysis in its environmental assessment, but, as the court notes, “no such analysis is apparent anywhere in the record.”
Thacker said the agency repeatedly expressed serious concerns about the environmental impacts of the multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline project, which crosses West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
But, she continued, those concerns were “suddenly, and mysteriously assuaged in time to meet a private pipeline company’s deadlines.”
“I think what happened here is for years the Forest Service was asking tough questions about this project and requesting additional information and it turned on a dime when the Trump administration came into power,” said Patrick Hunter, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which was one of the groups that filed the original lawsuit in February. “Federal agencies can change their minds, but they have to good reasons for doing it and they didn’t have a good reason to change their mind and turn on a dime like this and I think that came through in this decision-making.”
The court’s opinion also clarifies that the Forest Service does not have the authority to grant the Atlantic Coast Pipeline the approval to cross under the Appalachian Trail. Following that reasoning, the panel of appellate court judges tossed the agency’s approvals granting the project’s right of way for the Appalachian Trail.
Hunter said the ACP’s developer, Dominion Energy, will not have to rethink the project’s route and if that is the case, other federal agency permits and approvals may have to be reexamined.
“The pipeline route that Dominion has chosen cannot be approved as of right now, and so if they want to keep working on this thing, they’re going to have to go back to the drawing board,” he said. “All of the agencies that have to issue approvals for this pipeline — their approvals depend on this one pipeline route. And since that can no longer be built as planned, I think that calls all of those other approvals into question.”
Aaron Ruby, a spokesman for the project, said in a statement that Dominion strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling and the developers intend to immediately appeal the court’s decision to the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
“Under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, for decades, 56 other oil and gas pipelines have operated across the [Appalachian Trail],” Ruby said. “This opinion brings into question whether or not these existing pipelines can remain in place.”
Currently, all construction along the ACP’s route has been stopped following a separate decision from the 4th Circuit, which stayed the pipeline’s revised Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement, a key permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The majority of ants entering the United States are coming not from their native countries, but from other regions, according to a new U.S. Forest Service study released this week, co-authored by a Morgantown entomologist.
Over the past two centuries, more than 400 insects have invaded the U.S. Some of those include ants. And although they are little, ants can cause big ecological problems worldwide including triggering outbreaks of sap-feeding insects because some non-native ant species keep away parasites.
Some non-native ant species displace native ants, which can cause decline in native plant species that depend on those species for pollination. Some, like the red imported fire ant, are highly venomous.
An international team of researchers looked at more than 70 years of data collected by the U.S. and New Zealand. The data tracked when USDA inspectors found ants at air and maritime ports of entry.
Between 1914 and 1984, ants were found more than 1,400 times at U.S. ports. More than three-quarters of those ant species came from shipments outside their native range.
Andrew Liebhold, a research entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station in Morgantown, who was a co-author of the study, said that was surprising. The data showed most of the ants intercepted at U.S. ports are African species, but they weren’t stowing away with goods from Africa.
“What seems to happens is that these species is they initially invade one part of the world and then those parts of the world basically serve as jumping off points for the rest of the world,” he said.
Most U.S. ant invaders, for example, are coming from Latin America.
Leibhold said it’s a bit of mystery as to why ants are coming from outside their native range. One reason might be that certain parts of the world are more connected through trade.
As a result, ants, like most other things, may have gone global, he said.
By having a better understanding of what species are coming into U.S. ports and from where, officials may be able to better prevent invasive ants from entering the country. Port officials, for example, could set up more detailed screening protocols for goods coming from certain ant-prone places or encourage more cleaning of certain imports.
Researchers from the University of Lausanne, University of Paris-Sud, the New Zealand Forest Research Institute and Landcare Research also participated. The study was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Prescribed burning is planned for the Hopkins Knob area of Greenbrier County on Sunday, April 29.
According to a news release issued by the U. S. Forest Service, two helicopters and up to 60 firefighters and support staff will be on hand to assist with the prescribed burn inside the in the Monongahela National Forest.
Burning will occur only if weather conditions are favorable.
More information, including maps and photos, can be found on the webpage here.
Last fall, Danielle Martin, a forest pathologist for the U.S. Forest Service in Morgantown, and her colleagues noticed something different about the oak trees in Seneca State Forest. The trees secreted an amber-colored sap, and bore cankers – which look like canker sores – underneath their bark.
“We saw a vertical crack with perhaps some weeping, a bleeding appearance – like an amber bleeding – and that’s when we’d remove the bark and look for cankers,” Martin said.
Martin worked with Matt Kasson, an assistant professor of forest pathology at West Virginia University, and his graduate students to diagnose those trees with diplodia corticola. Diplodia corticola is an aggressive disease that limits the ability of oak trees to access essential nutrients and water, ultimately killing them. It was first reported in Europe, and has since emerged in Florida, California, Massachusetts and Maine. This is the first time that it’s been found in oak trees in West Virginia.
While the timber industry is aware of the new disease, they’re not concerned just yet. Kasson says West Virginia residents should be concerned because as oak trees weaken, they are more likely to fall and hurt people – especially in recreational areas.
Credit Jesse Wright / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Matt Kasson, an assistant professor of forest pathology at WVU, examines an oak tree at Coopers Rock State Forest in Morgantown.
“Look at that tree! You can see that it’s dead. That tree is completely dead,” Kasson said, pointing at a tree near a playground at Coopers Rock State Forest in Morgantown. “That tree has been in a state of decline for a number of years, and it poses a great risk, especially to the playground area.”
Tree diseases aren’t new to West Virginia. In the early 1900s, chestnut blight wiped out billions of chestnut trees in the United States, including those in Appalachia. Hemlocks and ash trees are also battling illnesses. In fact, Martin says, these tree diseases coupled with mass logging may have helped diplodia get its start in southern West Virginia.
“The majority of the Appalachian forests were cut about 100 years ago, so all of our trees are about the same age,” she said. “So they’re all kind of equally susceptible in a way to these pathogens. If something affects them, it could potentially affect all of them.”
Fortunately, Martin isn’t concerned about diplodia wiping out oak trees on a large scale in the area. She does think the disease will weaken the trees as a whole, making them more vulnerable to stressors like drought or insect infestations or flooding that could serve as the final blow to the tree’s health. Kasson agreed.
“I think us detecting this diplodia canker on oak is only the beginning. I think with all this flooding that we’ve had this past summer, we will see a sharp rise in the amount of predisposition and subsequently in the rise of fungal infections in oaks and in other tree species in that part of the state,” he said.
The two will look into what is causing the outbreak in West Virginia and what could be used to cure it, in hopes that they can find an end to what seems to be the beginning of a new tree disease outbreak.
The Closure Order for the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area was lifted on October 5, 2016 and all trails are now open. A Fire Ban in the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area is still in effect due to prolonged drought and will remain in place until weather conditions improve. Gas powered backpacking/camping stoves are allowed in the wilderness area. The current Fire Ban no longer includes the Red Creek Campground and Dolly Sods Picnic Area.
Updated on 09-29-16 5:55 p.m.
Two out of the five wildfires in the Dolly Sods Wilderness have been completely extinguished, and two more fires have been 100 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service team that is managing the Red Creek Fires. There is a fifth fire that firefighters haven’t yet been able to contain. This fire was discovered Wednesday, September 29. An explosive safety specialist has been called in to inspect the area surrounding the fifth fire to make sure there are no unexploded ordinances nearby. During World War II, the Dolly Sods Wilderness area was used as a training ground for soldiers, and many artillery and mortar shells shot into the area for practice still exist.
The southwestern portions of Dolly Sods in Tucker County are closed until further notice. The rest of the wilderness area is still open for camping and hiking.
The fires are a 4-mile hike from the nearest road. Thirty Forest Service employees are managing the fires, with the assistance of horses that have packed in supplies.
Credit courtesy U.S. Forest Service
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Updated on 09-28-16 4:40 p.m.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, there are now five wildfires burning in the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area. All of the fires are small, less than an acre in size. Three of the five wildfires are 80-100 percent contained. It has been determined that three of the five wildfires were caused by unattended campfires. The cause of the fourth and fifth fire is still under investigation. Fire suppression efforts continue Wednesday and rain is forecasted for the next couple of days, which authorities say should help their efforts to fight the fires.
The Big Stonecoal Trail, Little Stonecoal Trail, Breathed Mountain Trail, Rocky Point Trail and Dunkenbarger Trail all remained closed in Dolly Sods. A fire ban is in place throughout most of the Dolly Sods area.
Updated on 09-26-16 9:30 p.m.
This past weekend was the peak time for tourists to visit Dolly Sods to see the leaves change for fall. But some of these visitors left behind smoldering campfires, and now four wildfires are burning in the area.
The first fire was discovered two weeks ago on September 16th. That fire is still burning, as well as three more that were discovered last Thursday, and this past weekend. Unattended campfires are believed to have caused three of the fires – and the cause of the fourth is still under investigation.
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This year’s weather conditions are partly to blame, says Cliff Hensley with the Monongahela National Forest. “West Virginia normally doesn’t have a lot of forest fires.”
But the last few months have been unusually dry. What’s especially abnormal about this year’s fires is they’re burning through the top layer of soil, catching all the dry debris, and continuing to burn as much as a foot and a half underground.
Fires this deep, Hensley said, haven’t been common here for seventy years. “Back in the ‘40s there was similar fires but nothing since.”
Over thirty U.S. Forest Service employees have been on the scene working to contain the wildfires in the last few weeks. Three of the fires are 80-100 percent contained.
The first and most significant fire is still burning but is under control. Rain fell Monday evening, helping the firefighters with the suppression efforts.
All hiking and camping is temporarily prohibited in the Red Creek area, though the Northern and Eastern Portions of Dolly Sods are still open.
This is a developing story.
Updated 09-26-16 4:44 p.m.
Officials with the U.S. Forest Service say two new wildfires have been identified in the Dolly Sods Wilderness. Four wildfires in the Red Creek area are now under investigation. The fires are all believed to be caused by human activity. The fires remain small in size.
Original story: 09-24
Two wildfires are burning in the Dolly Sods Wilderness area within the Monongahela National Forest. The cause of both fires is under investigation, but it is believed they were caused by human activity.
The fires are small, less than 1 acre in size. Fire activity has been low intensity with minimal fire spread. At this time, Red Creek Fire #2 is 90 percent contained. It will continue to be monitored daily for some time. Fire suppression efforts continue with firefighters focusing on the original fire.
The Red Creek Fire was discovered on Friday, September 16, 2016. A second fire was discovered on September 22, 2016, now called Red Creek Fire #2.
Credit courtesy USDA Forest Service
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The Forest Service has closed trails and the surrounding area due to the potential presence of unexploded ordinance in the wilderness area. The intent is to create a safety zone of at least one-half mile around the fires to prevent injuries should the wildfire cause an undetected ordinance to explode.
For this reason, a Forest Supervisor’s Closure Order (see map) was issued for the southwestern portion of the Dolly Sods Wilderness on September 23, 2016. The closure order applies specifically to an area bounded by the Wilderness boundary on the west, and area 100 feet east of Forest Road 80, an area 100 feet south of Blackbird Knob Trail (TR 511), an area 100 feet west of Red Creek Trail (TR 514) and an area 100 feet north of Laneville Road (CO 45/4).
This includes all cross-country travel and travel on the following trails: Big Stonecoal Trail (TR 513), Little Stonecoal Trail (TR 552), Breathed Mountain Trail (TR 553), Rocky Point Trail (TR 554) and Dunkenbarger Trail (TR 558).
Due to dry conditions, a closure order related to outdoor burning is also in effect. A fire ban is in place for the entire Dolly Sods Wilderness Area, the Red Creek Campground and the Dolly Sods Picnic Area. No campfires or charcoal grills are allowed. Gas-powered grills and backpacking stoves can still be used.
Credit courtesy U.S. Forest Service
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Area damaged by one of the wildfires
Troy Waskey, Cheat-Potomac District Ranger, said, “The timing of these two closures is unfortunate with so many visitors to the Dolly Sods at this time of year. All of the hikers and hunters that firefighters have encountered on the trails have been very understanding.”
He said the closures will be lifted as soon as possible. He emphasized that firefighter and public safety are his top priority.
