Forest Service Announces Field Trip

The USDA Forest Service is hosting a public field trip to identify restoration and management opportunities on 100,000 acres in Rockingham County, Virginia and Pendleton County, West Virginia. The project area focuses on lands north of Highway 33.  The field trip will be held on May 25th, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. From the Brandywine Campground on Route 33, the field trip will progress north on West Side Road (Forest Service Road 151) with several stops planned along the way.

Participants can meet either at the North River Ranger District office, 401 Oakwood Drive, Harrisonburg, at 9 a.m. or at the Brandywine Campground at the Fisherman’s Parking Area at 10 a.m.  The Brandywine Campground is located off Route 33 about 4.2 miles west of the WV-VA state line and 2 miles east of the town of Brandywine, WV.

Travel along some of the roads requires a high-clearance vehicle.  Carpool options may be available from the meeting sites. Participants should bring lunch and appropriate footwear and raingear as necessary.

Stops along the field trip route will focus on vegetation management, the West Side timber thinning unit, Camp Run Area sustainable recreation, and prescribed burning among other topics.

District Ranger Elwood Burge said “The North Shenandoah Mountain Restoration and Management Project will improve watershed conditions, wildlife habitats, and recreation uses over the next ten years.” These projects will implement the natural resource goals identified in the 2014 Revised Land and Resource Management Plan for the George Washington National Forest.

This field trip is one of a series of workshops and fieldtrips that will be held over the next two years and follows two public workshops that were held in Harrisonburg and Brandywine last month.

For more information or to RSVP, contact Project Coordinator Karen Overcash, at kovercash@fs.fed.us.