John Manchester, the mayor of Lewisburg, West Virginia, is what a reporter would call "a great interview." I know, because I interviewed him the other day as we walked through the blazing sugar maples and beech tress in a citizen-proposed wilderness area on the Monongahela National Forest.
No great surprise that Mayor Manchester is a great interview, for he has served as mayor of two different towns. But the real reason is that John has worked as a reporter himself, and as public affairs officer for a medical school. No, wait-the real reason is because John has a world-class sense of humor. Between the frosty weather and the nonstop jokes we exchanged, it was hard to take notes!
Lewisburg is a thriving community of some 3,700, located just west of the Greenbrier River, some 75 miles as the crow flies south of the proposed East Fork of Greenbrier wilderness area where we walked. When I inquired why, as mayor, he was so strongly in favor of preserving the wonderfully wild, 9,573-acre area we were visiting, he replied that it was a "no brainer." "It's real simple," he said. "Our municipal water supply is directly dependent on the quality of the Greenbrier River. And the quality of the river is directly dependent on protection of its watershed."
The mayor then added a second point, that protection of not only the East Fork of Greenbrier, but of other proposed wilderness areas in the Greenbrier watershed will also be a tremendous economic asset to Lewisburg, as part of "the historic landscape in which our city is set."
He sums up his strong support for wilderness this way: "We have a thriving tourism and retiree economy, drawing people who fall in love with our history and the larger landscape nearby. Closer to town, the proposed Big Draft and Spice Run wilderness areas will be the first designated wilderness areas in Greenbrier County. My charge as mayor is to do all I can to husband and preserve our community assets-the wider ‘cityscape' that gives deep authenticity to the historic and cultural features of our community that our residents and visitors alike treasure. Visit Lewisburg and you can tour an historic site, wander through our art and antique shops, and get out on the trail in truly wild country. We'd be fools to stand by and see our nearby wilderness heritage cheapened or destroyed!"
What I was hearing from this mayor reflects a growing pattern of local elected officials taking the initiative to speak up for preservation of wilderness in or near their jurisdictions. More than ever before, we are seeing county commissioners and mayors from places as diverse as Custer County, ID and Lewisburg, WV coming to Capitol Hill to personally express their support for new wilderness areas to lawmakers. Indeed, I had last seen John Manchester doing just that in Washington, D.C. in September! This growing support from local elected officials demonstrates the broader-than-ever backing for reasonable wilderness preservation, which these officials see as part of the discharge of their responsibilities to look out for the quality of life for their constituents.
John and his wife, Connie, met when she took a course he taught about owner-built houses. While living in the small community of Renick, WV, John filled a vacancy on the town council and soon found himself sitting in the mayor's chair. When they moved to Lewisburg, he repeated the pattern. [We joked about what ambitions for higher office John may harbor, but they remain his secret.]
"To me," John said as we walked back to the road at the edge of the proposed East Fork of Greenbrier wilderness area, "the fundamental case for preserving wilderness involves a sense of humility-that there are things of much greater importance than how we humans, in our own lifetimes, can use or even use up, the glories of the natural world. Bottom line: we have a moral responsibility to all the generations of the future to see that the wilderness landscape we have enjoyed will remain protected for them to enjoy as well."
- DOUG SCOTT
