Enjoying
Dolly Sods, West Virginia
Safely
Presented by: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District
For more than 200 years, people of the United States have been called upon to defend freedom around the globe. Our constant readiness is no accident. It takes a huge testing, development and training effort here at home. At literally thousands of sites in the U.S., the results of this training and testing left a legacy to our generation; a legacy of freedom but also a legacy of potential danger from the ordnance and explosives that were left behind.
Explosive ordnance has been used by the military since before the American Revolution and these ordnance items can remain dangerous for many, many years. For example, items of ordnance are still found on the battlefields of the Civil War.
But it isn’t just former battlefields that concern us. There are nearly 10,000 former defense sites and many of them are almost sure to contain ordnance and explosives. In fact, the Corps of Engineers is currently working to clean up ordnance and explosives at several hundred sites across the country. One such site is Dolly Sods.
Dolly Sods is located between Canaan Valley and Seneca Rocks within the Monongahela National Forest in Grant, Randolph and Tucker counties of West Virginia.
High upon the Allegheny Plateau, with elevations ranging from 2,600 to 4,100 feet; the area of more than 18,000 acres is well known for its extensive rocky plains, upland bogs, and sweeping vistas.45,000 to 76,000 people visit Dolly Sods annually.
The remoteness, back to nature experience and limited human influences attract adventurous hikers, anglers, hunters and berry pickers.
The area is named for the German pioneer Dahle family, who in 1920 homesteaded a few acres that had already been logged.
Burning these logged areas resulted in a good grass cover for grazing. These open fields were known as sods. When Dahle left the area, only his Americanized name remained on the area known as Dolly Sods.
Many of the lands now referred to as Dolly Sods were acquired by the U.S. Forest Service between 1916 and 1939.
The Department of the Army leased this land and, during 1943 and 1944, military maneuver exercises and artillery and mortar practice were conducted in the area by the U.S. Army’s 13th Corps.
After their training here, the troops were sent to Europe to fight in World War II.
This area is known as the former West Virginia Maneuver Area. During these maneuvers, live and inert 57 mm, 60 mm, 81 mm, 105 mm and 4.2 inch mortars and artillery rounds were fired.
Unexploded ordnance is any military munitions that have been fired downrange and failed to function or that where left behind unfired.
This includes artillery projectiles, mortars or ammunition.
Following the war, the Department of the Army conducted an ordnance clearance on the former West Virginia Maneuver Area prior to returning the land to the U.S. Forest Service in 1950.
Wally Dean, USACE: “I’m the only person in the state that has ever been injured by one of these ordnance pieces that was left out there. In 1951, I was hunting in the Blackbird Knob area, and my hunting buddy said that he, I thought, found a fawn, but when I got over to where he was, it was actually a bomb which we later found out to be an 81 mm mortar shell.”
“I told him I didn’t know what it was so I walked around the hill, the next thing I knew, I was wrapped around a tree.”
In 1990, an ordnance and explosive project was authorized for Dolly Sods by the Department of Defense under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites, otherwise known as FUDS.
These Formerly Used Defense Sites are properties that were previously owned by, leased, possessed or used by the United States government for military activity.
Properties included the program range from privately owned farms to national parks and can be located in industrial areas residential developments, and public areas.
Today, the FUDS program is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Huntington District has project management responsibilities for the Dolly Sods project with technical support provided by the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Forest Service evaluated Dolly Sods for areas most likely to contain ordnance that posed a threat to the public such as trails and campsites.
The project was divided into three areas: the Dolly Sods Wilderness with 10,215 acres, the Dolly Sods North with 6,169.5 acres and the Dolly Sods Scenic Area with 2,268 acres.
Rick Meadows, USACE: “We are very concerned about safety and we’ve taken initiatives to do removal actions covering trails and campsites, to protect all the hikers, hunters, fishermen and any potential user of the Wilderness or Northern area.”
The Dolly Sods Wilderness removal action included searching and clearing 26 miles of trails to 20 feet on each side, and to a one-foot depth. One hundred and twelve campsites were searched and cleared to a four-foot depth.
An additional 30 miles and 66 campsites were cleared in the Dolly Sods North and Dolly Sods Scenic Area.
The Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies in order to effectively facilitate continued project success at Dolly Sods.
UXO is a term used to describe unexploded ordnance.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already performed a clean up of the detectable UXO.
Bill Veith, USACE: “We, the Corps of Engineers have cleared the trails and the campsites to make it safe for visitors, but the safest way is to stay on those trails.”
Due to current technology, terrain and equipment limitations, we cannot guarantee complete removal of all UXO. Therefore, an ordnance risk remains resulting in a potential hazard to the users of the area.
Rick Meadows, USACE: “We’re now continuing to take efforts to make the public involved but there is still a potential for ordnance in this area, and we’re looking for better ways to communicate and get our message out to them, not only to the adults but the children, as well.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs an onsite review at least once every five years to ensure that previous ordnance clearance actions continue to protect human health and the environment as well as to monitor site conditions.
Bill Veith, USACE: “The best way to stay safe in this area is to stay on those trails and on those areas that we cleared. But if you do see something that looks like a piece of ordnance, then stay away from it, report it and we’ll go out there and take care of it.”
In order to ensure a safe visit at Dolly Sods, you should camp in the designated campsites and stay on the designated trails.
Do not create new campsites and trails and be sure to stay on the look out for any possible UXO.
UXO can be found in many shapes and sizes.
Some UXO can look new and shiny…
While others might look old and rusty. UXO at Dolly Sods can range up to 23 inches in length.
If you spot any suspicious material that might be UXO, it is important that you do not touch it, move it or dig near it. Try to stay at least fifty feet away from the UXO.
Identify the area on a map or by distinct terrain features.
You can also construct an arrow on the ground using sticks or rocks pointing to the UXO or tie a bandana or other marker on a tree branch.
Walk away in the direction that you came.
And please call 1-888-283-0303 as soon as possible to report the location of the UXO to the proper authorities. Others that come after you may not see the UXO, so it is extremely important that you make the call.
Bill Veith, USACE: “We don’t want you to pick it up, stay away from it, remember that if you don’t bother it, it won’t bother you.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is committed to cleaning up Formerly Used Defense Sites and to protecting human health and the environment in all the areas where we live and work.
By following these simple rules, your trip to the Dolly Sods area will be a safe one.
We would like to thank the following agencies for their support:
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District
- The USDA Forest Service
- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
- The West Virginia Division of Forestry
- The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service
and - The U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville District.
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