§460vv–6 Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area

Summary

Creates the Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area in the Ouachita National Forest in Oklahoma to protect natural, scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to improve recreation. It covers about 26,445 acres shown on a map titled “Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area—Proposed,” dated March 1988. The Secretary of Agriculture must file that map and a legal description with the House Committees on Interior and on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry soon after October 18, 1988. The map and description act like part of the law and are available for public inspection at the Forest Service chief’s office. The Secretary must run the area under the same laws and rules that apply to national forests and manage it to protect the stated values. Resource use is allowed only if it does not harm those values. Timber sales must not hurt the scenic character. Management that would harm views from the Talimena Drive or the Holson Valley Road is not allowed. Uneven-aged timber management is the normal practice, but the Secretary may use even-aged methods for public safety, to fight fire, insects, or disease, to create scenic views or recreation, or when cuts are hidden behind natural barriers that block the view from Talimena Drive or Holson Valley Road.