By John McFerrin

The spring Board of Directors meeting of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy was, as usual, a mixture of boring, businessy stuff and interesting stuff: reports about what we are doing. Along the way, President Marilyn Shoenfeld led us in a lament about meeting on Zoom. We are a sociable bunch, so we would have liked to meet in person. We will have another opportunity at the July board meeting at Blackwater Falls.

We had a report from the treasurer (not exciting, but he did report that our revenues are over budget for both membership and the fund appeal). We also had reports on the endowment and the special cash fund. He attributes this to our investment in staff. Our revenue is still less than our expenses, but this was planned for in the budget.  

We also cleaned up our roster of officers. For decades, we have had a Vice President for Federal Affairs. In the past, we had a Board member who lived in Washington, D.C. and kept us informed about developments in Washington. In the last few years, we have not had anybody to fill that position, so we will just eliminate it. Since it is in the bylaws, we must wait for the annual meeting to eliminate it. 

In more business stuff, Membership and Operations Director Crys Bauer presented a report on membership, donations, and sales from our online store. We are on track to have about the same number of new members this year as last year, and donations are up substantially.  

We have not been charging shipping on our store sales. We never wanted to make money on the store sales. We always thought it was worth it to have a store since that is one way our organization becomes better known. If we don’t charge for shipping, there is some possibility that we will lose money on some of the items. So, we are going to start charging shipping. It will take a while to weigh each item, determine the shipping, etc., but that is on its way.

At this point, we started talking about things we were doing, so things started to get more interesting. In 2022, Jim Van Gundy, former West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Board member and longtime friend of the Highlands Conservancy, published a book, The Nature and Scenery of the West Virginia Highlands: A Motorist’s Guide. It has chapters on the Highlands’ history, climate, geology, botany, wildlife, and more, followed by 32 highway segments and what’s to be seen, explored, and understood along the way. Several Board members have read it and given it rave reviews. Of course, we are his friends and would always give rave reviews. For a more objective opinion, see its five-star rating on Amazon, although the book is currently unavailable.

The first printing has sold out and he would like to turn it over to the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy to publish a second printing. We would pay for another printing, take over the distribution, etc. Since the last Board meeting, we have investigated the cost of printing, etc., and remain committed to going ahead with the project.

This is where things started to get really interesting. Program Director Olivia Miller made a report on all the things that she had been doing. It was a lot. She and Crys are working to develop our outings program. They currently have five outings planned through November 2024, with more in the works. She also has some tabling at events planned. She has been very active in the Go North campaign for Corridor H. The Blackwater River has been named one of America’s most endangered rivers so she is working on publicity and advocacy around that. 

Our social media presence continues to expand with new followers on Facebook, Instagram, etc. Unlike in the bad old days, when we had something new on the website infrequently, there is something new on Facebook or Instagram almost every day. Those who want to follow us will always have something new to look at.

Olivia also keeps a running list of things we have done or been involved in all year. It is a long list, one that gets longer every month. One of the computer programs we use for communicating with members has a feature that makes advocacy easier, so we are going to get that.

Jackie Burns reported on planning for the Fall Review. The date and place are all set: October 19-20 at Cacapon Resort State Park. The theme is “What Is the Condition of the Highlands?” The program is jam-packed with interesting topics, possibly more than our brains can absorb. They will include the overall condition of the highlands (with Jim Van Gundy, the guy who wrote the book), Corridor H, and old-growth forests.

Hugh Rogers reported on the work of the Highways Committee. The chronic question is whether there will be a serious effort to study the alternative route that we think would be better. Years and years ago, the West Virginia Division of Highways picked a route it liked. The question is always whether it is going to study alternate routes seriously or just go through the motions so it can choose the route it liked all along.

The formal procedure for deciding what to study is to publish a Notice of Intent to Prepare a Revised Environmental Impact Statement. In order to get our preferred route included, we commented on that Notice. At this stage, the West Virginia Division of Highways has to decide what it is going to study.  

The Federal Highway Administration says that lots has changed since the last Environmental Impact Statement and West Virginia has to consider all those changes. The Division of Highways is now doing a draft Environmental Impact Statement. It will come out at the end of the summer, and we will comment on it then.

Susan Rosenblum presented the report of the Rivers Committee. Along with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the Friends of Cheat, it has continued to do citizen stream monitoring, particularly in streams where present construction and any future construction on Corridor H will have an impact.  

One person who came to be trained as a citizen monitor told a story of the present construction of Corridor H. It had accidentally opened up an abandoned mine, which is now leaking acid mine drainage into nearby streams. The Division of Highways did not know the mine was there.

Core drilling is part of the study of possible routes. The part that was on private land has been completed. The part that will be on the Monongahela National Forest is yet to be done; the Committee made comments on plans to do that.

Dave Johnston presented a report on what the Dolly Sods Stewards have been up to. He has been tracking the number of volunteer hours (1,900 last year) contributed to the effort by stewards; 59 people have contributed at least some hours. Dave is planning awards for those who have contributed the most hours. There is a picnic planned for May.  

The program is about to expand with the addition of Backcountry Stewards. Up until now, Stewards had been interacting with visitors only at trailheads. Now we are going to train Stewards to roam about the backcountry, offering advice to visitors and keeping an eye on conditions in the Wilderness Area.  

Rick Webb reported on the activities of the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, highlighting four areas:

• Working to stop the mining on the South Fork of Cherry River. A coal company is using a Forest Service road as a haul road without proper environmental review or protection.
• Working to procure data on the National Forest streams being degraded by sedimentation. This is part of the challenge to the Greenbrier Southeast Project by the Forest Service.
• Supporting efforts to protect the Pinnacle Creek (upper Guyandotte) watershed. This stream provides habitat for the Guyandotte Crayfish.
• Developing and organizing information on Red Spruce ecosystem.

Luanne McGovern reported on the legislative session. Most of the legislative time and energy went to arguing about putting librarians in jail, posting In God We Trust in classrooms, etc. It never got around to any of the issues we wanted to address. Nothing terrible happened, but the problems we would like to address remained unaddressed.

Luanne also reported on the activities of the grant writing committee. The grant to produce and distribute a coloring book featuring highlands creatures is moving along. The coloring book is about 50 percent complete. We got to see a sample of a page that is finished, and the pictures are cute. We were awarded a grant to support the Backcountry Stewards program that was described in Dave Johnston’s report.

We discussed the Climate Change Committee. We had a big success with the booklet on what people can do to prevent climate change. Since then, the Committee has yet to identify a new focus. We are going to try to revive the Committee, including giving it a sharper focus.