1999 cheat river festival !

Friday Evening, April 30 & Saturday, May 1, 1999; Albright, West Virginia

The 5th Annual Cheat Festival in Albright, West Virginia promises to be better than ever. The downriver race, known as the "Cheat River Massacre-ence," kicks off the Festival weekend at 5:00 PM sharp on Friday, April 30th with an evening downriver race exhilarating for paddlers and landlubbers alike. Expert paddlers will compete head to head through twelve miles of the wildest rapids on the rugged Cheat Canyon. Participants must register between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM Friday at the Festival site and pay a race entry fee of $20. For more information, call race coordinator Rob Voorhees at (304) 599-9513.

Festival gates open at 1:00 PM on Saturday, May 1st, allowing plenty of time to hear the bands, explore the booths, taste the treats, and relax on the banks of the Cheat. The Fest generally winds down around midnight Saturday after the last band calls it an evening. Come prepared for whatever the weatherman offers as the Festival goes on rain or shine!

Find the Festival on Route 26, 10 miles south of I-68 Exit 23 (Bruceton Mills). From Exit 23, just follow Route 26 south until you see signs for the Cheat Fest.

On Saturday afternoon you’ll find plenty of activities for families, including our memorable Kids’ Area and a variety of stage acts. This year’s Kids’ Area will feature fun and educational activities planned by members of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition in conjunction with the Mountain’s Promise program of Americorps. Come watch the puppet show entitled "What is the Color of Water?" or just stop by and paint one of the larger-than-life fish.

Another fun activity for folks of all ages will be "CHEAT FEAT," a game with ten questions all about the Cheat River and the people who protect it. The game will be fun, easy, and educational. All contestants are eligible for prizes. The grand prize is a raft trip for four, donated by Appalachian Wildwater/ USA Raft.

This year’s Festival once again spotlights an exciting variety of musical talent. Performing Saturday afternoon and evening are: The Elktones, Joint Chiefs, Michael and Carrie Kline, Minstrel Paul & Cat, Nature’s Own, Keith and Joan Pitzer, The Short Brothers, The Wildwater Band and The Zucchini Pickers. If you’ve never heard some of these musical acts, you don’t know what you’re missing!

A traditional and ever-popular event is the Cheat Fest Silent Auction, featuring enticing arts and crafts, kayaks, paddles and outdoor gear, as well as a surprising array of goods and services. Throughout the day, folks can view all the items on display at the Silent Auction Booth and write in their bids ... again and again and again, until time is called, the Silent Auction is complete, and the highest bidders walk (or paddle) away with their merchandise. Not only do people get fantastic deals, but all the proceeds go towards the restoration and preservation of the Cheat River.

Friends of the Cheat is looking for volunteers to help out before, during and after the Fest. For more information contact Kerry Manier at the Friends of the Cheat office: (304) 329-3621, email: foc@cheat.org , or visit their website at www.Cheat.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest Watch Coalition

Announcement of Forest Forum

A Monthly Series of Programs About the Forests of West Virginia

Designed to help citizens learn about and appreciate West Virginia’s forests, Forest Forum is an evening program of meetings on a variety of forest topics. With topics ranging from changing public attitudes to the impact of air pollution, Forest Forum will feature speakers from academia, government, and citizen groups.

The goal of the series is to help increase public knowledge about and appreciation of the forests of West Virginia. Presentations will include talks, slides, workshops and other formats. They are aimed at the general public.

Forest Forum meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM, with the first program on Tuesday, May 11. Meetings are in the downstairs meeting room of the Elkins Public Library. Programs are free and open to the public.

Schedule of meetings and programs:

May 11 Changing Public Attitudes To The Forest, Prof. Steve Hollenhorst, West Virginia University School of Forestry

June 8 Planning West Virginia’s State Forests (Details to be announced).

July 13 The Watershed in West Virginia’s Forests, Zach Henderson, Executive Director, Shavers Fork Coalition

August 10 Old Growth, Rick Landenberger, Doctoral Program, West Virginia University School of Forestry

September 14 Threatened and Endangered Species, Craig Stihler, WV Division of Natural Resources, Natural Heritage Program

October 12 Air Pollution Impacts on West Virginia’s Forests, Prof. Jim Kotcon, West Virginia University Department of Plant and Soil Science

Questions? Call Forest Watch Coalition at (304)637 - 4082.

 

 

Yup, He’s from the "Get out the Cut" Industry as One Would Expect

A Parkersburg native is the new head of the Division of Forestry, Governor Underwood announced Wednesday.

Charles R. "Randy" Dye, 47, is an area procurement manager for Georgia-Pacific Corp. in Brookneal, Va. He has worked for the company for 21 years in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina.

Dye will be paid $65,000.

He replaces Bill Maxey, who resigned in October over opposition to the Underwood administration’s support of mountaintop removal strip mining.

 

Who Are America’s Worst?

New Book Has the Answer

(Based on a article by Mokhiber & Weissman – web page www.sfbg.com/focus/ )

If you want to know who the very worst despoilers are a good place to look would be in A Pocket Guide to Environmental Bad Guys (and a Few Ideas on How to Stop Them). The authors are James Ridgeway and Jeffrey St. Clair, and it was published in soft cover by Thunder’s Mouth Press, February 1998.

The authors believe that it is a waste of time and energy to attack institutions and laws, but to go after the individuals and put the word out to the public about the kinds of anti-environmental things they are doing. A few of these bad guys you may not have heard of and that is what the bad guys want – to be shrouded in anonymity. Would you believe that one of those bad guys listed is a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, John Bryson? He is the CEO of Edison International and is presently busy expanding the use of coal-fired plants in Asia.

Then we can return to our old friend, Charles Hurwitz, who makes the list in fine style. Government money paid a huge ransom for saving the Headwaters old growth redwood stand, a sum estimated to be about five times greater than the value of the trees as lumber. Some carefully positioned political contributions to the Democratic National Committee by Hurwitz helped out here, and as is usually the case, the payoff phenomenally exceeded the initial "investment." This in the face of some of Hurwitz’s companies owing the government over $2 billion in failed savings and loans. (I am reminded of a bankrupt coal operator a few yeas back who was still paying himself enough salary to tour the pleasure palaces of Europe living in a grand style. These folks operate in a different plane than the rest of us.)

Another corporate anti-hero is Ira Rennert, who is completing the largest residence in the US on Long Island (What? Bigger than Bill Gates $50 million residence in Redmond Washington?). Rennert controls the Magnesium Corporation of America, considered to be "the largest source of air pollution in America" by the authors.

Here are only three – it must be fascinating reading if nothing else to uncover these wreckers of our environment from under the rocks where they hide ("rocks" in this case being mostly corporate controlled media).

The winning way to saving the environment is not through supporting the large environmental groups that sit in Washington, but with smaller groups that have maintained their edge. Examples cited by the authors of successful crusaders for the environment are David Brower and Lois Gibbs who are able to rally grassroots support.

 

 

Something Smells Foul Here!

Is Rocky in Crites Back Pocket?

From Fanny Seiler’s column of March 23

Allegheny Wood Products has hired Webber McGinn to handle its public relations abroad, according to Lane Bailey, a Webber McGinn executive who does international work for the company. Webber McGinn is a public relations firm located in suburban Washington. Bailey formerly was chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and, in that position, helped broker a deal to exchange some of the land owned by Allegheny Wood Products in the Blackwater Canyon with the U.S. Forest Service. Those negotiations broke down.