WEST VIRGINIA HIGHLANDS CONSERVANCY

Today, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy announces a campaign for a more than three thousand acre area of northern West Virginia, known as Blackwater Canyon, to become: BLACKWATER CANYON NATIONAL PARK.

Most West Virginians are familiar with Blackwater Falls State Park. What many West Virginians didn’t learn until just last year is that only the immediate lodge, cabin and falls area are protected as public property. The other Canyon views, the trails, the endangered species and the history the area is famous for is on privately owned land. This precious and spectacular resource is irreplaceable. No area east of the Mississippi River compares in beauty and grandeur. We must not let it be plundered, or traded away. Any private gain realized in commercial development of Blackwater Canyon would surely be a thousand-fold public loss.

But this rich resource is subject to, and at this very minute is, being spoiled by massive timbering operations and by apparent commercial condominium development plans on the Canyon rim, immediately adjacent to the existing State Park. The threat to the Canyon is not imagined. The devastation is occurring as we speak.

If we allow a few wealthy individuals to rob the public of this finest of tourist attractions, then we are allowing greed to win out over common public good for now and for the future.

One obstacle to protection has been that many people thought Blackwater Canyon was already public property. Indeed, only last week the Director of State Parks was quoted as saying that he had thought that the area nearest the state park was national forest land. He regrets that it was not made part of the state park long ago.

The Blackwater Canyon National Park proposal includes an associated Blackwater Natural Sciences and Ecotourism Enterprise Training Center. This center would provide for instruction in and promotion of the outdoor recreation and ecotourism industry, using the Blackwater Canyon National Park, Blackwater Falls State Park, the adjacent Dolly Sods Wilderness and Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge areas as principal training and demonstration areas. This Center would be a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly facility, emphasizing energy conservation and low-impact technologies. The educational focus of the facility would be to assist local residents in learning to build businesses and create jobs based on sustainability using the surrounding natural areas. In support of this endeavor, we have developed a significant citizens network to provide financial, logistical and political support. We are not daunted by the immensity of this project. In its more than 30 year history, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy has played a successful lead role in designation of the Dolly Sods, Laurel Fork, Otter Creek , and the Cranberry Wilderness Areas and Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge. Our purpose has always been the preservation of unique and special natural resources. Designation of the Blackwater Canyon National Park and the related ecotourism enterprise training center would bring West Virginia center stage in its already fastest growing industry – that of showing off our natural outdoor areas. We cannot be matched anywhere else. Because there is no other place like Blackwater Canyon, at least not within two thousand miles. Let’s make the best of it!