This past year the Conservancy has been involved in many activities. The Blackwater campaign, mountaintop removal mining control, water quality issues, timbering and other public lands issues, etc. The Blackwater campaign has been largely self funded by earmarked donations generated by the Blackwater committee, but not entirely self funded. Our court suit on mountaintop mining practices has cost a little, but not a lot. We have been generous, perhaps to a fault, in offering The Highlands VOICE readers more and more good food for thought. We have gone from 8 or 12 to 20 VOICE pages, but with a comparable cost increase. And it has taken a little longer than usual for publication of the new edition of the WVHC Hiking Guide, our cash flow mainstay.

All this means that our funds are low. Frankly, until the new hiking guide edition generates revenue, we are cutting back on VOICE and some other costs. And we need money. In planning upcoming holiday giving, please consider a gift to the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. It would help us get over the short term cash flow problems more smoothly. It would help the Conservancy's committees, directors and officers get on with what we do best -- work toward wise use, preservation and conservation of the resources of the West Virginia Highlands.