By Jordan Howes, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
Across the West Virginia Highlands, communities are confronting a new generation of interconnected threats, from data centers and transmission lines to fossil fuel development and widespread environmental deregulation. These challenges can feel overwhelming, but meeting this moment will require all of us. There is a place for everyone in the movement to protect the lands, waters and communities we love.
That idea is at the heart of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy’s 2026 Fall Review, “Finding Our Place in the Work Ahead,” taking place Oct. 23–24 at Canaan Valley Resort State Park. This year’s gathering will offer opportunities to get outside, learn more about the Conservancy’s work, build advocacy skills and connect with others working to protect West Virginia’s Highlands.
The weekend will begin Friday afternoon with a hike in Dolly Sods led by the Dolly Sods Wilderness Stewards, followed by hotel check-in and registration and an informal welcome gathering at Big Timber Brewing in Davis. Saturday will offer several opportunities to explore the Highlands, including a fish identification activity, a guided tour of the Abe’s Run wetland and a strenuous four-mile hike through Canaan Valley State Park.
The Fall Review will also provide an inside look at the work being done by the Conservancy. Extractive Industries Committee Chair Andrew Young will discuss the committee’s work and the impacts of mining, Luanne McGovern will provide an update on the fight over data center development in the Highlands and across West Virginia, and Dave Johnston will share the work of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Stewards. Following the Wilderness Stewards presentation, participants will also have the opportunity to watch a documentary about Helen McGinnis, whose leadership helped secure lasting protections for Dolly Sods and inspired generations of conservationists.
At the center of this year’s program is a message that is particularly relevant to the challenges facing the Highlands today: There is no single way to create meaningful change, and there is a place for everyone in the work.
Our keynote speaker, Eileen Flanagan, will help participants explore exactly what that can look like. Flanagan is a Quaker author, speaker, activist and nationally recognized nonviolence trainer known for helping people make their activism more effective, strategic and spiritually grounded. She has spent decades working to build effective movements and helping people remain grounded through difficult and prolonged struggles.
Flanagan has played key leadership roles in three climate campaigns, including an effort that pressured a $4 billion-a-year bank to pause its financing of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. Her experience brings a valuable perspective to the work being done here in West Virginia, where communities continue to organize around the impacts of extractive industries while confronting new forms of development and environmental threats.
Her latest book, Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth Is Saving Us from Our Illusion of Separation, explores how the ecological crisis can reveal our deep connections to one another and to the living world. Rather than viewing environmental challenges as isolated problems, Flanagan examines how recognizing those connections can help inspire collective action.
That message will carry into Flanagan’s Saturday afternoon advocacy training, “The Four Roles of Social Change.” The interactive workshop will help participants better understand how social change happens and recognize the different roles people can play within a movement. Some people work within institutions, some organize communities, some provide direct support, and others challenge unjust systems publicly. While tensions can arise when people favor different strategies, those differences can also make a movement stronger.
The training will give participants an opportunity to identify their own strengths and place in the work, understand why advocates may choose different tactics, and see how different roles can complement one another. As new coalitions form throughout the Highlands and across West Virginia, the goal is to remind us that no single person or strategy can do everything.
Flanagan’s keynote address later that evening will build on those ideas. During her 7:15–8:15 p.m. keynote Saturday night, she will draw on her experiences as an author, campaign leader and movement trainer to offer a hopeful and grounded perspective on how people can build connections, sustain movements and act together in defense of the places and communities they love.
The Saturday evening program will also bring our WVHC community together for a reception, silent auction, fundraising dinner and celebration of the Conservancy’s work. Funds raised through the event will help the Conservancy continue protecting West Virginia’s mountains, waters and communities while also supporting scholarships so students and community members with limited funds can participate in the Fall Review.
After more than six decades of protecting the places that make West Virginia wild and wonderful, the Conservancy knows that lasting conservation depends on people, people willing to learn, organize, speak up, volunteer, build relationships and keep showing up. The Fall Review is an opportunity to meet some of those people, learn more about the challenges facing the Highlands and consider how each of us can contribute.
Whether you have been part of the Conservancy’s work for decades or are just beginning to find your place in the movement, we invite you to join us at Canaan Valley Resort State Park on Oct. 23–24.
General admission is free, and registration is now open.
You can also view the full Fall Review schedule or learn more about Fall Review sponsorships and donations. Questions about the event can be directed to Christa Clasgens at christa.clasgens@wvhighlands.org.