October 18-20, 2019
Elk River Inn and Restaurant, Slatyfork, WV
The Schedule
Friday night
7:00 Meet and Greet: we will have light refreshments and the bar will be open. Good time for networking
Saturday
7:00 am Birdwalk led by Jackie Burns. Join Jackie for an early morning look at the sights and sounds of nature, particularly birds.
8:00 am Breakfast
9:00 am Field trip to pipeline led by Rick Webb and his Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI) team. We will meet at the Linwood Library for a short pretrip briefing, then tour pipeline construction activity and impact areas.
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm Restoration of Native Trout with Randy Kesling, Trout Unlimited.
Trout Unlimited has worked with various partners to restore brook trout in area streams.
1:45 pm Local Environmental Issues with Mary Willis. She is co-owner of the Elk River Inn. She and her husband manage their local business and work on local environmental issues.
2:30 pm Break
2:45 pm When, why, where and how of Spruce Restoration with Ben Rhodes, Ecological Restoration Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy. He will present an overview of the past, present and future of spruce restoration work.
3:30 pm Going Solar with Autumn Long, Solar United Neighbors. Autumn will discuss how to go solar on your home as well as the lifetime environmental cost of solar panels.
4:15 pm Woodcock project–Jackie Burns will the start of the research project and management for early successional habitat.
4:45 pm Break
5:00 pm The Clean Air Act and Climate Change Leave their Fingerprints on Forest Health in West Virginia by Dr. Richard Thomas, Chair of the Biology Department, WVU. Forests store carbon and therefore play a critical role in moderating climate change. Through analysis of hundreds of red oak, tulip poplar, red cedar and red spruce trees, his team has documented the complex interactions between warmer growing season temperatures, increases in precipitation, and increases in atmospheric CO2 on the long-term growth and physiology of the trees. He will discuss his research findings.
6:00 pm Dinner
7:30 pm A Legislator Speaks: Environment and Energy by Delegate Evan Hansen,
District 51, West Virginia House of Delegates. Evan is a member of the Energy and the Environment Subcommittees.
Sunday
9:30 am West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Annual Meeting
Immediately following Annual Meeting West Virginia Highlands Conservancy quarterly Board Meeting
Accommodations
For housing information: call Elk River Inn, 304-572-3741. The address is 34037 Seneca Trail, Slatyfork, WV 26291
Rooms with private bath $89 per night single, $99 double.
Rooms with shared bath $63 single, $68 double. Add 12% taxes. Includes breakfast.
Information
For more information call: Marilyn Shoenfeld 304-866-3484 or marilyn.shoenfeld@gmail.com. Marilyn is not handling reservations. You should call the Inn directly. The innkeeper of the Elk River Inn and Restaurant has sent us the menu. It looks good. We have been there before; the food was as good as it looks.