Canaan Wildlife Refuge Drops Plan for Commercial Logging

By Rick Steelhammer A plan to commercially log more than 1,600 acres of the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge to achieve plant and wildlife habitat improvement goals has been dropped. The…

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Mapping Mountaintop Coal Mining’s Yearly Spread in Appalachia

By Robin A. Smith DURHAM, N.C. — The coal industry may have declined in the last decade because of the rise of cheap natural gas, but a coal mining method…

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West Virginia Environmental Council Developing 2019 Legislative Priorities

By Frank Young At its annual fall meeting, the West Virginia Environmental Council (WVEC) Board of Directors outlined its first draft of legislative priorities for the 2019 regular session of…

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Making the Grid Resilient: How Do We Get There?

By John McFerrin The new buzzword in energy policy is “resiliency.”  The idea is that we need to make sure that our electrical grid is reliable, even when…

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End of an Era on the Monongahela National Forest

By Kent Karriker On January 3, 2019, the era of Forest Supervisor Clyde Thompson on the Monongahela National Forest will come to a close.  Clyde is retiring after more than…

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With Thanks to Bill McNeel, a Director for the Decades (LITERALLY)

By Cindy Rank As noted in the Board Highlights article in the November 2018 Highlands Voice, Bill McNeel’s recent departure from the Board ends a service that began “approximately forever…

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Book News

Why Birds Matter; Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem Services, edited by Cagan H. Sekercioglu, Daniel G. Wenny & Christopher J. Whelan, (University of Chicago Press, 2016) Reviewed by Cynthia D….

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Native Candy Darter Added to federal Endangered Species List

By Rick Steelhammer The candy darter, a colorful 3-inch fish known to exist in only five relatively healthy populations scattered through West Virginia’s Gauley, Greenbrier and lower New rivers, has…

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Pump Storage Project Proposed on Backbone Mountain

By Kent Karriker Recently a company called FreedomWorks, LLC applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a preliminary permit to study the feasibility of constructing a pump storage…

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Forest Service Projects We Are Watching

November proved to be another month of increased of activity. Mother Nature also provided the first snow of the winter for much of the highlands. There was also a…

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