Friends of Blackwater has been rallying our supporters to help advocate for public lands and endangered species. Over the years, we have been working to protect public rights to take advantage of the opportunities our public lands offer.
To get more details about our advocacy, view the posts below.
Friends of Blackwater staffers Sean Coffers, Emmie Cornell, and Logan Thorne recently spent a couple of days in Washington, D.C. working on water and environmental issues on both a state wide and national level. It was a productive time. Tuesday was spent with our friends at the Water Protection Network at their annual membership meeting. […]
WVU’s interdisciplinary climate change class visited Blackwater Canyon on October 19th. Led by professor Andrea Soccorsi, these students are learning how to tackle the consequences of a changing climate in realistic and practical ways- including learning about the ecological fragility of the Allegheny Highlands. This area is known as “a little bit of Canada”- many […]
Friends of Blackwater has officially submitted comments to the West Virginia Department of Highways, concerning the proposed Corridor H route from Davis to Parsons, WV. We have objected to the route that runs in between Davis and Thomas for a number of reasons: -Virginia Big Eared bats are an endangered bat species have been found […]
On Saturday September 21st, the West Virginia Center on Climate Change, a Friends of Blackwater offshoot, hosted the Climate Change and Public Health conference in Morgantown, WV in partnership with the WVU Law Center for Energy and Sustainable Development and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Public Health Training Center. Over 125 people attended, including students, lawyers, health […]
As of August 10th, our current executive assistant, Kate, will be leaving Friends of Blackwater. We are looking to fill this position quickly in order to make a smooth transition. The job description is as follows: Friends of Blackwater is a small non-profit conservation organization based in Tucker County, West Virginia. Although the organization was […]
Environmental justice and activism takes all sorts of different forms. Images of picketing and protesting and dramatic demonstrations come to mind, but realistically, environmental justice in Tucker County looks a lot more like restoring mine-scarred land and respecting our history, while still learning from past environmental mistakes. Experience Learning, an education center based out of […]
On April 10th, a bipartisan group of Senators led by Senator Manchin introduced a bill to guarantee permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The bill, which they are naming the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act would fund this vital program at a level of $900 million. The Land and Water […]
Six West Virginia conservation groups submitted a letter to Sentor Manchin this week asking the Senator to oppose David Bernhardt’s confirmation as Secretary of the Interior. Manchin is a potential swing vote, with a prominent position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. You can read the full letter here. Friends of Blackwater, the West […]
On March 26th, the Charleston Gazette-Mail ran a letter from Friends of Blackwater’s Director Judy Rodd, about the importance of protecting the Endangered Species Act: “The federal Endangered Species Act protects West Virginia’s “wild and wonderful” creatures. Now, proposed regulations from the Trump administration would delay protection, and make other harmful changes. Sens. Manchin and […]
The United States Forest Service has ruled against a proposal to build a massive industrial pumped storage facility on the edge of the Blackwater Canyon, earning praise from the conservation group Friends of Blackwater. In a letter dated March 4, 2018, Monongahela National Forest Supervisor Shawn Cochran ruled that the proposal by Freedomworks, LLC was […]
On February 26th, the United States House passed a comprehensive public lands bill that included permanent authorization for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The bill also included an official designation of the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area in West Virginia. The Senate had passed the same bill on February 12th. All of West […]
On February 12th, the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive public lands bill, including permanent authorization for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF is a popular program that has funded conservation projects around the country. In our local area, the connector trail from Blackwater Falls State Park to Davis was made possible by […]
