We strive to protect public lands for habitat conservation, public recreation, biodiversity preservation, and the economic value that they provide.
By Dave Lesher Among the weather headlines at the start of the New Year, we see that 2020 went into the weather record books as the fifth warmest year for the entire Lower 48 states since record-keeping started in 1895. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) made that analysis based on observations from more […]
Friends of Blackwater is excited to celebrate the newest National Natural Landmark (NNL) site- the Bear Rocks and Allegheny Front Preserve! Located in Grant and Tucker Counties, these sites rocks the plateau world of the Allegheny Mountains in northeast West Virginia! Visiting Bear Rocks Preserve today, you’d see flat sedimentary rocks reaching right up to […]
Calling all backcountry enthusiasts and winter lovers! The 16th annual Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival will show on February 11th at 8 PM at your home! By purchasing a ticket, you’ll have access to the film festival for 2 weeks to watch at your leisure, but we hope you’ll join us on the 11th. […]
A lawsuit filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on January 8th seeks to reverse the Trump administration’s elimination of critical safeguards that have protected national forests from unneeded, ill-conceived and destructive logging, road building, and utility right-of-way projects. The U.S. Forest Service – under orders from President Trump to sell more publicly owned […]
Friends of Blackwater has signed onto a letter to President-Elect Biden as his team begins to address the COVID-19 public health crisis and develop an economic recovery plan, requesting the creation of long-term conservation and restoration jobs. The US can overcome this economic downturn while protecting and restoring our unique natural resources, including biodiversity, and […]
Congratulations to Pam Lutz for receiving the Friends of Blackwater’s 2020 Volunteer of the Year award! Pam was a tremendous help this past fall as FOB began the botanical restoration project along the Blackwater Rail Trail. She volunteered on several Wednesday mornings and tagged many of the invasive species that were later cut down and […]
Friends of Blackwater is congratulating West Virginia Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Capito, and Congressperson Carol Miller, for including the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve Designation Act in the year-end legislative package. The New River Gorge will become the 63rd National Park, the first in West Virginia, and the 20th National Preserve in […]
We are very concerned about a Forest Service plan in the works called the Upper Cheat River project. It covers 86,138-acres, nearly 10% of the entire Monongahela National Forest, and is located north of Parsons in Tucker, Barbour, and Preston Counties in the Upper Cheat River watershed. Within this project area are older growth forests, […]
On October 29th, Friends of Blackwater and the Center for Biological Diversity sent comments to Mon Forest Cheat/Potomac district ranger Jon Morgan about the proposed Grassy Ridge project. FOB and the Center are primarily concerned with the proposed project’s impacts to West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel (WVNFS)and their habitat. First, the project’s proposal to clear […]
A new grant from the WVDOT to support the Blackwater River Loop Trail was announced on Monday! These WVDOT Recreational Trails Program funds, totaling $125,000, will fund trail surface improvements, the design and construction of trailheads in Davis City Park, Blackwater Falls State Park and along the portion of the Blackwater River Loop Trail that […]
