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New Deal Festival, Arthurdale, Preston County, WV starting at 10 AM, July 13th
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 12 Jul '19

12 Jul '19

New Deal Festival, Arthurdale, Preston County, WV starting at 10 AM, Saturday, July 13th Eleanor Roosevelt will be there (in spirit). History survives at Arthurdale! Come celebrate the history of Arthurdale with your family and friends. Enjoy delicious food, live music, vintage car & tractor show, new exhibits, and activities for all ages. Gates open at 10 AM. Free parking! Enjoy live music all day long, meet our Eleanor Roosevelt, and shop for handmade and local goods at the crafts and farmers market. All the museum buildings will be open. Visit the Quilt show in the beautiful, stone Community Presbyterian of Arthurdale that was dedicated by Mrs. Roosevelt in 1962. For our younger attendees, there are old fashioned games, face painting, hay rides, and a farm petting zoo. More fun family and kids activities to be announced! Learn a little history and have a lot of fun! Your admission includes access to all museum buildings and exhibits, music performances, the Antique Car, Truck, and Tractor show, artisan demonstrations, Quilt show, Craft Market, children’s activities and more!

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The day they "knocked a hole" in the Cheat River - West Virginia Explorer
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 08 Jul '19

08 Jul '19

https://wvexplorer.com/2017/09/18/day-knocked-hole-cheat-river/ The day they “knocked a hole” in the Cheat River By David Sibray, Editor / Publisher, West Virginia Explorer, September 18, 2017 Evidence of the catastrophe on Cheat River may remain somewhere beneath its surface. Photo courtesy Rick Burgess. The strange story of the “day they knocked a hole in the Cheat River” has been passed down as one of West Virginia’s obscure but enduring legends for more than a century. Some historians have questioned whether the tale is historic or simply an astonishingly good story. Though fantastic, the events as described in the following selection from the W.Va. Heritage Encyclopedia (Vol. 5, page 941) are certainly conceivable. The following version can be traced to the November 14, 1885, edition of the Weston Democrat, according to Gordon C. Baker, of Rockville, Md., who later contributed the story to the encyclopedia. The Hole in Cheat River “A lot of crazy things have happened in West Virginia, but the day they knocked the hole in the Cheat River is one of the best. About fifteen miles north of Kingwood, along the Cheat River, can be seen some of the most rugged and inspiring scenery to be found any where in West Virginia, if not North America east of the Rocky Mountains. Topographic Map of Upper Cheat River Canyon On the other side of the river for probably half a mile rises a perpendicular wall of solid limestone about 350 feet high. From the top of the walls of cliffs, the craggy and timbered mountain looms up more than 2,000 feet. Near the top of this mountain had stood for unknown ages a great rock, measuring 20 feet from top to bottom and averaging about 18 feet in thickness. It contained about 9,420 cubic feet of hard, flint-like limestone and, allowing 100 pounds to each cubic foot, the weight of the monster was 948,000 pounds or 324 tons. Just below and against the lower side of this rock was a large oak, which seemed to be the only support the rock had to keep it from dashing down into the river. I first heard of the rock a few days ago from a party of young Kingwood men who had been down in that region exploring. They said that it was the intention of several persons who lived in that neighborhood to cut away the large oak tree that stood below the rock and give the rock a start down the mountain. On last Wednesday, the 7th, one of the party received a letter informing him that a crowd had been organized and that the work would begin on Saturday the 10th. I went down on Friday morning and on Saturday went to the scene. There were about 25 persons present from the neighborhood. The work was done by a company of six men organized for the purpose. The tree was cut down and fell crashing over a considerable precipice and lodged, but the great rock stood unmoved. The next thing to do was to find how much of the rock was embedded in the earth. Digging and shoveling continued for nearly two hours, and, owing to the steep slope on which the men had to stand, it was not easy work. Great care had to be exercised also, for it was impossible to tell at what moment the rock might start thundering down the mountain. It was decided to be too dangerous to dig any longer, for the rock was then in a position to lose its equilibrium from the slightest touch. One of the men pushed against it with his hand, but its weight defied his strength. A lever was cut, and a fulcrum was erected. The lever was soon bending with the united efforts of several men of no ordinary size. I was up the mountain probably twenty yards from the rock to get a good view of its course to the river, and was watching closely for the start. “Now she goes!” came to my ears, and I could see the top of the great rock going out from the mountain — now slow, now faster, now a crash then crash upon crash. The scene presented by that rock, tearing and thundering down the mountain, can be imagined, but cannot be described. It had a tendency to confound the sense and bewilder the reason. Great trees were torn from the earth and hurled into the air, like twigs in a whirlwind. And trunks of mammoth oaks were torn and slivered in quick succession. On and on it went, making a clean-cut road from the start. The mountain trembled and the spectators stood spellbound. The rock gained speed as it neared the river, which was in view of the lower end of the great lime wall. It now struck the last precipice and, after going outward and downward for more than 200 feet, it fell into the river with a roaring sound. After the dust and leaves and flying pieces of limb had settled, we could see a peculiar action of the water but were too far off to discover the cause. A walk of more than a mile around—as it was next to impossible to go straight down the mountain from where we were—brought us to the river, but instead of seeing the rock, we saw the water rushing from every direction down into a huge hole probably 30 feet square. During the half hour we were standing there not less than ten saw-logs were drawn into the hole and disappeared. It is supposed that a cave extends under the river and that the weight of the immense rock coming down with such force and rapidity caused the roof to give away. Whether or not the water will soon fill the hole up and the river carry on as before will depend upon the extent of the existence of an outlet to carry the water from the cavern to some other stream or to some other part of the country.

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WV MetroNews 'Massive amount of water' leaves flash flooding damage in northeastern West Virginia mountain counties - WV MetroNews
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

http://wvmetronews.com/2019/07/01/massive-amount-of-water-leaves-flash-floo… ‘Massive amount of water’ leaves flash flooding damage in northeastern West Virginia mountain counties RANDOLPH COUNTY, W.Va. — In Harman following weekend flash flooding, “There’s water where I have never seen water before in my life,” reported Delegate Cody Thompson (D-Randolph, 43) as cleanup work began in the aftermath of strong storms. Thompson, a Randolph County native, made it to Harman on Sunday after heavy rain that dumped more than four inches of rain on communities in West Virginia’s northeastern mountains in a span of just a few hours from Saturday night into Sunday morning. The hardest hit areas were to the east and northeast of Elkins, according to reports to MetroNews. “I know in Harman, it (the water) actually picked up and moved school buses. It flipped them over. It moved tractor trailers, so it was a massive amount of water and very, very powerful,” Thompson said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.” As he was on the air, teams from the West Virginia National Guard and the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management were beginning to arrive in Randolph County to join local and county officials in the storm response. Also on Monday, Governor Jim Justice officially filed a State of Emergency Declaration which initially included five counties: Grant, Pendleton, Preston, Tucker and Randolph due to the flash flooding. No deaths or significant injuries were reported in the high water. As damage assessments began in earnest, though, major damage was being reported to several homes and businesses in Harman. Of that number, “That’s going to go up as we are able to get on the ground and do closer and more detailed evaluation,” said Michael Todorovich, director of the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “I do believe that most of it (flood damage) is going to be highway and that type of structural problems.” Jimmy Wriston, acting commissioner for the state Division of Highways, agreed. Route 33 to the east of Elkins into Pendleton County was a problem area on Monday morning. “There’s several spots along (Route) 33 that we’ll be working on putting back the shoulder and taking care of slips. Once you get to Harman there, the roadway is right there along the stream,” said Wriston who surveyed damage in Harman personally on Sunday. “They had a lot of rain. There was quite a bit of damage on the private side and on the roadways as well.” Thompson had camped on Saturday in Randolph County and saw some rain, but not a lot. “Just a few miles — five, six miles on farther east — it dumped potentially seven inches of rain down in a matter of four hours. It’s unreal. I was a true, genuine flash flood,” he said. As of Monday morning, some residents were still trapped because of washed out bridges and other damage in the storm zone, including in Whitmer and Job. “I’ve seen some aerial pictures of Seneca Rocks at the height of the flooding and it was completely surrounded by water,” said Thompson. In Grant County, the small community of Bayard saw the most damage. The National Weather Service said the community picked up 4.71 inches rain Saturday night into Sunday morning. Grant County 911/Emergency Management Coordinator Peggy Alt said residents in 30 homes in Bayard had to evacuate. She said the local VFD stepped up. “The little Bayard fire department, hardly ever gets a call, they evacuated their little community. They took care of it and every other fire department in this county helped them,” Alt said. State emergency management officials are expected to tour Bayard Wednesday. Alt said cleanup buckets from VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) will be set up in the county Tuesday. Alt said she continues to do damage estimates. The storm response was being coordinated through the West Virginia Emergency Operations Center. Shauna Johnson sjohnson(a)wvradio.com Shauna Johnson, a Fairmont native, is an award-winning reporter who has been covering news in West Virginia for more than a decade. Sent from my iPad

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Governor declares state of emergency for some counties | WV News | wvnews.com
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 30 Jun '19

30 Jun '19

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/governor-declares-state-of-emergency-for…

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Goose poop is a problem around the Cheat Lake Park & Trail
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 25 Jun '19

25 Jun '19

Duck and dodge: Council may ban waterfowl feeding BY DAVID MCGEE | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER Jun 24, 2019 BRISTOL, Va. — In a year marked by budget issues, school funding concerns and higher landfill costs, city leaders will tackle a different kind of challenge tonight — waterfowl waste. At its meeting tonight, City Council will hold the first of two readings of an ordinance that would make it illegal to feed ducks and geese. The ordinance would cover “migratory and non-migratory waterfowl” defined as “native, non-native and domestic ducks and geese and any crossbreeds or hybrids of these birds.” The ordinance is in response to health concerns at Cumberland Square Park and other facilities, City Manager Randy Eads said Monday. “What we’re seeing throughout the city at our parks and ballparks is a lot of waterfowl excrement. We don’t have the problem in areas where people aren’t feeding the waterfowl,” Eads said. “We’re going to try to discourage people from feeding waterfowl in hopes they’ll find other sources of food.” If approved, violators would be subject to a $50 fine, but only if signs prohibiting feeding are posted in the immediate area and a law enforcement officer has “provided a prior warning that continued feeding of wildlife will result in a violation.” Eads said Cumberland Square Park, which is adjacent to Beaver Creek, is the most affected, followed by Eastern Little League. “We’ve got to do something. Cumberland Square Park is really bad — it’s almost unusable,” Eads said. The park is used for an array of public activities, including the upcoming Fourth of July celebration. The prohibition is permitted under regulations established by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. “Any locality may prohibit by ordinance the feeding of migratory and non-migratory waterfowl in any subdivision or other area of such locality which, in the opinion of the governing body, is so heavily populated as to make the feeding of such waterfowl a threat to public health or the environment,” according to the state department, which also prescribes the maximum fine at $50. Other Virginia localities, including Virginia Beach, Fairfax, Bedford County, Campbell County and the area around Smith Mountain Lake, enacted similar measures. Humans feeding waterfowl can cause a myriad of issues, according to Dave McRuer, the former director of wildlife medicine at the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro. “Supplemental feeding of wild waterfowl has several negative consequences that might not be readily apparent to the average citizen,” McRuer wrote in a paper published on the Wildlife Center’s website. “These repercussions may impact not only the ducks and geese but also the regional environment and public health.” Potential impacts of feeding waterfowl include overcrowding in areas where humans typically provide food, habitat degradation due to the unusually large numbers — including more feces and declining water quality — disease among waterfowl, dietary and nutrition problems and altered migration patterns. “The best solution for waterfowl problems situated around public parks is to stop all forms of supplemental feeding,” McRuer wrote. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 300 Lee St.

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WV MetroNews Maryland man killed by falling tree while kayaking in Preston County - WV MetroNews
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 22 May '19

22 May '19

http://wvmetronews.com/2019/05/21/maryland-man-killed-by-falling-tree-while… Maryland man killed by falling tree while kayaking in Preston County KINGWOOD, W.Va. — The name of a kayaker killed Sunday at the Cheat River by a falling tree has been released by the State Division of Natural Resources. Andy Malinoski, Press Secretary – Media Relations, for the Office of Marketing & Communications, identified the victim Tuesday as David Treadaway, of Dundalk, Md. Preston Sheriff Dan Loughrie shared information from Preston 911, which received the emergency call. The call reported the incident occurred near Seven Islands, south of the Macomber area. The initial report to 911 was that there was one fatality, one head injury and one with unknown injuries, “however not as severe as the other two.” “There were some storms that went through the county near that time frame, however unsure if that was the cause of the fall,” according to 911. Preston County Fire/EMS, the Preston County Swift Water Rescue Team, Tucker County Boat Team and HealthNet aeromedical responded. According to Malinoski, the three men were on a float trip in kayaks from Parsons to Macomber, during a storm. “After seeking shelter from the storm, a tree fell on two of the kayakers, resulting in severe injuries which resulted in the death of one of the boaters,” Malinoski said in an email. “The other sustained a broken arm, broken clavicle, and sustained a back injury from being hit by the tree.” He did not say why the tree fell or if the men were in or out of the water, when they were hit. Division of Natural Resources Police are investigating the incident. Story by Kathy Plum, Dominion Post

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1 dead, 2 injured in kayaking accident on Cheat River
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 20 May '19

20 May '19

Tragically, 1 dead, 2 injured in kayaking accident on Cheat River, WDTV, May 20, 2019 https://www.wdtv.com/content/news/1-dead-2-injured-in-kayaking-accident-on-…

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Mon River Valley Coalition and P2P Corridor meeting follow-up
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 10 May '19

10 May '19

> Subject: Fwd: FW: Mon River Valley Coalition and P2P Corridor meeting follow-up > > Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition info > > > > > Hello Parkersburg to Pittsburgh (P2P) Corridor friends, > > We trust you’re enjoying the spring trail season and hope some of you were able to participate in Opening Day for Trails on that beautiful Saturday last month. We had a great time with Harrison Rail Trails and the North Bend Rail Trail Foundation in Salem, WV, and the Mon River Trails Conservancy hosted another booming arts market in Morgantown. In fact, MRTC tracked nearly 2,000 trail users that day - a new trail record! Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make these trail events so successful. > Here’s a quick roundup of other P2P and IHTC news and events... > > P2P Corridor Meeting Notes - March 15, 2019 > > The P2P Corridor Working Group joined forces with the Mon River Valley Coalition for a combined meeting to discuss trail and river town promotion, marketing and communications. A contact list, PowerPoint slides and discussion notes are available here. We look forward to working with you throughout the year to achieve some of our short-term goals. > IHTC Quarterly Meeting - May 15, 2019 [REGISTER] > > The next quarterly IHTC meeting will be hosted via webinar on May 15 from 11am - 1pm and will focus on community building and events. Amy Camp of Cycle Forward will present on different ways that events can bring a community together in support of your trail and Chris Corban of PEC will moderate a discussion from many IHTC trail partners. Please register here to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. > Corridor and Trail Updates - Summer 2019 > > We will host the next P2P Corridor meeting in June or July and plan to capture project updates in a short report. For WV trails and gaps, we will revisit the Action Plan in the Feasibility Study to note successes and next steps. Stay tuned for more info! > Transportation Alternatives Program and Rec Trail Program Grant Applications (WV) > > WVDOT announced that they will be accepting TAP and RTP applications for 2019. The deadline to submit an Intent to Apply was in April. Those applicants that are approved by WVDOT to submit an application will need to meet the May 31 deadline. Please let us know if you would like RTC to submit a letter of support for any application that involves trail projects in the P2P Corridor. > P2P Corridor - Open Trails on TrailLink.com > > As discussed in the March meeting, all of the open trails in the P2P Corridor are on RTC’s trail finder website, www.traillink.com. Each of the trail pages includes photos, a map, detailed description and reviews. Check them out, add a review/photos, and let me know if there are any necessary changes! > > > Sheepskin Rail-Trail > Mon River Trail North > Caperton Trail > Mon River Trail South > Marion County Trail (MCTrail) > West Fork River Trail > Harrison North Rail Trail > North Bend Rail-Trail > IHTC and the Great American Rail-Trail > > Yesterday RTC hosted a Facebook Live event to reveal the route of the Great American Rail-Trail, a cross-country rail-trail that will span 3,700 miles and connect 12 states and the District of Columbia. The route will follow existing trails like the Great Allegheny Passage and will utilize much of the planned Cleveland to Pittsburgh corridor route of the IHTC’s network vision, including a segment in Weirton, WV. We’re excited that all three IHTC states (PA, OH, WV) are included in this effort to connect our country by rail-trail. > Get out on the trails and stay in touch! We look forward to seeing you this summer. > > All the best, > > Kelly Pack and Kent Spellman > > Kelly Pack, Senior Director of Trail Development > > > Rails-to-Trails Conservancy > > 2121 Ward Court, NW, 5th Floor > > Washington, DC 20037 > > 202.974.5148 > Railstotrails.org | TrailLink.com > > > > > > > >

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Listen to the Soundscape - The New York Times
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 10 May '19

10 May '19

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/listen-to-the-soundscape.… The Sound of a Damaged Habitat By BERNIE KRAUSEJULY 28, 2012 George Butler Glen Ellen, Calif. YEARS ago, when selective logging was first introduced, a community near an old-growth forest in the Sierra Nevada was assured that the removal of a few trees here and there would have no impact on the area’s wildlife. Based on the logging company’s guarantees, the local residents agreed to the operation. I was skeptical, however, and requested permission to record the sounds of the habitat before and after the logging. On June 21, 1988, I recorded a rich dawn chorus in California’s pristine Lincoln Meadow. It was a biome replete with the voices of Lincoln’s sparrows, MacGillivray’s warblers, Williamson’s sapsuckers, pileated woodpeckers, golden-crowned kinglets, robins and grosbeaks, as well as squirrels, spring peepers and numerous insects. I captured them all. When I returned a year later, nothing appeared to have changed at first glance. No stumps or debris — just conifers and lush understory. But to the ear — and to the recorder — the difference was shocking. I’ve returned 15 times since then, and even years later, the density and diversity of voices are still lost. There is a muted hush, broken only by the sound of an occasional sparrow, raptor, raven or sapsucker. The numinous richness of the original biophony is gone. Lesson: While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a soundscape is worth a thousand pictures. A soundscape contains three basic sources: the geophony, which includes all nonbiological natural sounds like wind or ocean waves; the biophony, which embraces the biological, wild, nonhuman sounds that emanate from environments; and the anthrophony — man-made sounds, commonly referred to as noise. Soundscapes reveal many stories about the world’s habitats, illuminating the vital signs of life at one end of the spectrum and the effects of human noise at the other. In fit habitats, the biophony shows cohesion between all of its acoustic sources. In other words, the mating and territorial calls essential to each species’ survival don’t get masked or drowned out by competing sounds. Insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals establish their own “bandwidth niches,” which can be expressed as frequency (from the lowest to the highest sounds) and temporally (as when one creature vocalizes, followed by another, like exchanges between the chestnut-winged babbler and the Malaysian eared nightjar calling for mates in Borneo). Graphic displays called spectrograms are used to illustrate the organization of those sounds, with each creature’s voice showing a distinctive place in the chorus — an arrangement so precise that it often resembles a musical score. To the trained ear, those expressions are experienced much like instruments in an orchestra. What happens when this orchestra is disrupted by the anthrophony: chain saws, leaf blowers or highway traffic? If an indiscriminate sound like a loud motorcycle competes with the stridulation of an insect, the croak of a frog or the song of a bird, the affected animal may no longer be able to send its signal to mates or competitors. The voices of creatures in the choir may be drowned out. And mates and competitors will no longer be able to hear them. The integrity of the biophony is compromised. (Some of those effects you can’t hear. A 2001 study of elk and wolves in national parks found that snowmobile noise raised the levels of stress hormones in their feces and that the levels returned to normal concentrations when the intrusive din was absent.) Anything that destroys habitat — mining, pollution, deforestation and global warming — disrupts the biosphere. Mining reminds me of Aldo Leopold’s sage warning that if you’re going to tinker with nature, you’d better keep all the parts. In Northern California, where my wife and I live, spring occurs — according to my records — nearly two weeks earlier than it did 20 years ago. As the climate has warmed, we hear fewer Pacific tree frogs croaking in late winter and fewer birds in spring — likely because of shifts in food sources. Too little research has been done in the field of biophonics, and my personal recordings are neither comprehensive nor the results of controlled experiments. But the differences between healthy and damaged soundscapes are clear to anyone who pays attention. If you listen to a damaged soundscape — an expression of infirmity or extinction — the sense of desolation extends far beyond mere silence. The community has been altered, and organisms have been destroyed, lost their habitat or been left to re-establish their places in the spectrum. As a result, some voices are gone entirely, while others aggressively compete to establish a new place in the increasingly disjointed chorus. In the damaged forests of Washington State and California in the summer, I have heard white-crowned sparrows learning new syntax, adjusting their voices to accommodate for the acoustic shifts in the biophony. Still, it is from the intact creature choruses that the story of our relationship to the natural world is revealed. We dismiss the loss of those narratives at our peril. Listen. The ear never lies. The poet Robert Hass cautioned in his poem “After Goethe”: “The birds are silent in the woods./Just wait: Soon enough/You will be quiet too.” Sent from my iPad

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WVDEP to hold ribbon cutting for Muddy Creek Watershed Restoration Project
by Duane Nichols via CLEAR 02 May '19

02 May '19

WVDEP to hold ribbon cutting for Muddy Creek Watershed Restoration Project The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) will host a ribbon cutting celebration for its Muddy Creek Watershed Restoration Project on Friday, May 3 at 1 p.m. at the T&T Treatment Facility in Albright (directions below). The event is open to the public. https://www.mybuckhannon.com/wvdep-to-hold-ribbon-cutting-for-muddy-creek-w…

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