the nature conservancy in

FaLL/Winter 2013 neWsLetter

in this issue

2 Director’s Message

3 Firing up conservation efforts

4 Bridging the Gap

6 testing the Waters

7 a Lasting tribute

“They call this place the birthplace of rivers,” Steve Callen says. He’s referring to the Potomac Highlands, where he and his family are landowners. “This is big mountain property, reaching to the summit of Pharis Knob, one of the state’s highest peaks,” he says of the land he recently worked to protect with The Nature Conservancy.

This region in the Allegheny Mountains is indeed something special. It encompasses the headwaters of the Potomac R iver and five others — the Cheat, James, Greenbrier, Elk and Gauley. Here, spruce-northern hardwood forests have a stronghold. Trout fishing is at its finest. The federa lly protected Cheat Mountain salamander has a home. Solitude can be found. (Continued on Page 4)

Jessica Keith

west virginiaBridging the Gap Gandy Ranch Project Links Seneca Creek Backcountry to Laurel Fork

My staff and I ask these questions every day. The answers ensure that the work we do is as valuable as possible — our conservation “return on investment.”

I’m confident there’s a strong return on your investment to conservation. That’s why I’d like to ask you to please consider The Nature Conservancy during this season of giving.

There’s no better time than now: Through the end of the year, your new or increased gift to nature and the state you love will be matched dollar for dollar, helping to ensure that future generations can enjoy the natural beauty of Wild, Wonderful West Virginia — just as you do.

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.” — DAVID STARR JORDAN (1851-1931), EDUCATOR, AUTHOR

Your help is urgently needed. We are in the midst of some of the most exciting conservation work in our 50-year history, but we need to raise additional funds to complete the projects:

• $70,000tohelpconcludea10-yearproject that has protected 2,000 acres of former timber company land adjoining Roaring Plains Wilderness area

• $25,000inexpensestoacquire anew150-acreadditiontoour Mount Porte Crayon Preserve

• $120,000forexpensesand long-term management of new conservation easements that protect more than 400 acres along Gandy Creek near Spruce Knob Lake and morethan100acresadjacenttoLaurel Fork Wilderness

Ifeveryonereadingthisgivesjust$30more than they did last year, we willmeet our goal. And with an additional$100gift,wewouldbewell-poisedtoaddress new challenges as we move into the next 50 years.

Please give online today at nature.org/wvmatch, or simply use the return envelope included in this newsletter.

Yours in Conservation,

Rodney Bartgis State Director

The Nature Conservancy in West Virginia

Director’s MessAGe

the nature conservancy is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) international membership organization. its mission is to preserve plants, animals, and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. an annual membership fee of $25 includes membership to the West virginia chapter and the worldwide organization.

the nature conservancy meets all of the standards for charity accountability established by the BBB Wise Giving alliance. the BBB Wise Giving alliance is a national charity watchdog affiliated with the Better Business Bureau.

Printed on 90% recycled (including 30% PcW), process chlorine-free paper, creating the following benefits:

3.7 trees preserved for the future

10.6 lbs water-borne waste not created

172.7 lbs solid waste not generated

340 lbs net greenhouse gases prevented

Above: rodney Bartgis

NWest virginia Board of trustees

robert M. steptoe Jr., Chair, Clarksburg

Pamela Byrne, Vice Chair, Elkins

rob Lannan, Vice Chair, Charleston

robert M. nutting, Vice Chair, Wheeling

edward c. armbrecht Jr., Charleston

Jennifer Belcher, Charleston

David W. Gerhardt, North Charleston, SC

eddy Grey, Charleston

Dan o’hanlon, Huntington

Benjamin a. hardesty, Immediate Past Chair, Clarksburg

Brooks Mccabe, Charleston

Joyce Mcconnell, Morgantown

robert o. orders Jr. Charleston

cathy abbott, Emerita, McLean, VA

Judy Dumke, Emerita, Chesapeake, OH

charles Jones, Emeritus, Charleston

ron Potesta, Emeritus, Charleston

It would have been difficult 50 years ago for our founders to imagine the type of conservation work that takes place today. We’ve

evolved from protecting pockets of biologically diverse lands to viewing conservation work through a more holistic lens: What will be meaningful at the global level? What new approaches do we need to take in the face of current threats like development, natural resource extraction and climate change? What are the most everlasting choices we can make, so that our work endures for generations?

2 FaLL/Winter 2013

FirinG Up conservAtion eFForts

L

Firing Up Conservation EffortsControlled burning coupled with invasive species control helps forests recover

© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

r anDy eDWarDs

Historically, the forests in the heavily wooded region at the West Virginia-Virginia border have been the domain of oak and pine, trees that thrive in landscapes where low-intensity fires naturally occurred. These forests provide plenty of acorns for wild animals to eat and timber for houses.

Buttheseforestshavefadedinthenearly70years since Americans adopted a national policy of suppressing all forest fires, which worked against oak-pine forests and favored fire-intolerant species like maple. On top of that, non-native invasive species like Tree of Heaven and Japanese stiltgrass are overwhelming native trees and shrubs in these same forests. Fire suppression and invasives threaten to reduce the resilience of these forests with a broad host of problems, from insect pests and diseases to a changing climate.

“Ecosystem restoration is a multi-layered thing.”- ANDREA BRANDON, CENTRAL APPALACHIANS PROGRAM COORDINATOR

In this region, The Nature Conservancy is working with partners to bring controlled fire back to oak-pine forests and to attack invasive plants and insects.

The Central Appalachian Fire Learning Network, a partnership that has used controlled burning to treat thousands of acres of forest in the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests in West Virginia and Virginia, uses lessons learned at the Conservancy’s Warm Springs

Mountain Preserve in western Virginia. Similarly, the Potomac Highlands Cooperative Weed and Pest Management Area, a partnership born from Conservancy efforts at its Smoke Hole Lodge conservation easement, annually treats morethan1,000acresofinvasiveplants.

Now, Conservancy staff is thinking how to approach these efforts synergistically. “Reintroducing fire will

certainly bring back oak-pine forests,” says Andrea Brandon, Central Appalachians

Program Coordinator. “But it may also help things like invasive Japanese

stiltgrass – it can flourish after a fire.”

Controlled burning could also benefit Tree of Heaven because the prolific root and stump sprouting of this plant occurs in response to fire stress.

The Conservancy hopes to work with USDA Forest Service managers in advance to identify

the areas that will be subject to controlled burns, and then to check

and see whether invasive species are a problem at those sites.

If they are, then Conservancy crews can step in and treat those invasive plants with herbicide

before the fire crew arrives, “removing the competitive advantage of the weeds,” Brandon says.

“Ecosystem restoration is a multi-layered thing,” she adds. “We have to look carefully at all the things that are ailing this system, and make sure that a treatment to heal one wound doesn’t actually make another problem worse.”

© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

the nature conservancy in West virginia | nature.org/explorewv 3

BriDGinG tHe GAp

4 FaLL/Winter 2013

Bridging the Gap“It’s one of few areas in the state without any electric for miles,” Steve says. “As a result, it’s highly undeveloped.”

In fact, Steve’s two Randolph County farms create a connection between two swaths of some of the wildest land in the Monongahela National Forest. To the east lies the 20,000-acre Seneca Creek Backcountry, which extends across Spruce Mountain, West Virginia’s highest. To the west, the land is flankedbythe12,000-acreLaurelForkWildernessArea.

“Steveishelpingusprotecta2-to-3-mile-wide,555-acre“landbridge” between these two spectacular protected areas,” says Keith Fisher, director of conservation programs for the Conservancy in West Virginia. “He’s selling us a conservation easement at a bargain rate on 495 acres and donating a conservation easement on the other 60.”

Steve’s swath of land includes part of Gandy Creek, which, downstream, is great for trout fishing. Upstream, on Steve’s land, there’s room for improvement. “Gandy’s feeder streams have brook trout in them, but they’re trapped,” explains Steve. “They can’t get into the mainstream. And when they do, there’s not enough cover and structure.”

In order to help revive this part of the property, the Conservancy secured a $300,000grantfromAmericanRiversandtheEnvironmentalProtectionAgency to replant spruce and northern hardwood forest, eliminate non-native invasive species, fence out cattle, stabilize eroding banks and add fish habitat structures.Partnersontheproject,whichwillconcludein2014,includeTroutUnlimited, the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, the USDA Forest Service and the Mountain Institute. The project was also supported with a$470,000fundadministeredbytheUSFishandWildlifeService,a$106,000contribution from the West Virginia In Lieu Fee Mitigation Program and a $65,000contributionfromtheWildlifeConservationSociety.

Keith says he knows the so-called Gandy Ranch project will help the region continue on its trajectory of recovery. “Many of the lands and waters around here have been damaged by harmful logging, mining, dams and other development, but there are still plenty of opportunities for protection and revitalization,” he

says. In fact, Keith says the state is encouraging such efforts through its Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund, which helped support the Gandy

Ranchprojectthrougha$190,000grant.Thisisthefirstsuchgrant the Conservancy has received.

For his part, Steve says he ultimately wants the same thing as the Conservancy, and he hopes his contributions create a lasting

legacy. A CPA, he says everything is matter of supply and demand. “Something that is scarce, like wildlands in the East,

has more value than something that is plentiful. You can find parking lots anywhere.”

trout fishing © ISTOCKPHOTO

cheat Mountain salamander © KENT MASON

Gandy Creek © KENT MASON

Gandy Ranch © KENT MASON

from Page 1

the nature conservancy in West virginia | nature.org/explorewv 5

MiLestonestestinG tHe wAters

r anDy eDWarDs

Gil Willis knows what healthy streams are worth.

He and his wife, Mary, own the Elk R iver Inn and Restaurant in Pocahontas County in the midst of the Monongahela National Forest. Along with dining and hospitality, the business – which employs 20 year-round – offers mountain biking, hiking and f ly-fishing.

“Clean water is just critical, period, to our economy here,” Willis says. “The farmers, local residents and every angler. Everybody needs it.”

Willis is active in his local watershed group, which has spent years compiling data about the condition of the Elk and its tributaries. That information has been invaluable, he says, in their work to protect the Elk.

Clean river advocates like Willis are among those who might benefit from the West Virginia Watershed Assessment Pilot Project (see sidebar), s a y s K e it h Fi s h e r , d i r e c t o r of conservation and stewardship for The Nature Conservancy in West Virginia.

“It helps us identify watersheds that are healthy and focus protection efforts on them to make sure they remain healthy,” Fisher says. “But if you look and see a watershed marked in yellow or red, it ’s in poor condition and you ca n dig deeper. W hy? Maybe it is sediment. Maybe acid mine drainage.”

With the Elk, one of the first five streams studied, Fisher says the maps created by the project allow users to see how the water quality deteriorate as it moves out of the protective forests in its headwaters and f lows west toward Charleston.

Around60to70percentofWestVirginia’s stream miles have pollution issues of one kind or another, Fisher says. And while he already knew this, he says it has been shocking to see it carefully mapped out in the project. “Most of the watersheds we looked at are kind of in the mid-range. There are few that are in very poor condition, but very few in extremely good shape.”

The project, funded by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protect ion Agenc y, or ig ina l ly covered five watersheds. That project was finished on time and under budget, Fisher says, and more streams have been added to the project.

Watershed assessment Pilot Project

Local watershed protection groups, communit ies and publ ic agencies charged with protecting and restoring West virginia’s waterways have a new tool to help guide their work.

the goal of the West virginia Watershed assessment Pilot Project is to create a tool to identify areas in a watershed that are priorities for conservation activities.

“state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, watershed associations, counties, private citizens — basically anybody who wants to know where their limited conservation dollars might best be spent will benefit from this project,” says the nature conservancy’s ruth thornton, the project’s lead.

the pilot, completed this summer, defines protection and restoration priorities in five pilot watersheds in West virginia: the elk, Monongahela, upper Guyandotte, Gauley, and Little Kanawha r iver watersheds.

the team drew on research from dozens of sources to evaluate the current condit ion, future threats, and conservation opportunities in the stream, wetland, and upland buffers for these watersheds, thornton says. For the first time, this tool will make all that information accessible in one place.

“users will be able to see important aspects of the landscape to help them make dec is ions on where in the watershed to work according to their respective resources, abilities, and mission,” she says. “it identifies areas worthy of protecting and maintaining, areas needing restoration and areas where future impacts would be a special concern.”

Learn more about the health of West Virginia’s streams. Go to nature.org/wvwatershed

© KENT MASON

Testing the WatersElk R iver

elk river © KENT MASON

6 FaLL/Winter 2013

A LAstinG triBUte

West Virginia

$100,000+(1anonymousgift)Frances Hamilton WhiteWildlife Conservation Society

$25,000-$49,999(1anonymousgift)Mr. & Mrs. Robert O. Orders, Jr.Mr. Charles ClarkeMrs. Angus E. Peyton

$10,000-$24,000Mr. & Mrs. Edward C. Armbrecht, Jr.Mr. Stephen J. CallenDr. Christopher D. Earl Ms. Clare FeinsonGeneral Electric Foundation Matching Gift ProgramMr. H. T. GrimesMr. Henry K. Willard II

$5,000-$9,999 (3anonymousgifts)The Chingos FoundationStan & Sarah Corwin-RoachHope & Thomas CoveyMr. & Mrs. Frederica & J. Davis

Charles T. & Mary Ellen JonesLeslie & Robert Nutting Mrs. Robert F. Reusche & Emily SelbeJane TannerMrs. Betty G. Warner$2,500-$4,999Steve & Amanda CherryLois C. DrumDave and Jody GerhardtCharles T. & Mary Ellen JonesMr. & Mrs. Ronald R. Potesta Ms. Emily SchoenbaumDr. Peter S. Shoenfeld & Mrs. Marilyn ShoenfeldJennifer SimsMs. Annette H. Tanner $1,000-$2,499(2 anonymous gifts)Ms. Judith C. BaldassareEvan & Theresa K. Buck Dr. & Mrs. James W. BullardMs. Pamela M. Byrne & Mr. John HuertaProf. & Mrs. William CanadyMr. Christopher CarrDr. & Mrs. Bruce A. Dalton

Mr. & Mrs. Henry B. Davenport IIIJohn & Maxine DenhamMrs. Giovanna DevenyJohn & Judith HallBenjamin A. & Jean M. HardestyMr. & Mrs. William G. HomeyerMr. Kurt Jaenicke & Mrs. Carla JaenickeMr. & Mrs. Eugene L. JeffusMr. William S. LewellenMrs. Catherine LyonsMr. & Mrs. Kent W. MasonLincoln & Florence McGurkLeslie S. Mead & Jeffrey P. PetrichDr. Florence Kate MillarMr. & Mrs. G. Ogden NuttingJudge Dan & Dr. Kathy O'HanlonMr. Lee T. PaulesMs. Janis ReynoldsGarry RiggsSenator & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IVDr. Emma SheltonMr. Thomas Z. SrnakRobert M. Steptoe, Jr., Esq.

Kevin StilesMr. James R. StultzSally & David SwensonS. D. VaughnMr. Jeffrey Wimsatt & Ms. Kim Innes Mrs. Elizabeth C. ZimmermannMr. Roger J. Zipfel

New Legacy Club MembersMr. & Mrs. Peter AbbrechtDr. & Mrs. Herbert A. LassiterMs. Alwilda ReedEstate Gifts Ruth P. Storhaug

Tribute Gifts HonorariumsMr. A. L. GaskinRuth K. Heal, James E. Heal & Jay HealMr. & Mrs. James D. KeisterMs. Donna L. LesserBob & Ann OrdersMemorialsCarl DahlkeVirginia G. DiazMr. Donald C. Gasper

Victor Hamrick Ms. Midge HottmanMary Moore Rieffenberger

BirthdayTed Armbrecht

Corporate CouncilLeadership $25,000 +Dominion Resources The MeadWestvaco FoundationDirector’s Circle $10,000-$24,999Appalachian Power CompanySteptoe & Johnson PLLCFounders $5,000-$9,999Amherst Madison, Inc.Dingess-Rum PropertiesUnited Bank Inc. Partners $2,500-$4,999Dickinson PropertiesPotesta & Associates, Inc. Snowshoe Mountain Resort Associates $1,000-$2,499Gat CreekDow Chemical Company Foundation Wolf Creek Printery

It’s a magical landscape where t i me seem s to sta nd st i l l — a f lat, windswept, ridgetop expanse where heathlands, bogs and forlorn boulders kiss the sky. A lot of people like Dolly Sods. It was Carl Dahlke’s favorite place on Earth.

In life, Carl retreated to Dolly Sods whenever he had the chance, says Clare Feinson, Carl ’s partner of nearly 30yearsandhisfrequentcompaniontoDollySods.

Carl spent part of his youth in southern West Virginia, where his father was a college instructor, but didn’t start startedgoingtoDollySodsuntilthemid-1970s,whenhemoved to Washington D.C., Clare says. “Later on I began joining him on backpacking trips.”

BythetimeCarlpassedawayin2010,he’dspent more than three decades fa l ling in love with Dolly Sods. During that same time, The Nature Conservancy was helping to protect some 25,000 acres of his favorite corner of the world.

“We were so happy to know that the Conservancy was working there, and that the land would be protected for all of time,” says Clare, who upon Carl ’s death made a generous gift to the Conservancy in his honor

carl Dahlke and clare Feinson at Dolly sods © FEINSON

West Virginia FY13 Recognition Thefollowinglistrecognizesdonorswhohavegiven$1,000ormoreinsupportofourworkduringthispastfiscalyear(July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013).

A Lasting Tribute Gift ensures favorite landscape endures for others

Jessica Keith

that qualified for the Frances Hamilton White 50th Anniversary Match (see back page).

Clare’s tribute gift helps to ensure that future generations will be able to explore the lands she and Carl valued so much during their time together.

the nature conservancy in West virginia | nature.org/explorewv 7

the nature conservancy in West virginia194 airport roadelkins, Wv 26241(304) 637-0160westvirginia@tnc.org

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In honor of our 50th Anniversary, Frances Hamilton White has agreed tocontribute$100,000inmatching

contributions to The Nature Conservancy inWestVirginia.ThroughDecember31,2013,yourneworincreasedgifttonatureand the state you love will be matched dollar for dollar, helping to ensure that future generations can enjoy the precious natural beauty of Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.

Spruce-northern hardwood forests have a stronghold. Trout fishing is at its finest. The federally protected Cheat Mountain salamander has a home. Solitude can be found.

tlands and waters!

There is no better time than now to show how much you value

Please give online today at nature.org/wvmatch or simply use the return envelope included in this newsletter.

West Virginia’s

Explore Gandy Ranch

© KENT MASON