In the heart of West Virginia’s southern coal fields, there is a long history of environmental conservation and economic development being at odds. The coal that came from Logan County fueled the country during World War II, but as the coal industry has slowed and begun to fail in recent years, the local communities that depend on it have struggled. Across the Appalachian region, communities are dealing with this transition away from coal and exploring alternatives for economic redevelopment.

The Conservation Fund is making an investment in this part of the country, working directly with community members and local, state and federal partners to demonstrate that conservation and economy support each other. In January 2016, TCF purchased 32,296 acres in Logan, Lincoln and Mingo counties in the southern part of the state that will eventually create the state’s largest, conserved block of prime habitat for elk restoration while also working toward community redevelopment.

Our Role

Several of The Conservation Fund’s programs are headquartered in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, including the Freshwater Institute. TCF Vice President and the Institute’s former Director, Joe Hankins, has worked and lived in West Virginia for the past 20 years and has a strong connection to the state and the community. When TCF undertook the project, no one was better suited to lead it.

TCF purchased the property through our Working Forests program with support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Working Forests uses conservation-focused forest management strategies to enhance forest health and productivity, wildlife habitat and water quality, while supporting the economic well-being of surrounding communities. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) could not afford to acquire the entire property in one purchase.  However, through Working Forests, we are able to structure a phased transfer of both the timber value of the working forestland and protection of the natural resources to state control.

TCF has begun a multiyear plan to convey the land to the DNR. In 2016, we transferred 10,922 acres with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration program, a grant from the Acres for America program that was established by Walmart and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and a grant from the Knobloch Family Foundation. We have since permanently protected the entire 32,296 acres as sustainable working forestland and wildlife habitat either under a conservation easement held by the state or through DNR’s ownership and management. Previously industrially owned, this rough and rugged territory is open to the public as wildlife management areas, helping people to reengage with land to which they are culturally connected.

Why This Project Matters

Through this conservation effort, West Virginia joins a multistate landscape-level effort to restore elk to the Appalachian region. The reclaimed mine lands that are part of the overall acreage provide ideal grassland and forest habitat for a variety of wildlife species, including elk, deer, wild turkey, golden-winged warbler and grassland birds. Majestic, thousand-pound elk were native to West Virginia two centuries ago. But market hunted and their habitat squeezed out of existence, elk were last seen at the end of the Civil War. The prospect of bringing elk back to West Virginia for both wildlife viewing and hunting purposes has triggered excitement across the region, not least for the ecotourism opportunities. In Kentucky, a similar match with elk and reclaimed mine lands has been successful, and the West Virginia DNR will be working with Kentucky and Tennessee to bring in small numbers of elk each year to establish a population. Already volunteers in West Virginia have built soft release pens and special vegetation plots on the conserved land in preparation.

The land acquisition and conservation was just the first step. To fully integrate and take advantage of the opportunities in the region—ecotourism, recreation and service economies—we must first protect the natural resource economy, then work with the communities to build up the infrastructure. Through our integrated services, TCF is bringing expertise, capital, partners and management to a part of the country where others are skeptical of investment and that we believe needs to be protected.