06/07/2023
Check out the Wild, Wonderful Woods! event at the Kump Education Center on June 24th from noon to 5pm!
Also, this coming Saturday, June 10th at 11am, the Elkins Friends of Trees is also hosting a FREE tree planting demonstration led by silviculturist Linda Burke. There will also be a tree walk around the grounds, tree leaf rubbings for kiddos, other activities.
KUMP CORNER:
Planning for our “Wild Wonderful Woods!” WV Birthday Party
Kump Education Center volunteers plan to celebrate West Virginia’s 160th Birthday with neighbors and friends who live in the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area [AFNHA]. We will focus on the “Wild Wonderful Woods” of our heritage area for this event Sat. June 24th from noon to five.
We hope friends will enjoy a whole Saturday afternoon full of arts, crafts, foods, history, and music from our locality and learn more about our new national heritage area. We are inviting local leaders from other towns in the AFNHA where Native Americans were living and caring for the forest plants and animals when European settlers arrived.
AFNHA is a new designation for the counties in and near the Monongahela National Forest, the largest national forest in the eastern United States. This national heritage area NHA recognition program was started by Congress under President Reagan in 1984 to promote the conservation of natural, cultural, and historic resources. There are 55 NHA locations, most located east of the Mississippi River.
West Virginia has three NHA designations: Appalachian Forest, National Coal, and Wheeling heritage areas, and Virginia has Shenandoah Valley Battlefields and Journey through Hallowed Ground. Our new AFNHA designation was established only a year before the pandemic limited indoor activities and made travel to remote locations the only safe option for tourists.
Then many tourists came over to our mountain haven from the east, but we were not fully ready to provide accommodations and showcase our amazingly beautiful region. As the Covid-19 pandemic recedes, it becomes clear that WV can increase its population through tourism if our internet services are reliable enough for telecommuting and if our tourism industry can develop a credible image of mountain hospitality and entertainment.
National heritage recognition is designed to help local leaders see their own region as others may see it. Communities work together to conserve natural, cultural, and historical assets and promote the advantages of living in this general locale. In West Virginia we can embrace what is valuable from our traditions of hard work, faithful family ties, and love of the mountains.
Nevertheless, we have been losing population yearly for more than fifty years. We need to develop a clearer concept of who we really are. That will require an openness to the ethnic diversity that was part of our rich WV history. If we want “Yesterday’s People” to have a tomorrow, we need to create new opportunities for environmentally friendly jobs to preserve the hills of our homeland, and we must work together to support young families.
