On this West Virginia Morning, the annual Trail Days festival in Damascus, Virginia attracts thousands of outdoor enthusiasts and Appalachian Trail hikers each year.
But the small town was devastated last year during Hurricane Helene, which destroyed local trailways. As Radio IQ’s Roxy Todd reports, residents are rebuilding, and businesses are seeing the return of tourists to Damascus.
Also in this episode, Lake Pleasant in northwestern Pennsylvania was created more than 15,000 years ago when a glacier retreated. It is now home to rare plants and birds like osprey.
For the Allegheny Front, an environmental public radio newsroom in Pennsylvania, Kara Holsopple spoke with a team working to reforest an area that was once mined. That is part of a broader effort to restore hundreds of acres of mine lands across the region, including West Virginia.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Maria Young produced this episode.
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