Nearly all corners of the state are now seeing some of the red, yellows, and oranges of autumn foliage. This year’s seasonal display is predicted by the West Virginia Department of Tourism to be one of the longest lasting fall foliages in decades
After a record summer drought many naturalists were expecting a dull and short lived fall. However the colors are vibrant and the leaves are hanging on.
Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Tourism experts say colors throughout the state are vivid, and many regions still have more fall colors on the way.
Moisture in late summer and early fall brought some life back to trees, and ideal fall conditions like sunny warm days and cold nights helped trees produce colorful leaves. The tourism department says some of the best places to see fall foliage right now are Coopers Rock State Park, North Bend State Park, Wheeling, Clay County, and Charleston.
Bow hunting season is already underway for deer in West Virginia, and rifle season is fast approaching. But state wildlife management officials say hunters venturing into the woods this fall should keep an eye out for visibly ill deer.
Bow hunting season is already underway for deer in West Virginia, and rifle season is fast approaching. But state wildlife management officials say hunters venturing into the woods this fall should keep an eye out for visibly ill deer.
That is because the Mountain State has seen an increase in reports of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD. EHD is transmitted to white-tailed deer through insects like gnats and midges, and can be fatal.
Deer tissue samples taken from eighteen West Virginia counties have tested positive for EHD, according to Ethan Barton, state wildlife disease specialist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR).
This year’s outbreak
Barton said that positive cases of EHD were reported in tissue samples from Barbour, Boone, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mineral, Monongalia, Ohio, Pleasants, Putnam, Ritchie, Taylor, Tyler and Upshur counties.
The WVDNR is also awaiting results on tissue samples from deer from several other counties. EHD prevalence varies widely between the counties, from just a single positive sample to positive reports county wide, Barton said.
EHD is a recurring problem for the state. The disease “has been detected with increasing frequency in West Virginia since the 1990s,” according to the WVDNR website.
“This outbreak was relatively widespread in the state, although we’ve certainly had more widespread outbreaks before that affected the majority of the state’s counties,” Barton said. “This isn’t necessarily anything new. This just happened to be a little bit more active an EHD year than a typical year.”
EHD is not transmissible to humans. While the WVDNR advises against the consumption of meat from visibly ill deer, Barton said deer that have survived and recovered from EHD “are going to be absolutely fine” to hunt and eat.
From the WVDNR’s perspective, EHD cases are “not necessarily anything to be alarmed about,” Barton said, adding that the biggest concern for hunters tends to be the disease’s impact on game populations.
Wintertime frost kills off gnats and midges, which removes the means of transmission for the disease. While EHD infections can still take a toll on local deer populations, that means there is an endpoint within sight.
“Even in areas where local scale deer mortality may be substantial, populations bounce back within relatively short order,” Barton said. “Within two or three years, densities come right back up to where they were before an outbreak. In a typical year with a typical outbreak, most hunters aren’t going to notice an actual difference in the number of deer they see.”
Detecting and reporting disease
EHD typically causes fever, so deer with the disease often seek to cool off in bodies of water, Barton said. Deer tissue samples are primarily collected near local watersheds, because infectious insects and diseased deer alike spend more time in these areas.
Beyond fever, other EHD symptoms include difficulty breathing and swelling of the head, neck and tongue, according to the National Park Service.
Deer that are recovering from EHD or have survived the disease may also exhibit signs of a “depleted immune system,” Barton said. Deer affected by the disease may have hoof lesions, and can struggle to combat later infections of other diseases.
According to Barton, EHD spreads from late July to mid October, but typically reaches its peak in September.
Barton said there is no significant “intervention method” the WVDNR takes once EHD is reported, beyond tracking where the disease occurs and to what scale. There is currently no vaccine or treatment available for the disease.
Meanwhile, fall is deer hunting season in West Virginia. Bow hunting began Sept. 28 and runs until Dec. 31. Buck firearm season runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 8, and muzzleloader season runs from Dec. 16 to Dec. 22.
Barton said reports of EHD can concern hunters, especially when sick or deceased deer are highly visible in a certain area.
But he said the WVDNR encourages hunters to operate within their typical hunting area. Barton added that local deer population declines are typically not severe enough to warrant hunters traveling to other areas instead.
EHD is not the only disease to spread through West Virginia’s deer population this year.
In April, cases of chronic wasting disease among deer were reported in Jefferson County and nearby areas of Maryland for the first time. The disease is different from EHD, but also transmissible and fatal among deer.
Hunters who see deer exhibiting symptoms of EHD or other diseases can also report the sightings to their local WVDNR office. Barton said this helps the organization track the spread of the disease.
“We can kind of walk through it with them, triage out what might be going on, and investigate if need be, to determine if there's a pathogen system or communicable disease involved,” he said.
Barton said that WVDNR might not respond to every sighting because the organization is “limited in numbers.” But he said calling the WVDNR is “generally a good idea” when disease is suspected.
The WVDNR headquarters in South Charleston can be contacted over the phone at (304) 558-6200. For information on how to contact your local WVDNR office, visit the organization’s website.
The facility will employ 75 workers, and former mine workers will be recruited and trained for the positions.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Sparkz nearly $10 million to produce iron phosphate in a shuttered glass factory in Bridgeport.
Iron phosphate is a key ingredient in the lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles but very little is produced domestically.
Sparkz has agreements with the United Mine Workers of America and the West Virginia Economic Development Authority.
The facility will employ 75 workers, and former mine workers will be recruited and trained for the positions.
Nationwide, the Energy Department is spending $428 million to bolster the clean energy supply chain, with a priority on supporting disadvantaged communities.
The funding will help make the electricity grid more reliable for customers and enable the electrification of buildings and transportation.
FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison were awarded $50 million though the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships, or GRIP program.
The funding will help make the electricity grid more reliable for customers and enable the electrification of buildings and transportation.
In part, the upgrades aim to reduce the duration of service disruptions due to severe weather.
The program was created under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito supported the infrastructure law and the FirstEnergy application for the GRIP funding. Capito is the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
“West Virginians deserve reliable access to electricity that keeps their lights on and homes warm. Initiatives like this strengthen the reliability of our grid and prevent our residents from experiencing costly interruptions that impact their lives and safety,” she said in a statement.
The funding will also create a four-year apprenticeship program with training centers in Fairmont and Williamsport, Maryland, near Martinsburg.
On a winding road just up the hill from a shuttered coal plant, Mon Power is now generating electricity from an array of solar panels.
On a winding road just up the hill from a shuttered coal plant, Mon Power is now generating electricity from an array of solar panels.
The Rivesville solar facility doesn’t produce as much power as the coal plant once did, nor the ones Mon Power still operates. It is, though, an example of reusing brownfield sites – in this case a coal ash disposal landfill – to produce clean energy in a state dominated by fossil fuels.
Doug Hartman, Mon Power’s director of generation services, says state lawmakers made that possible.
“So this is the Rivesville ash site disposal area for the old Rivesville coal plant, and it retired in 2012,” he said. “Senate Bill 583 gave us an opportunity to put an asset on something that’s a legacy liability, and we’re able to put the solar right on top of the site.”
West Virginia lawmakers passed Senate Bill 583 in 2020. It allows utilities like Mon Power to develop solar on brownfield sites. Mon Power activated its largest project in Monongalia County in January. Last month, it broke ground on another one in Berkeley County. The company will seek approval to build two more near Davis in Tucker County and Weirton in Hancock County.
“You’re using, again, property that like the site here, property that you normally wouldn’t be able to leverage, just to go out and build something on,” he said. “Honestly, that’s where I would like to see all forms of energy, put them on a site that’s already, already out there and is available, not a new greenfield site. West Virginia is too pretty for greenfield site construction.”
The Rivesville site can produce 5.5 megawatts of electricity and Fort Martin about 19. By contrast, Mon Power’s Harrison Power Station can produce nearly 2,000 megawatts, all of it from coal.
Hartman says the coal plants aren’t going anywhere soon. But changing regulations, the age of the plants and the cost of buying coal could shift the calculation. And West Virginia may see yet more solar.
