ALERT (03/07/2024): Due to a lightning strike, WVPB TV will be off the air in the Bethany/Wheeling area until new parts arrive. Thank you for your patience.
Harpers Ferry is a historic West Virginia city and international tourist hub. But four years ago the national park and surrounding town were devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The natural world can be a source of food and medicine along with a place to escape and unwind. There are people who know plants like they’re old friends, complete with stories and histories. These experts can also help guide us to recognize how plants can even help us in times of need.
This week, we’re listening back to an encore edition of Inside Appalachia about getting outside to embrace our wild side, to shed stress and to heal. We’ll hear stories about tapping into the natural world. From a recipe that uses chanterelle mushrooms to make ice cream, to the sport of falconry (the oldest form of hunting), to a new initiative that teaches people how to raise native plants, like ginseng, cohosh and wild ramps on their own forested land as a source of income and as a way to preserve the forests.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting is producing a series of short videos called Edible Mountain. They highlight foods that can be foraged throughout central Appalachia and include tips on making sassafras tea, safely eating poisonous pokeweed, mayapples and more.
Our producer Roxy Todd interviewed the series producer, Chuck Kleine, who is a bit of a forest food expert himself. They talk about foraging foods in your backyard, harvesting ramps and even how to make ice cream from chanterelle mushrooms.
Forest Farming
Plants like ginseng, goldenseal, cohosh, ramps and bloodroot are valuable, well-known plants that grow wild. Maybe you can even identify them. But some of these plants face threats today because of things like overharvesting, habitat loss, and climate change.
It’s something the people at the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative care a lot about. The organization is teaching folks how to raise these botanicals on their own forested land as a source of income and as a way to preserve the forests. As Folkways reporter Heather Niday found out, the organizers are getting help from local experts.
Since Heather originally reported that story last year, the Forest Farming Initiative has continued to grow. The group held a field day this spring that sold out and attracted people from nine different states.
Mental Health Benefits
Herbalist Andrea Lay lives with her husband and their two daughters on Hidden Hollow Farm outside Keyser, West Virginia. She explains that investing time in plants and nature can do more than provide economic benefit. It can also benefit our mental health. Leah Scarpelli and Michael Snyder brought us this story as part of “The Mountain Traditions Project.”
Spring Water
Appalachia is also home to many natural springs scattered throughout the hillsides with mountain water, spurting up from miles of underground cave systems. But just how clean is this water?
We live in a region that’s renowned around the world for its mountain beauty and natural treasures, and so much of that’s based on water. From floating whitewater rapids, to touring natural springs, Appalachia’s hollers are dotted with creeks and waterfalls. A lot of water also runs just beneath our feet. That’s because the region is home to a lot of karst. Karst is a landscape where rock and water intersect to make features like sinkholes, sinking streams, and vast underground caves. Reporter Robbie Harris found a karst expert who guided her through some of the caves in southwestern Virginia.
Karst expert Wil Orndorff said workers building the Mountain Valley Pipeline told him about leaking water in one cave. The MVP is a 303 mile pipeline being built to transport natural gas from northern West Virginia across the mountains to southern Virginia. The project cuts through karst topography along the way. The pipeline will cost more than $6 billion — nearly twice its original estimated cost of $3.7 billion dollars. And it’s running four years behind schedule. And now it’s delayed again: state regulators in Virginia and West Virginia have until near the end of 2021 to consider permits for the pipeline to cross streams and wetlands.
Falconry
For our final story, we’ll take to the skies to learn from some of the wild animals here in Appalachia. We have lots of them — including birds of prey. Some folks take it to the next level and partner with these birds to hunt. This sport dates back to 5,000 B.C in Mongolia. Some historians say people may have been bonding and partnering with birds of prey even longer than that. But not just anybody can become a falconer. Master Falconer Mick Brown has been practicing falconry for 18 years in Ohio, and all over the U.S. He says getting licensed can be pretty intense.
Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Blue Dot Sessions, Anna and Elizabeth, Marisa Anderson, Dinosaur Burps, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman.
Roxy Todd is our producer. Jade Artherhults is our associate producer. Glynis Board and Kelley Libby edited our show this week. Our executive producer is Andrea Billups. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode. You can find us on Twitter @InAppalachia.
On this West Virginia Morning, tourists from around the world visit Harpers Ferry each year to immerse themselves in U.S. history. But the number of visitors fell in 2020, as public health restrictions ramped up nationwide. Jack Walker visited the town to learn how things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Across the nation, there are more and more local news deserts; communities with no local newspaper, television or radio station to cover what’s going on. When a small town paper like The Welch News in McDowell County, WV, can’t compete and shuts down, losing those local eyes and ears can affect accountability. No one is there to watch over things. Local news also provides a sense of cohesion and identity for a community. What happens when it’s gone? This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
On this West Virginia Morning, it has been a year since allegations of illicit recordings of cadets and other women at the West Virginia State Police barracks launched federal and state investigations into the law enforcement department. We speak with the superintendent of state police for an update.
On this West Virginia Morning, political analysts say the two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in the upcoming May primary election give voters some particular, and troubling, food for thought. The candidates themselves say voters need to focus on the positives, not the negatives.