Two deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the disease’s first documented occurrence in the park.
Two white-tailed deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the first time the disease was detected in a West Virginia national park.
CWD affects several deer, elk and moose species across North America, and is fatal to infected animals, with no known cure or treatment.
There have been no reported instances of CWD infecting humans, but the World Health Organization advises against the consumption of CWD-infected animals.
All venison from the deer infected with CWD was destroyed, according to a Tuesday press release from the National Park Service (NPS).
NPS said it detected the instances of CWD during ongoing efforts to reduce deer populations “to protect and restore native plants, promote healthy and diverse forests and preserve historic landscapes.”
Similar deer population reduction efforts are being conducted in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to NPS.
In March, three white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD in Maryland’s Antietam National Battlefield and Monocacy National Battlefield, located less than 20 and 25 miles away, respectively.
This also marked the disease’s first documented occurrence in either battlefield, according to NPS.
CWD can cause “drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness and other neurological symptoms, though it can take more than a year for these symptoms to present, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The NPS will continue to participate in monitoring of collected deer for CWD and will destroy venison testing positive for CWD,” NPS said. “If you see sick or dead wildlife, avoid contact with the animal and notify a National Park Service employee as soon as possible.”
Domestic violence prevention nonprofits have not received a state budget increase since 2009. Advocates hope a special session of the West Virginia Legislature could change that.
Tucked away on a side street of downtown Martinsburg, the Eastern Panhandle Empowerment Center (EPEC) is a domestic violence prevention nonprofit serving Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
EPEC was founded in 1977 and expanded with time. Ten years ago, Executive Director Katie Spriggs said the EPEC served 250 people annually. Now, it serves more than 1,400 people each year.
Visits to EPEC may be on the rise, but Spriggs said funding has not increased sufficiently to meet them.
Looking at EPEC’s first-floor office it immediately becomes clear. Each day, staff members squeeze into corners of the room with laptops and cell phones in hand.
“We have probably on an average day 12 people that work out of this office, so it’s not large enough,” Spriggs said.
According to Spriggs, moving out of EPEC’s apartment-turned-office into a larger space would bring benefits. But a potential move and the expansion of current EPEC services are constrained by the same factor: the budget.
“We’re kind of stuck,” she said. “We haven’t seen an increase in so long that it’s really difficult to make the budget work every year.”
In West Virginia, domestic violence prevention nonprofits receive funding through a variety of sources, like private donations, federal grants and a line item included annually in the state budget.
But the state has not boosted that line item since May 2009, even as the cost of living has risen.
In recent years, Gov. Jim Justice has pursued a flat budget, which means freezing state spending so it stays the same each year. While surplus funds get redistributed, they do not supplement every budget item.
Continuing to provide resources to survivors of domestic violence requires reliable funding on the state level, she said.
Katie Spriggs, executive director of the Eastern Panhandle Empowerment Center, is in the process of digitizing decades of the center’s paper records.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Sara Belvins O’Toole, director of development at Huntington’s Branches Domestic Violence Shelter, said part of the need for additional funding stems from changing conversations around domestic violence prevention.
In the early days, Belvins O’Toole said advocates were focused primarily on removing individuals from crisis situations.
They now understand helping people stay away from abusive relationships requires more holistic assistance, she said.
“People who are just plopped out of a situation and put into another environment don’t have the resources and the skills and the support that they need to actually stay away from a person that was violent in their life,” Belvins O’Toole said. “Especially if that person was in control of the finances.”
Approaching domestic violence on a holistic level means considering other factors that put survivors at risk, like housing insecurity and child care needs.
“We have to do a little bit of that other work like housing advocacy, like legal advocacy — all of those things that are providing support,” Belvins O’Toole said. “It’s not about just getting somebody out of crisis anymore. It’s about supporting them into a life free from violence.”
But this is easier said than done. Joyce Yedlsoky, team coordinator at the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WVCADV), said that the state’s flat budget has also affected separate nonprofits that address these needs directly.
In turn, she said domestic violence prevention advocates must wear multiple hats, spreading their time and funding thinner.
The budget “being able to account for other aspects that survivors need” is important as well, she said.
Through the WVCADV, Yedlosky works with the 14 licensed domestic violence prevention nonprofits located across West Virginia. In February, she helped arrange a visit to the State Capitol featuring representatives from each of these organizations.
The advocates lined the Capitol’s lower rotunda with tables, passing out stickers and informational flyers to visitors and lawmakers alike.
Yedlosky also took the time to speak with lawmakers about the nonprofits’ current financial needs, and said they were generally supportive of securing new funds.
But, since then, Yedlosky said lines of communication between lawmakers and the nonprofits have all but closed.
“Since the session ended, we haven’t heard from lawmakers specifically around our funding,” she said.
Staff members Katie Brougham, Serena Hemple and Foxfire Formoso (from left) stand in the entryway of the Eastern Panhandle Empowerment Center.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
By the time this year’s regular session of the West Virginia Legislature ended, no budget line increases for domestic violence nonprofits had been passed. New funding for services like child care were also left out entirely.
Still, this year’s budget is not completely settled. Gov. Jim Justice has expressed disapproval of some funding omissions from this year’s budget, and in March announced plans to call a special legislative session to reconsider the budget.
Justice said he plans to hold the session by May 14, the state’s primary election. Members of the Legislature’s leadership have indicated they would prefer for the session to coincide with interim meetings beginning May 19.
In a dream scenario, Yedlosky said she would like to see a $500,000 cost-of-living increase to the state’s funding for domestic violence nonprofits, which currently sits at $2.5 million split annually between all 14 licensed organizations.
But Yedlosky said she’s not holding her breath for what the special session will bring.
“To be honest, I don’t think that that’s on the table for the special session,” she said. “It would be really nice if it was.”
Instead, Yedlosky said she hopes that lawmakers will reverse course and provide new funding to other services like child care.
“I do believe if they reinstate back some of the huge cuts that they made, that’s also going to help survivors,” she said. “That’s my hope.”
Back in the Eastern Panhandle, Spriggs echoed Yedlosky’s calls for a cost-of-living budget increase. She described an increase like this as a critical way to reduce the risks that survivors of domestic violence face across the state.
“A line item increase on the state budget would not only keep the lights on and give us a foundation to grow on,” she said. “It would also prevent violence. A lot of violence.”
For more information on domestic violence prevention resources in West Virginia, visit the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s website.
On this West Virginia Morning, domestic violence prevention advocates lined the State Capitol rotunda in February, seeking a budget increase. They said lawmakers were receptive to the idea. But no increase was passed before this year’s regular legislative session ended. Jack Walker checked in with domestic violence prevention advocates on funding needs as a potential special session approaches.
On this West Virginia Morning, domestic violence prevention advocates lined the State Capitol rotunda in February, seeking a budget increase. They said lawmakers were receptive to the idea. But no increase was passed before this year’s regular legislative session ended. Jack Walker checked in with domestic violence prevention advocates on funding needs as a potential special session approaches.
Also, in this show, Central Appalachia is home to 16 state and federal prisons. Now, federal officials are considering adding a medium security prison in Letcher County. But as the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting’s Jared Bennett tells — the project is also drawing opposition from activists from across the country.
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.
Emily Rice produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
Lane and signage improvements in Berkeley County aim to reduce traffic congestion in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. The Department of Transportation project was announced Tuesday.
In recent years, West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle has experienced population growth and undertaken new development projects. While this provides economic benefit, it also creates a new problem: traffic.
West Virginia Route 9, which stretches from Morgan County to Jefferson County, has become increasingly prone to traffic congestion, Gov. Jim Justice said Tuesday.
Justice — alongside West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) Secretary Jimmy Wriston and West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley — visited Martinsburg Tuesday to unveil a new WVDOT project that aims to improve travel on the highway.
“It’s a growing area,” Wriston said. “We got some inefficiencies in the way traffic moves through the area on Route 9, and we want to address some of those things.”
The fifteen-step project includes adding new turn lanes, improving major intersections and enhancing lane signage over 10 to 15 miles of the highway in Berkeley County northwest of Martinsburg.
Currently, an average of 24,300 vehicles travel on portions of the highway each day, according to a press release from Justice’s office. Crash rates on the highway are roughly double the state average, the release said.
Blair said that improving transportation infrastructure in the Eastern Panhandle is important to sustain local growth.
“It’s about getting the work done,” he said. “It’s about stepping forward and getting things right.”
Justice echoed Blair’s sentiments, and said infrastructure plays an important role in attracting new residents.
“If we’re wanting to recruit more and more and more folks here and all of a sudden they’re sitting in traffic all day long … are they really going to come?” he asked. “We have got to absolutely market ourselves.”
A Shepherd University student is leading a citizen science project that aims to repopulate American chestnut trees in Appalachia. American chestnut populations have been threatened for decades by an infectious disease called chestnut blight.
Imagine trees more than 100 feet tall stretching across the skyline of Appalachia; families resting in the shade down below or collecting husks bursting at the seam with chestnuts.
Before the 1900s, sights like these weren’t just imaginary. American chestnuts once reigned supreme in Appalachia, populating forests in 13 present-day states.
But things changed at the turn of the 20th century with the arrival of a new disease: chestnut blight.
“In the early part of the century, a strain came in that affected the chestnut tree, and chestnut trees began to die,” said Sylvia Shurbutt, director of Shepherd University’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities.
“By the end of the century, we had virtually no standing chestnut trees in most places,” she said. “The chestnut tree does still live. … [But] the tree will grow for a bit, and then it will die. It will contract the blight.”
According to Shurbutt, chestnut trees were a pivotal part of pre-Civil War Appalachian history.
Chestnut wood helped build log cabins and household furniture. Chestnut forests fostered regional biodiversity. Even chestnuts themselves were a staple of eighteenth and nineteenth-century cuisine.
That’s why Shurbutt and the Center for Appalachian Studies jumped at the opportunity to help repopulate the American chestnut.
“We really want to engage our students and the community in what I think is probably one of the most important and significant things and gifts that we could certainly give,” she said. “That is to bring back an iconic tree, a tree that was the symbol of Appalachia, a tree that was at the heart and soul of what Appalachian stood for.”
The project came to the Eastern Panhandle with the help of Susan Thompson, a graduate student in Appalachian Studies at Shepherd University and an affiliate of West Virginia’s chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation.
Community members pose for a drone photo beside two chestnut saplings they planted in Morgan County on April 6.
Photo Credit: Randal Stewart
Thompson began the local project last year, when she rallied together a team of community members to plant hybrid chestnut trees at a local farm.
These trees were hybridized with Chinese chestnut trees, which made them more resistant to the blight. Now, Thompson’s team aims to replant pure American chestnuts, with a little help from an ecological ally.
“When it has a symbiotic relationship with mycelium, which is the plant that a mushroom grows off of — it’s all these white tendrils. Sort of imagine how the internet has threads going in every direction and connections. It’s like that, the threads going in every direction,” she said.
Mycelium then works with chestnut trees to more efficiently capture resources.
“They connect with the tree roots, and they spread out another 50 feet,” Thompson said. “You may have 80 feet of area that a tree can collect nutrients and water.”
While environmental interventions like these support early growth in American chestnut trees, conservationists are still grappling with how to best protect trees from the threat of chestnut blight.
Finding a cure to the disease is a work in progress, and scientists are looking for answers in the genes of chestnut trees from around the world.
In the meantime, one new strategy has helped extend the lives of ailing trees. It involves taping a package of soil around an infected segment of the tree for months on end, which blocks the disease’s spread.
This is not a catch-all solution, because it doesn’t prevent new infections, and it is harder to use on big trees. More than anything, scientists need more information on how the disease works, and American chestnut resiliency more broadly.
While this American chestnut sapling is just a few feet tall, adult chestnut trees can grow to more than 100 feet.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This, again, is where Thompson comes in.
Thompson is creating a website for a new citizen science project that involves documenting the life cycle of local American chestnuts online, from planting to infection to treatment. That way, researchers have more information on what works and what does not.
“It’s bringing together minds from all over the country. Potentially, we can have people from all over the world,” she said. “But we’re first trying to bring together a group of people in Appalachia who know where these trees are, who can keep an eye on them and provide data about them.”
By engaging with volunteers on an online project, Thompson said she and other self-described “chestnutters” can also offer advice on how to treat infections and protect the species as a whole.
Thompson said the project has good traction so far, but it will take time for Appalachia to see the chestnut forests that were widespread centuries ago.
Still, Thompson said she and other conservationists are excited by the possibilities American chestnut reforestation provides. This includes protecting Appalachian ecosystems, and even combating global warming.
“These trees are out there. We know we have this big problem to solve with cooling the Earth. We have all these people who are excited about chestnuts,” Thompson said. “I’d like to see people join our group.”
“I’d like to see chestnutters making the world cooler,” she added.
To learn more about American chestnut reforestation in West Virginia, visit chestnutters.org.
On this West Virginia Morning, WVPB last spring covered efforts at Shepherd University to regrow American chestnut forests in Appalachia. One year later, that project has incorporated new technology and a familiar tree variant. Jack Walker caught up with a pair of self-proclaimed “chestnutters” to discuss the project at large, and the future of the American chestnut.
On this West Virginia Morning, WVPB last spring covered efforts at Shepherd University to regrow American chestnut forests in Appalachia. One year later, that project has incorporated new technology and a familiar tree variant. Jack Walker caught up with a pair of self-proclaimed “chestnutters” to discuss the project at large, and the future of the American chestnut.
Also, in this show, more than 4.5 million Americans cannot vote because they’ve been convicted of a felony. On the newest episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the patchwork of state laws that restore voting rights to people after those convictions. The laws differ significantly from state to state. A few allow a person to vote from prison, while others require release and completion of probation or parole. Kay meets Anthony Cole who’s been out of prison for nearly a year after serving 12 and a half years. We listen to an excerpt from the next Us & Them: “Locked Out of Voting?”
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.
Chris Schulz produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
