Southern Coalfields Story Archives - Page 2 of 3 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Coalfields Expressway To Welch Breaks Ground

Gov. Jim Justice, the West Virginia Department of Transportation and local officials celebrated the next phase of the Coalfields Expressway Monday.

Gov. Jim Justice, the West Virginia Department of Transportation and local officials celebrated the next phase of the Coalfields Expressway Monday. The road is expected to help with economic development and connect parts of mountainous southern West Virginia .

The bid for the construction of the next five miles of the road to Welch was awarded to Bizzack Construction of Lexington, Kentucky in May. The project is part of Justice’s Roads To Prosperity program. The same program helped to complete the road from Slab Fork to Mullens in Wyoming County, which opened in 2020.

The planned route continues into southwest Virginia through Grundy and will end at Pound, Virginia connecting with U.S. 23.

The four lane highway broke ground back in 2000 but the idea for the road goes back to the late 1960’s, when the road was called the Beckley to Grundy Road. The infrastructure project is more than 27 years in the making.

More than 15 years ago a Marshall University study conducted a study that found that the Coalfields Expressway would help create a better economy for the region.

The Southern Coalfield Airports: Where Did They Go?

Amid the rolling hills and strip-mined mountain tops that stretch through Logan County, West Virginia is Route 10 — a newer highway that was 20 years in the making. It made road travel in southern West Virginia more accessible, but it also replaced the McDonald airfield.

And like most airports in the coalfields, the McDonald airfield is but a faint memory, recalled only by a few who used to fly there.

“We loved our little airport, and so we always took good care of it,” said Andrew York, a professional pilot from southern West Virginia.

York learned to fly at McDonald airfield in the 90s. It was known by locals as Taplin airfield, for its proximity to the unincorporated town of Taplin.

“It always looked good in the spring and summer in the fall,” he said. “It was always nicely mowed and trimmed and we’d have cookouts, and it was a throwback airport. There was nothing new there.”

The Way It Was

In the mid-1900s, the southern coalfields were once home to at least 40 airfields, or landing strips for airplanes, but today there are 28.

York’s grandfather, Edsel Varney, a legendary WWII fighter pilot, helped found Taplin airfield after the war. At that time, Taplin was a big deal.

John F. Kennedy flew into Taplin for a campaign stump speech before he was elected president. Also, actor Lorne Greene who played Mr. Cartwright on Television’s ‘Bonanza’ flew into the small Logan County airport.

In fact, local airfields popped up across southern West Virginia in the 1900s. At least 12 were opened between the 1930s and the later 1960s. They were used as training facilities, military fields and as a way to get around West Virginia.

Flight revolutionized travel in the Mountain State, said Merle Cole, Raleigh County Historical Society marker program officer.

“It took 50 minutes to fly, what would take you almost seven hours on a train and nearly as long by car,” Cole said.

Two Industries Intertwined

Many of these historic airfields have disappeared, much like Taplin. They have been replaced by highways, strip malls and some have been overtaken by the forests.

There are not many people left who still know the history of these tiny airports, and very little history was written down. Like so much else tied to the once prosperous coal towns throughout Appalachia, many of these stories have been forgotten with time.

But the airfield history that we do know, Cole said, is partly related to the boom and bust cycle of coal mining.

“Flying is an expensive business. You gotta’ have a lot of money invested in airplanes, and airports and runways and staff and crew,” he said. “If you’re operating a small, private or personal strip, you still got to have the money to keep that plane in the air.”

While the coal industry soared in the mid-1900s, financing the airfields was not an issue, Cole said, adding that flying was relatively new and exciting, only invented a few decades earlier.

“People had extra cash on hand, people got their pilot’s license and learned to fly,” Cole said.

Pursuing his passion for flying, Edsel Varnie, Andrew York’s grandfather, used his fighter pilot experience to work his way up from being a coal miner to flying coal barons through the southern coalfields.

“If you’re a coal president or you’re in charge of the coal mines or something, I guess you don’t want to drive, you know, an hour and a half, two hours depending on what part of the southern coalfield you’re coming from,” York said. “But you had all these little communities that had their own airport, and it gave them access out of the coalfields.”

An “Uphill” Battle

Although flying was more efficient than driving, the topography still made flying difficult. To land a plane one needs long stretches of flat land, something the mountain state, especially the southern coalfields, lacks.

Runways have to be built either on top of flattened mountains or in flat land near the rivers, Randy Coller, pilot and airport inspector, said. Coller has inspected airports all over the country, including West Virginia.

“Generally, they’re shorter runways. And if they’re built in a valley it makes it extra difficult because there’ll be fog in the valley meaning it takes a while for the fog to lift out of the valley for it to be used,” Coller said.

The Taplin airfield, remember the little Logan County airport, was listed as ‘hazardous’ even while it was still open. It was about 2,600 feet of unpaved, grass runway. For comparison, a more typical runway is paved and around 6,000 feet.

West Virginia Route 10 cuts through half of what used to be the McDonald, or Taplin, Airfield.

Taplin was also in a valley and shaped in a curve, or what pilots call a ‘dog leg,’ making it tricky to land, York said.

“You might be able to see some of the airfield but not a lot of it because you had a ridge between you and the airfield. So, you followed the river, a windy river,” York said. “So, you wasn’t really flying straight to the runway. And then all of a sudden you get around at one point at Rich Creek, and bam, there’s the runway and you would land. That’s not normal.”

Within the regional pilot community, it was thought that if one could land a plane at Taplin, one could land a plane most anywhere, York said.

The End Of An Era

With the decline of the coal industry and along with it, West Virginia’s economy, Cole, the historian in Raleigh County, said the smaller airfields were no longer used.

“When the coal industry started dying off, many went away, and people simply didn’t have the money to pay for their hobbies or their transportation in some cases,” Cole said.

But the decline was not solely related to the coal industry. Randy Coller, the airfield inspector, said there are several other factors not specific to West Virginia.

“After WWII there was kind of an upsurge in pilots because a lot of the veterans had access to the GI Bill and they learned to fly, but that generation of pilots is dying out,” he said.

Also, the opening of larger regional airports and more stringent regulations made it harder for local operations to stay open, Coller said. But some communities hold out, Coller added, hoping to one day reopen their airfields.

One in Wyoming County is not used much for flying these days, but it is still maintained for other reasons.

“I myself have walked at the airport or ridden my bike as a young child. And now I enjoy taking my kids up there as well,” said LeAnn Biggs, a West Virginia native.

The airfield is a long strip of empty pavement, much like a running track, great for recreating.

“We take long walks up there, my children ride their bikes, splashing the mud puddles, and just enjoy the scenery,” Biggs said.

Many of the airfields in West Virginia’s coalfields have disappeared with time, taking with them much of the rich history. Some have turned into strip mines or chemical factories, others reclaimed by the forests. But there are some clues left behind.

In Welch there is a locked gate, with an old metal sign that reads, ‘Welch Airport.’ Along Route 10 in Logan County, there is a turnoff that is called, ‘Airport Road.’ It takes you to what is left of Taplin Airfield – an overgrown field lining the banks of a windy river, that offers a glimmer of what it once was.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

**An earlier version of this story misquoted Merle Cole. The correct version is, “It took 50 minutes to fly, what would take you almost seven hours on a train and nearly as long by car,” instead of, “It took 15 minutes to fly, what would take you almost seven hours on a train and nearly as long by car.”

Pandemic Hampers Summer Peak Season For Southern W.Va. Tourism, Small Businesses

This time of year, the Hatfield McCoy trail system in southern West Virginia usually is buzzing with ATVs. In fact, Jeffrey Lusk, director of the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, said he makes almost half of his permit sales for the year from March 1 to April 30.

But for towns and local businesses along the trail system, things are pretty quiet these days. The Hatfield McCoy trails have been closed since March 20, by an executive order from Governor Jim Justice to enforce social distancing and public health recommendations from the federal government.

This includes Bramwell, in Mercer County, where the Bramwell Corner Shop would normally be enjoying traffic from the nearby Pocahontas Trail.

“Our sales are just very, very low right now,” manager Mandy Fink said on Tuesday, April 21.

From A Hatfield McCoy ATV trail head in Logan County, in October 2019. The trails have been closed since March 20, 2020, due to efforts to promote social distancing.

The Corner Shop, like most restaurants throughout the state, is serving takeout orders only.

“We have a lot of local people that love the corner shop and they eat here,” Fink said, “but we also have a lot of revenue that comes off the trails, and with the trails closed right now none of that’s happening.”

For many locally owned businesses in southern West Virginia, warmer months bring in the majority of revenue, because it is when out-of-towners are most likely to visit.

On Monday, Gov. Jim Justice shared plans to reopen various operations on a six-week schedule, assuming the state continues to keep its cumulative COVID-19 positive test rate under 3 percent for three consecutive days. Still, local businesses will remain impacted by their time offline and the uncertainty around when they will reopen, and the restrictions they will continue to face.

Take Adventures on the Gorge, a rafting and outdoor tourism company based in Fayette County, which is so popular in late summer that the CEO Roger Wilson described their peak season as a “100-day war.”

“It starts on June 15, and runs through roughly September 15,” Wilson said. “That’s when the majority of our people are coming here.”

Wilson’s company employs some 400 workers every year. Normally by April he would be training new guides, but this year he said he is depending on returning senior guides to save money and avoid overcrowding.

Local Businesses, Tourism Typically A Much Needed Employer

To help with paychecks for existing employees, Wilson said Adventures on the Gorge received a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, through the first relief package passed by Congress.

“If we had not gotten that one, there would be about 34 people laid off immediately,” he said. “It would have made opening up for us really hard.”

A group river rafting on the New River through Adventures on the Gorge in summer 2019. CEO Roger Wilson said he expects raft trips to operate around half capacity to encourage social distancing.

But, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the country’s largest small business association, about 80 percent of small businesses in the U.S. had yet to hear back about the loans they applied for, as of April 20.

That included the corner shop in Bramwell. Manager Fink said they applied in early April, and as of April 27, the shop still had not heard anything back.

“We definitely have so many employees that cannot work at all,” Fink said, adding that the shop usually hires more people during its busier summer season. “And those of us that are working [we’re] working at least half the hours that we typically would.”

Congress passed a fourth relief package on April 23, including $321 billion for a second round of PPP loans. This was after the $349 billion Congress gave the program initially, which ran out less than two weeks after its allocation.

By Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Small Business Administration had processed nearly 476,000 loans, according to SBA spokesman Chris Hatch. He added that the loans approved so far total more than $52 billion, which is being administered by 5,200 banks and other lenders.

Director Lusk at the Hatfield McCoy Regional Trails Authority said his organization is helping businesses that partner with the trails — mostly lodging and ATV rentals — access as much capital and assistance as possible.

Many of the businesses by the trail are family-owned with small payrolls, meaning they would benefit more from an Economic Injury or Disaster Loan, or EIDL, which are geared more toward overhead costs, and less toward pay checks. Those loans have also been difficult for some to get.

The trails authority has had to temporarily lay off 51 of its own full-time and part-time employees, who normally would sell permits at trailheads and keep paths clear. Lusk said as soon as the trails are allowed to reopen, all 51 employees could return to work.

ATV-riders drive down a road in Gilbert, Mingo County, in July 2017. With the nearby Hatfield McCoy Trail system closed since March 20, 2020, businesses throughout southern West Virginia are noticing less revenue than previous springs.

Missing out on permit sales in late March and much of April has amounted to a roughly $1.1 million loss, he added.

“We’re optimistic that as the state begins to reopen, we’ll be in one of those early stages of reopening,” Lusk said.

The Main Street Struggle

Just outside Fayetteville at the Arrowhead Bike Farm, co-owner Rich Ireland said most of his workers are receiving unemployment.

But like Adventures on the Gorge, the Bike Farm, which has a bike shop, restaurant, beer garden and camping sites,also secured a small PPP loan which can be used for paychecks and some overhead costs.

Although they are not in peak season yet, Ireland said he is concerned about how many people will be vacationing this summer.

“I think we’ll have a season. I don’t know how good it’ll be — I don’t know if we’ll meet our expectations. But hopefully it’ll be you know, one of those where we just took a growth year — a pause,” Ireland said.

At the Meadow Bridge Drive-In in Fayette County, owner Howard McClanahan is usually open from May to October, the first three months of which are the most important for revenue.

“We’ve just been taking our time this year because we know we’re not going to get open,” said McClanahan, who added they did not apply for a loan. “I don’t see us opening before the first of June.”

It is expensive to run a drive-in theater. McClanahan said when he first took over in the 80s, each year he needed around a couple thousand dollars just to open.

“This past year it’s gone up to almost, say, around $9,000 just to get open,” he said.

There is a risk the pandemic will hurt them years from now. Not only is the Meadow Bridge Drive-In a longstanding business, open since the 1950s, but it is one of only a few drive-ins left in the state.

Ireland, co-owner of the bike farm, is one of those concerned about the lifespan of the small businesses, new and old, that give West Virginia so much character, and draw tourists from around the region.

“I think it’s going to be a shame if all are left are going to be big chain restaurants or big stores,” Ireland said.

Reports indicate that quite a few nationwide chain businesses did qualify for the small business loans, but at least a few have returned them.

Teena Merlin owns a tattoo shop in Madison, Boone County, and she was preparing to open a coffee house before non-essential businesses had to close. She said last week she was unsuccessful applying for the loans.

The pandemic could hurt shops like her own in communities that have been trying to rebuild since the decline of coal, Merlin said.

“Main Street, in little towns like this, there are lots of little things like that, and they’re trying to revitalize communities,” she said. “This is really bad for small, struggling towns who are trying to rebuild.”

Several of the small businesses interviewed that did not qualify for a loan said they plan on re-applying again for a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars Congress has allocated in the new relief package.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

Communities, Schools Across West Virginia Come Together To Feed Students

Schools across West Virginia closed Monday, March 16, for at least two weeks in an effort to help stem the transmission of the coronavirus.

Since the shutdown was announced, West Virginians around the state have been working to make sure students are fed. According to the West Virginia Department of Education, more than two-thirds of school-aged children, or more than 183,000, qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.

Mountaineers are getting creative. Some schools are offering curbside food pickups, putting lunches on school busses, and in some communities restaurants, food banks and churches are stepping up.

West Virginians are finding ways to come together in this time where people are being asked to socially distance.

Providing In Wheeling

Word started to get out that schools would likely be closing. That’s when Bob Bailey, who’s had a catering business in the upper Ohio Valley for almost three decades, said he had a sobering moment of realization.

“There are children that their main meal, or their only meal of the day, is their school lunch,” he said.

Bob Bailey put a message out on social media and got a huge response.

Bailey put out a call on social media asking residents of Ohio and Marshall counties to: “please contact my business if a child relies on school lunches for their main meal of the day… I will gladly provide hot meals for children in need.”

In three days, he said more than 600 people responded, many offering to help.

“There were so many people reaching out saying, ‘Do you need money? Do you need people to come help pack lunches? Do you need people to run deliveries?’” he said.

Bailey said he received some financial donations that he’s set aside to defray food costs and that allowed him to buy biodegradable food containers. It didn’t take long to receive requests from families, including one set of grandparents who live nearby and are on a fixed income. They’re watching three grandchildren during the school closures.

“She contacted me yesterday, and she said she doesn’t know how she’s going to feed these children,” Bailey said. “So she came today and she cried, and then she made me cry.”

He said to keep in line with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control to remain at least six feet apart, the two pretended to hug. He sent her home with meals ready to be made in the microwave or oven.

Wheeling-based caterer Bob Bailey poses near the lunches he put together for kids out of school.

Bailey is already familiar with how to feed a variety of kids. His business, As You Like It Catering, regularly provides school lunches to Montessori’s, learning centers, preschools and elementary schools.

“We’re prepared. We know the right amount of proteins, grains, vegetables and fruits. So we make all of them balanced,” he said. “We have to follow those if we’re going to do the school lunches so we are providing all of that.”

So far, Bailey has put about 300 meals together. He provides families with enough food to last them through the week and sometimes throws in a little extra. He’s gotten additional requests this week and is now also preparing for next week.

Schools Get Creative

Monongalia County Schools are offering curbside lunch pickups.

The state Department of Education is playing a large role in ensuring students across the state’s 55 counties have access to food while school is out. Clayton Burch, state superintendent of schools, said as of Monday, 505 drop sites are serving meals to kids.

In a news release, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a waiver application from the West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition to continue feeding students even though school would not be in session. Burch said they are currently working with the National Guard and other community resources like food pantries on how meals would be distributed.

Each school district has been given leeway to develop a plan that suits their individual needs.

“We asked them in a very short time period to come up with a plan to serve all their children who needed meals,” he said. “In some areas it’s a grab and go where you actually come to the school and pick it up. In other areas they’re actually running school busses to school bus stops, families homes, and I think you’ll see even other places where they’re actually tapping into community resources to get those meals out there.”

In Morgantown, Monongalia County Schools is providing curbside pickup of hot lunches between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, at all of the district’s 17 schools.

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Listen to reporter Brittany Patterson's dispatch from Morgantown High School.

“During these uncertain times, we’re not sure what will happen from day to day or minute to minute, and this gives, I think, a little bit of comfort to students that they know they can come to their school and still get a school lunch,” said Brian Kiehl, director of child nutrition for Monongalia County schools.

A hot lunch being provided by Monongalia County Schools during school closures.

Kiehl said the staff is still figuring out how many lunches to make each day during the coronavirus closure. They handed out about 400 meals on Monday, more than 900 on Tuesday and about 1,500 on Wednesday. On a normal day they make about 6,500.

In the Eastern Panhandle, schools in Berkeley, Jefferson, Morgan, Mineral, Hampshire, Hardy, Grant and Pendleton counties are all providing their K-12 students free breakfast and lunch through this closure period — regardless of whether they normally receive free meals.

Some counties in the Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands region are offering meals-to-go at all of their school locations — while others have centralized food pick up at specific schools. Additionally, like Morgantown, some counties are offering delivery services by utilizing bus routes.

Officials say students from the Eastern Panhandle region may pick up meals at anyschool in their county offering grab-and-go meals, regardless of whether they attend that school or not.

And at least three counties, Grant, Berkeley and Jefferson, say they’ll feed any child, ages 1-18, if they show up at one of their pick up locations.

Patrick Murphy, Berkeley County superintendent of schools, said schools play a pivotal role in the well-being of their communities.

“I think as a community agency we … have a responsibility to make sure people are safe, and we have the element of being able to provide them meals and nutrition,” he said.

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Listen to WVPB's Liz McCormick reporting from the Eastern Panhandle.

Specific lists for pick up locations in all eight of the Eastern Panhandle counties are posted on county board websites, can be found via social media or by calling their county education board.

‘We Are Ready’

Across the state, there are also grassroots efforts bubbling up to make sure kids don’t go hungry.

Several Facebook groups have formed to help coordinate these efforts and connect volunteers, faith leaders, bus drivers, school cafeteria workers and local chefs. One group, called WV Food ER, began with two people, but in the past several days, the group has evolved into an effort by more than 2,000 people to assist local school systems ensure that children are being fed.

fooder_for_web.mp3

Listen to reporter Roxy Todd.

“Bus drivers and school service personnel are like all about this,” said Elizabeth Brunello, one of the coordinators of the group. “They see their responsibility to just step forward and it’s pretty amazing to see.”

She said in rural areas, it can be challenging to ensure food is being delivered to children in need.

Communities across the Southern Coalfields know this challenge well. Many have come together to work it out, and many say, this is nothing new.

Welch Elementary School Principal Dr. Kristy East out delivering food to families this week.

“Well, let me tell you, this is McDowell County. We stay in disaster mode every day. So you know, we’re, we are ready,” said Linda McKinney who runs McDowell County’s Five Loaves and Two Fishes food pantry.

McKinney typically serves 1,200 people a month and expects that number to go up. In two days, 76 families requested food, which she said averages to about 500 people. To avoid large gatherings, she is having people pick up food by appointment only.

But getting that food down to the region is not necessarily easy with businesses shutting down and people being advised to stay home. This is where the National Guard comes in. Major Holli Nelson said the guard is collaborating with the West Virginia Department of Education to streamline food distribution throughout the state, but especially to the southern part of the state.

“We are very rural in how our population lives,” Nelson said. “We have a lot of mountains that we have to deal with. There’s connectivity issues, getting the word out of how to best push the information out to those who need it most.”

The Department of Education is also directly collaborating with staff in the coalfields to identify areas of high need, as options like bussing food to kids can be uniquely challenging in the southern region, according to Amanda Harrison, executive director of the Office of Child Nutrition.

“Late last week, our state experienced flooding in certain locations, and so we have to consider safety in terms of routes that are being taken,” she said.

There are also examples of people providing food on a very local level, not in an official state-directed capacity.

southernMP3.mp3

Caitlin Tan reports from the Southern Coalfields.

That includes Spencer’s Catering and Carry-out, also in McDowell County. It is a mom and daughter-owned business that is usually open Friday and Saturday. But this week, manager Ashley Spencer said they provided lunch and home food deliveries Monday and Tuesday, adding that more than 50 kids came in to eat on Monday.

“Their meals at school are the only meals they have, so I definitely wanted to make sure Monday we were ready to go, because they had the weekend and a lot of them didn’t have food,” Spencer said.

In Boone County, Mick Frye, senior pastor of the Fountain of Life Worship Center, said they are providing a free hot lunch for kids and families, no questions asked.

“Spaghetti, we got string cheese, a little bit of yogurt, some carrots and then also, you know, some ice cream, something like that, just something kids like,” Frye said.

The church has a bus ministry that provides free transportation to church service and Frye said that is helping them reach out to families who they know need food right now.

He said he is quite hopeful that kids will get fed in the Southern Coalfields.

“You know, we know poverty, and people have always been willing to reach out and even when times were rough, you know, West Virginia and southern West Virginians have always known how to get through those things because we just come together and help each other,” Frye said.

So although coronavirus is a very new type of crisis to hit the region, many southern West Virginians said this is nothing new, that the resiliency of the communities will help see them through this pandemic and maybe they can even be a model, again, for other communities throughout the country.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

Looking At W.Va.'s Elk Herd Four Years In

The West Virginia elk reintroduction program is four years in, and the project is not growing as fast as expected; however, there is a herd in the Southern Coalfields that is slowly getting bigger.

Much of West Virginia’s elk reintroduction program is modeled after Kentucky’s, which is more than 20 years old. Officials there estimate the program provides a nearly $3 billion hunting and tourism boost to the economy. West Virginia’s Division of Natural Resources [DNR], who oversee the elk in the Mountain State project, hope to see it flourish in similar ways.

Reclaimed Mines For Elk

West Virginia’s herd of about 80 elk live on the over 35,000-acre Tomblin and Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area that is primarily reclaimed strip mines. It is in Logan and Mingo counties – in the heart of the state’s Southern Coalfields.

Elk project leader Randy Kelley with an elk the team tranquilized to put a radio collar and/or ear tags on. This was several days after WVPB came to report.

Randy Kelley, the DNR elk biologist and leader of the program, took WVPB on a tour of the area.

“There’s an elk right there. See? Over there,” Kelley said. “There you seen your first elk in West Virginia. You’ve not even gotten out of the truck yet.”

And to the left was one of the few active strip mines in this area.

Logan Klingler, the DNR wildlife manager, said the reclaimed land creates preferred elk habitat called early successional growth. He explained as an explosion went off.

“That’s an old mine blast,” Klingler said. “They’re blowing up rocks and they’re going to go mine it and put it back together and put grass on top of it.”

The mine reclamation process creates open areas with freshly seeded grass that are not heavily forested, something that West Virginia does not have much of naturally, but is beneficial to elk.

The Elk “Hunt”

West Virginia’s elk herd was brought in from Kentucky and Arizona between 2016 and 2018, after several eastern states began reintroducing elk. Before the Civil War and prior to industrial development, elk were common in Appalachia. The rugged landscape was spotted with the 700-pound, light and dark brown creatures bugling during mating season in the fall.

The DNR crew waits while elk project leader Randy Kelley attempts to tranquilize an elk several miles away.

As part of the project, the DNR team locate and shoot elk with tranquilizer guns to put GPS tracking collars on them. It is how they learn about how the elk are adjusting to West Virginia — like where they are eating, drinking, bedding down and if they are staying off roads.

Kelley said he and the crew go out most days in the winter to put collars on elk that do not have them already, but they are wild animals. And sometimes, like on this day, there are no elk.

“Well we’re skunked for tonight,” Kelley said, on the day WVPB accompanied the team. “Sometimes you get the dog and sometimes the dog gets you. The dog got us tonight.”

Growing A Sustainable Herd

Four years into the project, the West Virginia elk herd is smaller than biologists had hoped it would be by now.

They received grants from organizations like The Conservation Fund, the Wildlife Restoration Program and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation with the goal of reintroducing elk to southern West Virginia during a five-year timespan. However, Kelley said other states are not willing to give up their elk right now, so West Virginia has seen no outside additions to the herd since 2018.

The West Virginia Department of Natural Resources emblem.

This pushes back one of the main goals of the project, which is to introduce an elk hunting season to West Virginia. Although, Kelley said he has high hopes for elk-related tourism, as there is already interest in tours of just the wildlife management area, without even a guarantee to see any elk. But with the state surrounded by successful, longer running elk reintroduction programs in Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, is it realistic to expect tourism numbers to soar in West Virginia?

Sara Cottingham, West Virginia-based community planner at Downstream Strategies who specializes in outdoor recreation planning, said maybe.

“I would not at all say that means West Virginia couldn’t be competitive, I think with targeted marketing and aggressive pushing it could really be a successful destination,” Cottingham said. “And I do think that adding elk tourism to that portfolio of what we have to offer would really enhance everything.”

Wild And Wonderful

And Kelley, the project leader, said there are more to it than just the economic benefits. It is restoring a species that was once native here, kind of adding to that magic of “wild and wonderful” West Virginia.

“I’ve seen elk on TV, I’ve been out West, I’ve driven through Yellowstone, but seeing an elk at home is a whole lot different, or hearing it bugle in your home state as it echoes through the hills of West Virginia, it’s, you know, make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up,” he said.

As for the local community, Kelley said most are supportive.

Randy Kelley wearing his scent blocking clothing which helps not scare the elk when he is trying to tranquilize them.

John Burchett, a resident from Williamson said he is hopeful the program will help the West Virginia’s Southern Coalfields’ lagging economy.

“The post-coal economy is going to be kind of tourism based, and the more things we have to do, the more entertainment, more adventure tourism that we have, the better off we’ll be. And the elk program is a big part of that,” he said.

Disease Is Inevitable

Some local deer hunters have expressed concern about the ability of the elk to coexist with white tail deer, Jake Wimmer, the DNR elk technician, said. But he added that so far, the way the two animals use the land is different.

“Deer are browsers and elk are primarily grazers,” he said. “So your deer are going to be, you know, in the hardwoods during a nice mass drop year eating acorns, while your elk are still going to be out on the strips, on the plains and grazing the good grass.”

However, the DNR recently reported a third of the elk from Arizona, about 15, perished due to the East Coast’s deadly brain worm disease, which white tail deer happen to be the host of.

The disease is caused by an infected snail or slug that animals can ingest from grazing that rarely affects deer, but typically will kill an elk. Researchers estimate about 10 percent of elk herds in the East fall victim to brain worm, albeit West Virginia is experiencing higher rates.

Kelley said it could be the stress the Arizona elk underwent traveling 33 hours cross country and adjusting to a new environment that lowered their immune systems.

Jeff Larkin, professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, worked with the Kentucky elk reintroduction program back in the late 90s. He said he saw higher rates of brain worm in the early years, too.

Randy Kelley inside his tent that hides him from the elk herds. He sits in there when attempting to shoot a tranquilizer dart into an elk.

“You bring in 1,000 animals, and you lose 100. Yeah, it’s 10 percent, but you still have 900 animals to reproduce and replace what’s happening there, right? It’s not like, great for the population. It’s just that the population can withstand that,” Larkin said.

Moving Forward

But West Virginia’s elk population is still relatively small, around 80, and every disease and death means the herd could be less resilient in the years to come. Growing those numbers, without bringing in more elk from out West, takes time. In Pennsylvania, for example, 177 elk were reintroduced in the early 1900s, and about 100 years later the herd is thriving at around 1000

And while the West Virginia biologists hope that it will not take that long to grow the state’s herd, they admit that the project is a little behind in their initial goal to reach 150 elk by the end of 2020.

But in the meantime, they are maintaining the herd they do have, plus, Kelley said he expects West Virginia-born elk calves this spring.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

Bobwhite Quail Return To West Virginia

Officials from the West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday that an extinct species native to West Virginia were restored.

Last week 48 bobwhite quail were reintroduced to southern West Virginia from Texas. They were released in the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan and Mingo Counties.

According to a press release, the species was wiped out during West Virginia’s harsh winters of 1977, 78 and 79. A team from the state’s Department of Natural Resources is using transmitters to monitor the quail’s survival and habitat use.

Logan Klingler, DNR wildlife manager, helps Gov. Jim Justice release the bobwhite quail into the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area.

The plan has been in the works for a couple years at Governor Jim Justice’s urging, according to the release.

Four years ago, a similar restoration program unfolded at the wildlife management area with the release of elk from Kentucky. The area is made up of mostly reclaimed strip mines in the state’s Southern Coalfields.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.