2nd Tree Headed To Nation’s Capital From Mon National Forest

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s office said a 40-foot Norway spruce from the Monongahela National Forest will be placed on the Ellipse at the White House.

West Virginia will send a second Christmas tree to the nation’s capital this year.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s office said a 40-foot Norway spruce from the Monongahela National Forest will be placed on the Ellipse at the White House. 

The previous White House Christmas tree had to be replaced after developing a fungal disease.

Manchin says this is the first time the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service have partnered to bring a tree to the Ellipse.

“These tree lighting celebrations are wonderful traditions that bring our great country together, and West Virginia’s role this year will be absolutely historic,” Manchin said in a statement Wednesday.

A 63-foot Norway spruce is already on its way to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and scheduled to arrive on Friday. It also comes from the Monongahela National Forest.

That tree will be lit after Thanksgiving, with Manchin as the host. 

A Fraser fir from a tree farm in Jefferson County decorated the White House Blue Room in 2020.

West Virginia Tree, 63 Feet And 8,000 Pounds, Headed To U.S. Capitol

For the first time in more than 40 years, the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree is from West Virginia. It was harvested in the Monongahela National Forest in Randolph County on Nov. 1.

Thousands gathered at the state Capitol Tuesday to see the tree that’s going to the U.S. Capitol for Christmas.

For the first time in more than 40 years, the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree is from West Virginia. It was harvested in the Monongahela National Forest in Randolph County on Nov. 1.

“It’s a Norway Spruce. It came from Laurel Fork Campground in Randolph County,” said Meadow Arbogast, a conservation educator with the U.S. Forest Service. “It’s 63 feet tall and weighs about 8,000 pounds.”

She said the tree comes from a different region every year.

Meadow Arbogast is a conservation educator with the U.S. Forest Service.

“Every year, a different national forest is selected to provide the tree for the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. It usually goes by region, so there are 10 regions of national forests in the United States, and Region 9 was selected'” she said. “There are a few states in Region 9, but finally, it came back to West Virginia. We’ve done this project two other times, in 1970 and 1976.”

It was 67 degrees in Charleston on Tuesday evening, and Arbogast said it was nothing like that the day the tree was cut down.

“Our harvest day was 19 degrees, and it was snowing,” she said. “So, this is incredibly different than cutting it down!”

Charleston won’t be the last place West Virginians can see the tree, though it is bundled up and loaded on a 100-foot flatbed truck.

“We have quite the journey still,” Arbogast said. “It will be delivered on Nov. 17, and we have more stops to come. I think this is stop No. 5 of our 19-stop tour.”

The tree came to Huntington on Wednesday. Wheeling is next, followed by Morgantown, Davis, Romney and Harpers Ferry. The tree will be lighted on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol after Thanksgiving. 

West Virginia Tour Schedule

  • Thursday, Nov. 9 (Wheeling) 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. White Palace at Wheeling Park
  • Friday, Nov. 10 (Morgantown) 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. 84 Lumber
  • Saturday, Nov. 11 (Morgantown) 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Operation Welcome Home at Mylan Park and 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. WVU, 243 High St.
  • Sunday, Nov. 12 (Upper Tract) 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Swilled Dog/Raymond’s Gymnastic Center
  • Monday, Nov. 13 (Davis) 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. 533 Building
  • Tuesday, Nov. 14 (Romney) 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. WV Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.
  • Wednesday, Nov. 15 (Harpers Ferry) 12 p.m. – 2 p.m. Harpers Ferry Job Corps Center
  • Thursday, Nov. 16 (Prince George’s County) 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Joint Base Andrews (Base only)
  • Friday, Nov. 17 Delivery to West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building

U.S. Appeals Court Blocks Mountain Valley Pipeline Again

Congress expedited approval of all the pipeline’s outstanding permits in the debt ceiling deal lawmakers approved last month, but environmental groups and landowners again asked the Fourth Circuit to intervene.

Construction on a controversial natural gas pipeline is on hold again, and it’s the second legal setback for the project in as many days.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday halted construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia.

The appeals court for the third time rejected the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s analysis of the pipeline’s impact on endangered species, including the candy darter, a nearly extinct fish.

The ruling comes a day after the same court blocked the U.S. Forest Service’s approval for construction on a three-mile portion of the 300-mile pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest.

Congress expedited approval of all the pipeline’s outstanding permits in the debt ceiling deal lawmakers approved last month, but environmental groups and landowners again asked the Fourth Circuit to intervene.

Opponents have expressed concerns about the safety of the pipeline and its impact on streams.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, one of the project’s biggest backers, called the new ruling “unlawful.”

“The law passed by Congress and signed by the president is clear,” Manchin said in a statement. “The 4th Circuit no longer has jurisdiction over Mountain Valley Pipeline’s construction permits.”

U.S. Forest Service Grants Key Permit For Mountain Valley Pipeline

The 300-mile, $6.6 billion pipeline now has a permit to cross the Jefferson National Forest.

Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline have been able to delay permits for the project. Now one has been approved.

Weeks after it got a favorable environmental review from the U.S. Forest Service, the Mountain Valley Pipeline now has a permit to cross the Jefferson National Forest.

The 3.5-mile segment is key to the completion of the 300-mile, $6.6 billion pipeline.

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, and Rep. Carol Miller, have been some of the pipeline’s biggest supporters

“While I’m pleased with the announcement from the Forest Service, the job isn’t done yet,” Manchin said in a statement Tuesday, “and I will keep pushing the administration and all involved to finally complete the last 20 miles of this vital pipeline.”

Environmental and community groups have opposed it because of its potential effects on rivers and streams in West Virginia and Virginia, as well as the climate impacts of producing and burning natural gas.

The pipeline still needs an assortment of other permits before it can be finished. Manchin and Capito have both reintroduced bills to speed up the permitting process for energy projects.

Manchin has criticized the Biden administration’s energy policies in recent weeks, including new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

West Virginia’s Dolly Sods Wilderness Seeking Volunteers For Unique Experience

Outdoor enthusiasts have a new way to help maintain West Virginia’s natural beauty for future generations.

Outdoor enthusiasts have a new way to help maintain West Virginia’s natural beauty for future generations.

Created in 2021 as a response to a large influx of visitors during the pandemic, the Dolly Sods Wilderness Stewards aim to assist the Monongahela National Forest with managing and protecting the wilderness character of Dolly Sods.

Stewards serve as a resource for visitors entering the backcountry to understand the unique nature of the wilderness, what to expect and how to prepare for the experience of a primitive area. Opportunities to help with other projects such as trail maintenance are available.

No specific background or experience is required to apply, and there is no minimum time commitment. Those who live far away or who can only occasionally volunteer their time are welcome.

The program is a partnership between the USDA Forest Service and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

The next training for Trailhead Stewards is tentatively planned for late May.

For more information or to sign up, go to www.wvhighlands.org or https://bit.ly/3pBjiyV.

Glidepath To Recovery: Flying Squirrels And Spruce Forests Share Common Fate

U.S. Forest Service district biologist Shane Jones stands on an overlook high up on West Virginia’s Cheat Mountain. Behind him lush, red spruce trees stand like sentinels on this frozen landscape. As he looks out, small patches of green dot what is largely a view of the barren, brown trunks of leafless hardwoods.

More than a century ago, this high-elevation ecosystem, now located inside the Monongahela National Forest, would have been dominated by the evergreen spruce. After being logged and suffering from fires in the 1880s through early 1900s, today an estimated 90 percent of this ice age-relic of an ecosystem has been removed from West Virginia.

And that has been a challenge for another iconic species: the West Virginia northern flying squirrel.

Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
A rare stand of old red spruce trees in WV.

“We always say as the spruce goes the squirrel goes,” Jones said. As he hikes through a rare virgin patch of red spruce forest, he explains the interconnected relationship the northern flying squirrel and red spruce forest share.

Over the last decade, efforts to help both the squirrel and spruce recover are showing some promising signs, but that there is dispute about whether those efforts are enough.

Tight Relationship

A mature high-elevation red spruce forest will have a mixture of trees of different ages. There will be big trees, as well as fallen trees that create a hole in the canopy that allows smaller trees to grow. The diversity makes the forest resilient. The cool, moist climate of red spruce forests, coupled with the dead needles — or leaf litter — the trees shed, allow rich soils to build up on the forest floor.

“It’s completely different than the soil that develops under hardwood forests or other forests,” Jones said.

Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Cavities in older trees provide shelter for the squirrels.

And it’s important fodder for mycorrhizal fungi, which develops on the root tips of red spruce trees in the deep organic soils created in these high-elevation forests. The layman’s term for these mycorrhizal fungi: truffles. And that is the meal of choice for the northern flying squirrel.

“They have this really tight relationship with spruce forest,” said Cordie Diggins, a research scientist at Virginia Tech who studies flying squirrels.

The small, nocturnal rodents are notoriously hard to catch. And they don’t actually fly, they glide, she said. The northern flying squirrel spent almost three decades under federal protection. In 2013, it became one of the few species to have its protections removed under the Endangered Species Act, a process known as delisting.  

Recently, federal biologists released a status report for the West Virginia northern flying squirrel. It was largely optimistic. It found in the five years since delisting, the squirrels are still found across much of their range and in some new areas.

But not everyone is convinced the northern flying squirrel is thriving since its delisting. Noah Greenwald directs the endangered species program for the Center for Biological Diversity. The conservation group sued and won protections for the northern flying squirrel in the mid-2000s. He’s concerned wildlife managers don’t really know how many squirrels are out there.

Credit Jack Wallace / Courtesy WV DNR
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Courtesy WV DNR
A flying squirrel in flight.

“They just have some, you know, sort of somewhat sporadically collected information showing squirrels to be present or absent in different areas,” he said.

And he has concerns about the forest restoration work itself.

“They’re taking out these big hardwood trees that are part of the squirrels’ habitat and they’re planting young red spruce which aren’t currently habitat and won’t be for a while,” Greenwald said.

The small gliding rodent is notoriously challenging to trap, which is the traditional way biologists estimate population, said Diggins at Virginia Tech.

“In a perfect world, we would be able to catch a ton of squirrels and get an idea of population, but that’s not always possible for rare species,” she said.

Ugly Restoration

Back in the truck, Jones, the USFS biologist, begins driving to the Mower Tract, a 40,000-acre parcel of land owned for decades by the Mower Land and Lumber Company that was logged and mined for decades. In the 1980s, the land was purchased by the Forest Service and for the last decade, this has been where much of the red spruce restoration has been happening in the Monongahela National Forest.

At first glance, he concedes, it’s not the most pleasing picture.

“We call it ugly restoration,” he said with a laugh.

Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
A young red spruce grows in the Mower Tract in WV.

Under its reclamation obligations, the company restored much of the Mower Tract. It bulldozed the land back into roughly its original shape and planted trees on the surface. To an outsider it looks like, well, forest.

But Jones points to signs the ecosystem here is not thriving. Trees have stopped growing and big, open patches of land show little sign of life besides some grasses. Soil testing in the region has confirmed a few centuries ago this land was red spruce forest. That is what Jones hopes it will be again.

To get there, the restoration staff tries to recreate conditions conducive to a healthy red spruce forest. Dozers are used to tear through the earth and break up the ground so tree roots can penetrate through the soil. Some of the existing hardwood trees are ripped out of the earth and left on the landscape to decay. These “snags” as biologists call them provide crucial animal habitat. Contractors also build wetlands.

About a year after this work is done, volunteers come in and plant a variety of species including red spruce. At one area of the Mower Tract, a few years old, knee high green baby spruce trees dot the brown landscape growing up among the twisted, decaying limbs of downed hardwoods.

“What we’re doing is we’re taking an area that was like a biological desert, stuck in arrested succession, the ground was compacted, and we’re putting it back into a forest that eventually, like a long time for now, will be a functional red spruce ecosystem,” Jones said.

Restoration work on the Mower Tract is a partnership between USFS, Green Forest Works and the Appalachian Regional Reforestation initiative. Since 2011, more than 760 acres have been restored and more than 350,000 plants planted in the Mower Tract. More than 150,000 red spruce have been planted, according to a project report released in 2019.

Jones said red spruce planted here have about a 90 percent survival rate.

Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
U.S. Forest Service district biologist Shane Jones.

While re-establishing a red spruce ecosystem is the primary objective of the project, the work also creates early successional habitat, which supports hunting. The creation of wetlands helps with water quality and in the long term will boost the sequestration of carbon, Jones said.

The spruce restoration effort is also important in the face of climate change. Warming threatens the endangered ecosystem. Because of their status as high-elevation forests, they have little room on the landscape to shift northward as temperatures climb. Red spruce forests are also possible climate refugia for species that may flee lower elevation climates as they warm. The central Appalachian mountains are an important wildlife migration corridor, Jones said.

The work also increases the odds that one day the West Virginia northern flying squirrel will thrive here too. “I think 50 years [for] squirrels is not unrealistic,” he said.

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