highlands-50-cover.pdf 1 9/1/17 11:04 AM The Highlands Voice September, 2017 Page 2 Ramblin’ the Ridges By Cynthia D. Ellis Steady gaze Welcome! Greetings! Salutations! waters fouled by those same spoils and business.” He meant that they would like Whether you are with us in person at our mine drainages too. We could envisage to lay aside the business of patching up th 50 anniversary celebration, or checking up precious public lands whittled away or injured birds, because ideally there would on us by reading this at home, we send you commercialized beyond recognition. no birds suffering injuries, especially those our very best wishes for being part of the Alternately, we could take an upbeat that are related to humans. first 50 years of the West Virginia Highlands tack. We could foresee years ahead with In the future, is that what we Conservancy. folks joining our group and ally groups wish? Do we hope there will be no West Throughout this year we’ve looked and new groups to make change for better Virginia Highlands Conservancy, because back at our past. But now, what’s the highlands will be in a state of next? protection and preservation? Do we Periodically writers for The want to be out of a “job”? Highlands Voice have toyed with No. But maybe our work will forecasting the future. be different and the burden will be “On July 4, 1972, hundreds even more widely shared. of visitors turned away disappointed In 1973, in our 8th year, noted during the long holiday weekend Charleston Daily Mail columnist when smog prevented the sightseers Skip Johnson wrote a piece from catching a glimpse of the complimenting us and said, “Every spectacular falls.” That’s how one of government bureaucracy, every coal us, in 1969, fancied that Blackwater executive, every politician needs a Falls could be affected by the air suspicious citizen looking over his pollution problems then. shoulder. The Conservancy is West We had also worried about Virginia’s suspicious citizen, and trail bikes. Someone projected more power to it.” We too think that another news bulletin, with sarcasm the mountain state is lucky to have again--- us, and we find it hard to imagine “April 17, 1971 -Another day a time when captains of industry of bitter fighting broke out between and elected officials wouldn’t need the Suzuki Trail Bikers and forces of our scrutiny. Johnson also wrote, the Audubon Society. Forty-seven “The success of the Conservancy birdwatchers were killed in the bloody stems from the fact that it gets a lot battle of Bear Rocks while 6 Suzukis of people from different walks of life were destroyed by Audubon mortar involved in a common goal: a better fire. Three regiments of Hondas and environment for West Virginia and 7 platoons of minibikes were thrown West Virginians. What could be in to take possession of the whole more purposeful than that?” Dolly Sods area.” We still have that purpose. Many of us would not feel We still have many friends and ally confident in predicting the future, outcomes…for protected lands and waters. groups; indeed, the number of groups aside from tongue-in-cheek ones such We could see uniting to work for legislative forming up to meet challenges to the as those above. The political upheavals reforms so that lawmakers and citizens mountains seems to be growing and we and changes in our country magnify our would be working together to avert climate welcome a congenial cooperation with all. uncertainty. collapse. The greatest, steadiest strength of We could be pessimistic. Perhaps we Thinking glumly or cheerfully the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy will not be able to attract folks of an age and though, it’s difficult to imagine a time when remains, as ever, you. The individuals who inclination to work on the issues. Perhaps our organization would not be needed. As support us will ensure that our stewardship industries will be emboldened to oppose when our predecessors were dealing with endures. Three cheers for us! Three scrutiny and activism through litigation and dirt bikes and smoggy days, sometimes the cheers for fifty years! Three cheers for fifty we will suffer. In earlier decades, some of outlook seems grim. more!!! our members and writers foresaw smog and Once a speaker for a West Virginia clearcutting everywhere; we could easily raptor rehabilitation center made a startling imagine frack wastes abounding and more claim. “We’d like to see ourselves go out of The Highlands Voice September, 2017 Page 3 Putting the Brakes on Corridor H: A Brief History By Hugh Rogers In early July, I got a call from a free-lance writer in Michigan. efficient transportation system is critical to the Region’s future She was doing a piece on Corridor H for a magazine called economic success”—how did that translate as “four-lanes Construction. Part 1, “52 Years and Counting – Corridor H Continues everywhere”? It was obvious that current traffic numbers and future in West Virginia,” was done. She wanted to interview me for Part 2. estimates did not justify four lanes between Elkins and the Virginia Corridor H opponents used to love publicity. Getting the story line, and on to I-81. Hence the name, Corridor H Alternatives, and out exposed lies and disasters, helped us find allies, slowed the our campaign for an Improved Roadway Alternative. juggernaut a little. Now it’s seventeen years since our settlement We had less success with that than Green and Markey did agreement; the only unsettled section has been put off another ten with the northern route, although we did win in Virginia. For the years. If I was going to preach to Construction, I knew I wouldn’t be foreseeable future, the thirteen miles of Va. 55 from the state line to preaching to the choir. I-81, now designated US 48, will remain two lanes. The writer sent me Part 1. Her informant (who had referred In the 90’s, national allies and attention helped us with her to me) was Marvin Murphy, a Senior Adviser on Corridor H for comments on the EIS, and gave us an opportunity to testify before the West Virginia Department of Transportation. She asked why a House of Representatives committee. That experience was most H was the only one of the six Appalachian Corridor Highways in memorable for an appearance by then-Congressman Bob Wise, West Virginia still not completed. Murphy replied: (a) the other not a committee member, who was invited by the chair to lambaste routes were shorter, (b) the topography was more difficult, and (c) us for our impertinence in opposing Senator Byrd. (Wise had once there were more “major environmental and historical matters” on opposed a dam project favored by the Senator, and had been the route. “Add to this the concerns of active citizen groups both smacked down; he had learned his lesson.) Following that, we were for and against the project, which resulted in considerable litigation granted an interview with the Senator himself. and time delays.” Not to mention funding troubles. I could agree We reached our high-water mark, though, in the spring of with all of it except the odd notion that groups for the project had 1995, when staff scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency somehow delayed it. gave Corridor H the lowest rating: “environmentally unsatisfactory.” It’s hard to fit fifty years of controversy into a short article The Regional Director, Peter Kostmayer, a former congressman, in a trade magazine—or the Voice, for that matter. Dave Elkinton had joined us at the Highlands Conservancy Fall Review for a did an excellent job in Chapter 4 of his history of the West Virginia comprehensive discussion of Corridor H and other issues. His job, Highlands Conservancy, Fighting to Protect the Highlands. It took he told us, was to support his staff and to adopt their findings. How him 25 pages. refreshing! But he wouldn’t last long in the Clinton administration. The magazine writer sent me five questions to organize He announced the rating and declared that the highway should not our interview. They make the story too personal, but with a few be built. Shortly thereafter, he was fired. caveats, I’m going to take advantage of that outline. Long before So much for the political arena. The outcome had been I got involved, the Conservancy had played an important role in foreseeable for twenty years, ever since the Conservancy had this drama. Elkinton points to a meeting in March 1975, when led the charge to push the alignment north, and save Seneca Geoff Green and Lowell Markey presented their study to the staff Rocks, Dolly Sods, and many other sites and streams. Although of Senator Jennings Randolph, then chair of the Public Works and that had been politically astute—better half a loaf than none, etc.— Environment Committee. It strongly influenced the eventual decision the project was still “environmentally unsatisfactory.” The benefits to give up the original plan (and six miles of four-lane) heading east weren’t worth the cost. When the Federal Highway Administration out of Elkins, and instead go north through Tucker County. signed a Record of Decision approving federal participation (then For years after that, while the Department of Highways 80% of the cost; now it’s 100%), we sued. learned to do environmental impact studies (EIS), and they were The writer for Construction wanted to know if our biggest shelved for lack of funding, then revived and redone, discussions concerns were addressed in the settlement agreement that came within the Conservancy went back and forth between two reasonable out of the lawsuit.