Our strategies in West Virginia are collaborative, science-based and holistic.
Land Conservation
The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 125,000 acres of critical natural lands in West Virginia. Home to one of the world’s richest temperate broadleaf deciduous forest, West Virginia also boasts habitats like dry shale barrens and cedar glades, fire-maintained pine barrens, high-elevation heath and grass balds, peatlands and other wetlands, natural ponds, spruce forests and caves.
Land Conservation Stories
Protecting Natural Treasures in West Virginia
In this op-ed for the Wheeling-News Register, state director Thomas Minney, thanks WV's lawmakers for voting to permanently reauthorize the LWCF.
Senate Panel Votes to Make LWCF Permanent
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved legislation permanently reauthorizing and fully funding LWCF.
Protecting a Keystone in Dolly Sods
In May 2018, The Nature Conservancy announced the purchase of 1,143 acres along the Allegheny Front in the Dolly Sods and Canaan Valley region.
Climate Change
The Central Appalachian Mountains is one of the most biologically rich landscapes in the continental United States. Many species here exist nowhere else on Earth, flourishing due to the region’s variation in topography, elevation, geology, climate and drainage patterns.
We're working here to determine which may be the most resilient to large-scale changes such as climate change and identifying key connections that will be important as potential pathways for species in a changing world.
The work we're doing here is globally significant, and it's helping to inform The Nature Conservancy's worldwide climate change initiative.
Climate Change Stories
Natural Climate Solutions in West Virginia
The Central Appalachians will help ensure nature’s survival as climate change alters natural areas and weather patterns.
Central Appalachians
We're working across six states — Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee — to protect this critical stronghold.
Global Priority: Tackling Climate Change
Around the world, The Nature Conservancy is focused on innovative solutions that match the urgency of this crisis.
Energy Development
In West Virginia and the surrounding region, TNC is taking the lead as an authority on the impacts of energy development, and on promoting the benefits of renewable energy alternatives and energy efficiency practices.
We're funding and developing threat assessments, including predictive mapping of habitat impacts from wind energy, natural gas and coal, and we're advising decisions makers, with an emphasis on national forest managers to inform energy development decisions on public lands.
Energy Stories
The Road to Renewables
Through its Solar on Mine Lands Initiative, The Nature Conservancy is working with stakeholders to facilitate siting solar farms on former mine lands and brownfields in West Virginia and beyond.
Nature and the Economy
Nature—one of West Virginia’s strongest assets—has the potential to be a key catalyst for economic growth.
Across the Divide
External Affairs director Beth Wheatley is helping TNC forge unexpected partnerships on climate change and renewable energy.
Forest Health
Red spruce forests once covered the rocky peaks of West Virginia’s high country but were decimated by logging in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today, only about 55,000 of the original 1.3 million acres of spruce remain.
We're working to restore these forests by replanting red spruce trees, expanding natural fire regimes, and controlling invasive plants and pathogens in collaboration with partners—especially the National Forest Service.
Forest Health Stories
Sprucing Things Up A Bit
TNC is working to restore red spruce forests to their rightful place in the landscape by removing invasive species and planting new seedlings. In 2019, we will lead or assist restoration plantings totaling 122,500 trees.
A New Era in West Virginia Forestry
State Director Thomas Minney and External Affairs Director Beth Wheatley write about a new era of forestry in the Daily Mail WV.
Forest Carbon Programs in West Virginia
Learn how to participate in these programs, which provide landowners conservation and management assistance with improving the value and the health of their land.
Support Our Work
You can help us ensure West Virginia's ecosystems remain healthy and capable of supporting people and nature for generations to come.