ARCHIVE
Archived 5/15/2013
URGENT ACTION ALERT! Comment by 4PM ON 4/29 to protect WV’s rare Diamond Darter!
We are excited to learn that one of the rarest fish in the world the Diamond Darter lives near Charleston, WV in the Elk River!! But this small, shimmery fish needs your help to survive. In the past 30 years, fewer than 20 of these translucent fish have been spotted. And threats from coal mining and fracking could quickly push this very rare fish to extinction.
The diamond darter once swam in the rivers of Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia – but today it survives only in a 22-mile section of the Elk River in West Virginia, where it faces dire threats from the energy industry.
In 2012 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to protect the diamond darter under the Endangered Species Act with critical habitat. Now the energy industry is opposing the darter's protection, even though both federal and state biologists have acknowledged that the diamond darter needs Endangered Species Act protections in order to survive.
West Virginia's coal mining doesn't threaten just this rare fish. Protecting habitat for the diamond darter will help protect drinking water for people.
Join us to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary, and our moving back to Preston County -- and to raise funds to support Friends of Blackwater and the J.R. Clifford Project. We'll have tasty food and drinks, and live music. Click here for more details.
Read about the latest developments on the Upper Greenbrier North Project and how a new website will help citizens protect Eastern National Forests against oil and gas development and fracking.
Spotlight-Archived 3/11/2013
The J.R. Clifford Project
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and African American History Month, we are spotlighting The J.R. Clifford Project.
John Robert Clifford was West Virginia’s first African-American attorney, a newspaper publisher, editor and writer, a schoolteacher and principal, a civil rights pioneer, a founding member of the Niagara Movement (forerunner to the NAACP), a Civil War veteran, and a graduate of Storer College. In 1898, Clifford won a landmark civil-rights-in-education case, that came from Blackwater Canyon, before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals: Williams v. Board of Education. For more information about The J.R. Clifford Project please visit www.jrclifford.org. You can order materials (coloring books, posters and lesson plans) for use in your classroom, church or any setting by clicking here.
Leonard Harris receives "Living the Dream" Award
In 2012, Leonard Harris and his wife Helen graciously hosted and partnered with Friends of Blackwater’s "J.R. Clifford Project" -- in the Project’s educational work in the Eastern Panhandle. Harris is a founder and volunteer director of the Sumner-Ramer African American School Museum, located in Martinburg’s historic Ramer Center, where Blackwater Hero J.R. Clifford (1848-1933) was once a school principal
Leonard Harris was recently honored by the WV Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission with the Commission’s annual "Living the Dream" Award. Harris’ award was announced at the Commission’s annual Banquet, held in Charleston, WV on January 12, 2013.
News - archived 2/6/2013
Senator Rockefeller to Hold Hearing on Pipeline Issues
Senator John D. Rockefeller will hold a hearing on gas pipeline issues at the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse, in Charleston, WV on January 28, 2013. The issue is of special interest to Friends of Blackwater because NiSource has requested a one-mile wide blanket permit to kill endangered species along its pipeline corridor from Louisiana to New York. The pipeline corridor passes through a number of National Forests, including the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. Friends of Blackwater joined Earth Justice and other environmental groups in challenging this request. Friends of Blackwater will remain engaged on this issue.
Bad news for bats: deadly fungus persists in caves
Researchers have found that the organism that causes deadly white-nose syndrome persists in caves long after it has killed the bats in those caves. A study just published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology shows that the fungus can
survive in soil for months, even years, after the bats have departed. Click here to read more.
Actions - archived 2/6/2013
Moving to the Mountains!
By March 2013 (or sooner, depending on the weather), our main Friends of Blackwater office will be in the Town of Davis, in Tucker County. Davis, of course, is the picturesque and scenic gateway to Canaan Valley -- a popular outdoor recreation center for the High Allegheny region. Click here for more about this move!
SPOTLIGHT - Archived 1/17/2013
Special Donors: Donna & Carroll Cook of Grant  County, WV
Donna and Carroll Cook grew up in the shadows of the Allegheny Front on small farms in the steep rocky terrain of one of West Virginia’s highest mountains. A typical childhood day was roaming the great outdoors and working and playing on their family farm. During the summer, their families ran sheep and cattle on the beautiful high plateau of the Allegheny.
To read more, please click here.
NEWS - Archived 08/29/2012
SPOTLIGHT
Welcome to Boomtown  Java Open next to Our Davis Office
New Manager Raul Ramirez invites you to sample the coffee and pastries, buy prints of Davis during the timber boom at the end of the lastcentury (FOB gets 5% of  the sale price)and check in to camp along the river!! For more information please click here.
SPOTLIGHT - 05/31/2012
Friends of Blackwater has been busy this Spring creating a new website and logo. Our FACEBOOK PAGE IS NEW TOO. 
Thanks to wonderful nature photographer Kent Mason we have gorgeous new photographs of the High Allegheny mountains of West Virginia to highlight our conservation work. Please send suggestions for improvements and new issues for us to cover and thank you for all you do for us!!
Judy Rodd, Director
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Tom & Judy Rodd's Colossal Harmonic Convergence
Latest FOB Newsletter Now Available
