By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
DAVIS – The Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, located in Davis, hosted an open house Thursday to welcome the public and let them know about the accomplishments and upcoming goals for the facility. CVNWR Park Ranger, Edward Hodson, said the staff of the Refuge is working to assure many great things are happening.
“The idea of the open house was to bring the public in to introduce them to our staff and let them know what we are doing in the area,” Hodson said. “We want folks to know some of successes in the area and what our plans for the coming years are.”
Hodson said one of the accomplishments was completed by the ‘Friends of the 500.’
“Our Friends group very successfully built a wildlife underpass bridge for the cross country ski trail that crosses the Refuge property,” Hodson said. “We have planted more than 1,000 Red Spruce trees this year and have planted approximately 1,000 aspen trees this year. We have a new trail that is about 98 percent complete and should be opening very soon. It will be called the Blackwater View Trail.”
Hodson said the Blackwater View Trail is significant because it connects the Beall Trails over to Middle Valley.
“Those are hiking and biking trails – no horses,” he said. “The Blackwater View Trail should be open by the end of this month. We still have some work to complete and it has to be coordinated with the Heart of the Highlands. It is officially their project, and is their success as well as a success for us.”
Upcoming events include beaver and bat studies as well as vernal pool studies.
“With the winter season kicking off, we are looking forward to our partnership with White Grass and the snowshoe tours we do,” Hodson said. “All of the dates for that can be found on the White Grass website.”
Hodson said another success is a wetlands septic system added to the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. He said it is completely green and feeds all of the treated water back into the wetland system. It uses the wetlands and uses the wetlands to filter everything.
“Long term, we are hoping to get a new visitor center,” he said. “It is a long-term goal but is something on our radar and something we are working heavily toward.”
And, of course, the hope is to build a new, greener facility for the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
“That is our hope,” Hodson said. “That is something that is on the radar of the upper ups. It is actually slowly working its way through all the processes it needs to work through.”
Hodson said they just completed graveling A-Frame Road.
“It is in great condition now,” Hodson said. “We are trying to obtain a grant to do Camp 70 Road. If that grant goes through, Camp 70 Road will be paved. At the end of Camp 70 Road, we are in the process of putting in a handicap accessible kayak and canoe launch. That is one of the points where we do river tours. It will be another access for people who want to float and people who want to fish.”
The Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge is located in Davis. Additional information is available by calling 304-866-3858. They have a Facebook page which lists upcoming events and they have a website at http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Canaan_Valley.
