By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
October 26th, the Friends of the Blackwater hosted a celebration at Blackwater Lodge at Blackwater State Park to commemorate the conservation of the Blackwater Canyon. The event, hosted by Judy Rodd, honored during the festivities keynote speakers retired Senator Joe Manchin and Peter Harnik, founder of Rails-to-Trails.
“This is such a significant moment to have this public land now open to everyone,” Rodd said.
Senator Manchin was key in the conservation of the Canyon since his days as Governor of West Virginia. Notes on his achievements include, “he fulfilled his pledge to bring Blackwater Canyon into public ownership, secured permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and led the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act – the largest conservation investment in U.S. history,” the Friends said.
“There’s three categories of us in this room,” Manchin said. “Those who thought it would never happen, those who weren’t sure it would happen and those that never gave up to make it happen.”
During the festivities Senator Manchin was presented with two gifts by the Friends. Rodd and her daughter, Priscilla Rodd, presented the Senator with a painting and the framed poem “Blackwater Falls” by Tucker County poet Homer Floyd Fansler.
“I harvested my first buck here at Canaan Valley,” Manchin said. “I own my own home away from my home here at Canaan Valley. So everything about me, this is my home away from home. Truly, we spend more time here.”
Harnik was co-founder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the Capital Crescent Trail Coalition and the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land, as well as a historian and author of multiple books on trails and urban parks.
“What you did here is what I think is a perfect microcosm of what should be happening across the country,” Harnik said. “Saving land…and once its been saved, finding ways to utilize it with trails.”
The local Allegheny Highlands Trail, which leads from Elkins in Randolph County to Parsons in Tucker County, is listed by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy as one of the top 10 trails in West Virginia. Harnik said that there are at least 100 Rail Trails in West Virginia and 2,000 nationwide.
“The Rail Trail is open,” Rodd said. “It needs some work, but it is open from Thomas down to Hendricks and on, eventually all the way to Elkins and we’re building another one to go North.”
The Blackwater Loop Trail is one of two future trail projects underway, Rodd said. The Project began with the 0.7 mile Davis Riverwalk Trail. The trail is proposed to connect Davis with Blackwater Falls State Park and the federal Blackwater Rail Trail, the Friends said. The Friends also report progress towards completion of a loop from Thomas to Davis that would avoid Route 32 as part of this project, as well.
The West Virginia Mountain Rail Trail is the second trail project and is a 100-mile Rail Trail currently in the planning phase. The aim, according to the Friends, is to connect Thomas to Cumberland, MD via former rail grades. The trail would link the region, via trail, to neighboring, larger trail networks, the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Trail, as well as sights on earning National Historic Trail status, the Friends report.
The Celebration also included refreshments and entertainment by Gerry Milnes and Friends, as well as the presentation of several “Hero Awards.” The Davis Lutheran Hand Bell Choir performed “Rejoice This Day.” Letters were also shared from Senator Jim Justice and Representative Riley Moore shared by his Area Representative Rhett Dusenbury.
