ALERT (03/07/2024): Due to a lightning strike, WVPB TV will be off the air in the Bethany/Wheeling area until new parts arrive. Thank you for your patience.
Harpers Ferry is a historic West Virginia city and international tourist hub. But four years ago the national park and surrounding town were devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers at West Virginia University are looking for clues about West Virginia’s climate history — by combing through old journals of naturalists who spent time in the state’s forests and hills.
Lori Petrauski is a WVU grad student from Minnesota who is starting this phenology project for West Virginians.
“I became interested in how to connect citizens and just normal people to nature,” Petrauski said.
Phenology, she says, is one easy way to do that.
Phenology: the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant & animal life (e.g., noticing when the first migrating songbirds arrive in springtime)
Climate Clues
Today Petrauski is pouring through old journals of West Virginians as she compiles a baseline database of historical phenology in the state. It’s the start of a ten-year effort to create a resource for students and citizens. The goal is ultimately to allow West Virginians to better know the rhythms of the “wild and wonderful” part of West Virginia.
In cooperation with WVU’s Natural History Museum, the university’s Wildlife and Fisheries Department is putting out calls to citizens with any kind of historical records of timings of biological events.
“Especially helpful are journals from nature-minded citizens,” Petrauski said. “So people who would be out in the woods a lot and write down what they saw.”
George Breiding
One such journaler who has provided a plethora of data for Lori and her team is George Breiding, of Wheeling. Born in 1917, Mr. Breiding was an avid birder and for years was the Director of Nature Education and the staff naturalist at Oglebay Park. He passed away several years ago but during his adult life he made lists of the birds he saw every day of his life right up until the day he died.
“It was like breathing to him. He never went out of the house without a notebook and pencil. And he rarely went out of the house without binoculars,” said Mr. Breiding’s son, Mike. “I’m sure he would have felt naked without them.”
“Prolific birders like that were really helpful for us because we could see the first day that he saw this bird must have been the first day that it migrated up to Oglebay Park because we know that he was out every day looking for birds,” Lori explained.
Data is gathered from:
Journals
Naturalist groups’ records (e.g., The Brooks Bird Club)
Herbariums (i.e., collections of pressed plants)
Historical Climate Network t – 14 different observation stations through the state
The project as a whole will collect as much data as possible in the coming decade so that West Virginians have a solid base of knowledge to pull from, add to, and Lori hopes, an extra excuse to get outside and notice the world around them.
Mental health providers and substance use disorder counselors are coming together to share information between those who may work with veterans in the community.
A county commissioner has joined a chorus of healthcare professionals asking Gov. Jim Justice to veto a bill that would eliminate vaccine requirements for certain students in West Virginia.
On this West Virginia Morning, political analysts say the two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in the upcoming May primary election give voters some particular, and troubling, food for thought. The candidates themselves say voters need to focus on the positives, not the negatives.
Coles and Theresa “Red” Terry have been fighting over the Mountain Valley Pipeline nearly since it was first proposed in 2014. The project connects natural gas terminals in Virginia and West Virginia with a 303-mile pipeline that stretches across some of Appalachia’s most rugged terrain. Almost immediately after construction began, protestors tried to block it by setting up and living in platforms in trees along the route.