| The Nature
Conservancy of West
Virginia has
announced a $12
million fund- raising
campaign to preserve
and protect the state's
natural heritage.
The project will protect some of West Virginia's finest areas, some with their existence having been threatened.
The announcement of
the campaign was
made Wednesday at
the University of Charleston. Former Gov. Gaston Caperton made the
announcement and will serve as honorary chairman of the campaign,
which is scheduled to run through the end of 2004.
The fund-raising campaign will help conserve "critical landscapes" in West
Virginia of high ecological significance through the acquisition of key
parcels of land and by the implementation of a broad range of strategies to
address the most pressing threats to these landscapes, according to Jamie
Serino, director of philanthropy and marketing for the Nature
Conservancy of West Virginia.
These critical landscapes include Canaan Valley/Dolly Sods, Cheat
Mountain/Shavers Fork, Smoke Hole/North Fork Mountain and the
Greenbrier Valley, Serino said.
In addition, a portion of the money raised through the fund-raising
campaign will be used to support a global partner site in the Bahamas,
Serino said. The site in the Bahamas was selected because of several
species of birds that migrate there from West Virginia, Serino said.
"Animals and plants don't know political boundaries," Serino said.
The $12 million state campaign is part of a worldwide $1.25 billion fund-
raising campaign that the Nature Conservancy has undertaken, Serino
said.
"It is critical to our economic survival that we maintain the beauty of our
state," Serino said. "The longer we wait the more destruction of our
natural heritage occurs."
The Nature Conservancy is a nonprofit, global organization whose mission
is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities by protecting the
lands and waters they need to survive. The conservancy operates in all 50
states and 29 countries.
For more information on the Nature Conservancy of West Virginia's
fund-raising campaign, contact the organization at 345-4350, or visit their
Web site at www. nature.org/westvirginia.
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