Madeline Ricks is an AmeriCorps member with AFNHA, serving as the Collections Preservation Coordinator for The Augusta Heritage center in Elkins, WV. She has begun writing a new blog series for the Augusta website. Beginning with the African origins of the banjo, Madeline will take readers on a journey through the histories and cultural impacts of the instruments played in West Virginia’s musical traditions.
There are many interesting and unique materials housed in the Upshur County Historical Society Document Repository that have never been displayed in an exhibit. Some materials have been overlooked because, while interesting, they relate to a topic that is too narrow to warrant an entire exhibit. This year’s exhibit gives space for these materials to shine.
On June 19, Pleasant Green Church in Hillsboro underwent two restoration projects in collaboration with the Forest Service, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, AFNHA AmeriCorps, and Cultural Heritage in the Forest. The Forest Service creates partnerships like these within local communities to help support efforts of preservation. This partnership is overwhelmingly meaningful to us here at the Forest and AFNHA - connecting with Black students and sharing with them our state’s history is invaluable to the future of diverse involvement, public awareness, and funding for these sites. There is no West Virginia History without Black History, and it was our honor to share with them this part of their cultural past.
This term in 2023-2024, my involvement with the 4-H History Round-Up project and my participation at 4-H Camp evolved together as the theme of this year’s camp was “A Journey Through 4-H”. The theme took campers through the past and into what may be the future of 4-H in 2115. That faraway date marked the 200-year anniversary of the world’s first 4-H Camp in 1915, “Camp Good Luck”, which took place in Randolph County! This theme gave me the role of putting all the Randolph County 4-H history I’ve learned in my service to direct use.
Every March the WV Division of Forestry organizes 4 citizen science lessons for 5th graders at Petersburg Elementary School. These lessons are about Non-Native and Invasive Species (NNIS). We teach these students what non-native and invasive species are, how they spread, how to identify specific species, and how to use GPS data to locate, track, and record information on them.
Every March the WV Division of Forestry organizes 4 citizen science lessons for 5th graders at Petersburg Elementary School. These lessons are about Non-Native and Invasive Species (NNIS). We teach these students what non-native and invasive species are, how they spread, how to identify specific species, and how to use GPS data to locate, track, and record information on them.
My year at Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge has been incredibly rewarding and something I will always remember fondly. I am very grateful for my time as an AmeriCorps member and I am lucky to have served at two different National Wildlife Refuges. I felt that I was able to learn more and really advance my skill set through my year-long position with AFNHA. I highly recommend AmeriCorps and AFNHA to anyone that is looking to get their foot in the door in the field of conservation and gain valuable experience.
This year for the first time the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center and the USDA Forest Service hosted 4th graders from Pendleton County for a day full outdoor recreation, cultural heritage, and fun! 56 students from the surrounding area visited stations set up on the Discovery Center grounds focusing on cultural heritage of the area and outdoor recreation activities in the hope to encourage more exploration of the public lands around them.
One of the most enduring and inspiring aspects of living and working in West Virginia is that there is a collective understanding to uphold both the heritage and natural ecosystems that we all know, use, and love. With fishing, hunting, and outdoor recreation being such an ingrained part of the generational history and tourism, it is hard to not feel like I have the privilege of living a little extra life every time I go to serve.
While my first year had given me a new understanding of the importance of stream habitat and protecting aquatic species like the enigmatic endangered Candy Darter and jaw dropping Eastern Hellbender, my second has year allowed me to find my niche in conservation: true science that goes into surveying and monitoring terrestrial wildlife and resurrecting habitat that was lost during the timber and mining booms of the 20th century.
The WV Division of Forestry has managed the Red Spruce Restoration project at Kumbrabow State Forest for the past three years. Local 4-H students have been helping them plant roughly 1,000 red spruce saplings each May. This project is part of the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative (CASRI). Red spruce now covers about 178,000 acres at high elevations in the Allegheny Mountains and places on North Fork Mountain.
Read how Kacey is helping to restore Red Spruce and American Chestnut forests!
On a cold clear night, when the moon is dark and a north wind blows, northern saw-whet owls take wing for their fall migration. Bird banders across the US and Canada set up their nets in strategic locations and watch the weather closely for good conditions, checking their nets regularly for birds.
Learn how volunteers at Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge identify and track owls for study.
Wild and wonderful West Virginia contains a wondrous and unique ecosystem of red spruce. This species of tree and the ecosystem it creates is historic to West Virginia. In the 1800s and into the 1900’s it was a highly sought-after tree for lumber. Now, it’s the focus of some of the conservation work taking place in West Virginia and the Central Appalachians. The lumbering industry took a heavy toll on this ecosystem, reducing the acreage of red spruce forests from over 500,000 to just a little under 30,000. This means the other species that rely on this ecosystem for habitats, like the endangered cheat mountain salamander and the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, also suffered. Today, conservationists are working to restore this ecosystem in order to create healthy spruce forests and bring back the biodiversity this ecosystem creates. So, how do we know the actions being taken are working? That's where indicator species come in.
Before joining AFNHA AmeriCorps, when I thought of West Virginia’s freshwater systems I imagined trout, forested streams, and crayfish – there is so much more to them than just that! While I have plenty of snorkeling experience, I have never been able to immerse myself in such diverse freshwater systems until I came to work in the Monongahela National Forest. Snorkeling allows you to experience the stream in a completely unique way; fish are accustomed to predators approaching from above similar to how a kingfisher or heron would hunt so when you join them in the water to swim alongside them, they are less skittish.
