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CONSERVANCY WILL PROTECT THE STATE'S FINEST - Fund Raising Underway For Critical Landscapes |
| (12/13/2002) |
| 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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