By The turkey vulture plays a critical role in our ecosystem. It also has a surprisingly vivid personality. West Virginia makes a great home for turkey vultures. “They nest in cliffs and caves, and we have a lot of rocky outcrops for that,” says Katie Fallon. “We have wind, updrafts coming
A Necessary Nuisance
Learning to live with the state’s official animal. Our state animal is a lot like us: persevering, highly adaptable, and occasionally misunderstood, with a habit of packing on extra pounds inthe winter. “The black bear is a really good symbol for West Virginians,”says Colin Carpenter, black bear project leader for
A Glimpse into History
A time capsule, a ghost town, the heart of the New River Gorge—Thurmond in Fayette County is an experience like no other. Paint a picture of Thurmond at its height and you’ll need a whole palette of colors—black for whistling train engines and piles of bituminous coal, white for clouds
