Fighting to Protect the Highlands: The First Forty Years of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

The experience of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy demonstrates that a small grassroots citizens group can prevail against overwhelming forces, even if those forces include big money, entrenched politicians, initial public indifference, and even outright hostility. The Conservancy's forty-year history has led to an unprecedented string of environmental victories, many nationally precedent-setting, in a sustained citizen-driven effort to save critical areas of West Virginia, including the Cranberry Wilderness, Dolly Sods, and the Monongahela National Forest.