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Grassroots-based Watershed Conservation in Central Appalachia

Abstract Roughly paralleling the Atlantic coast for 1800 km, Appalachia's peaks and ridges, rising to just over 2000 m, form the axis of eastern North America. Between 1880 and 1920, virtually the entire mountain chain was clear-cut. Severe erosion accompanied the logging. Today's second-growth forests (Figure 1) have matured under the eye of conservation-minded professionals and a sympathetic public determined to prevent a repeat of the first deforestation. Other current environmental issues include forest fragmentation, lack of land use planning, acid mine drainage, acid deposition, and exotic species—all of which degrade the quality of surface waters. Finding solutions for these problems is a constant challenge. In West Virginia, a strategic planning process involving the state's complete political spectrum provided the foundation for launching two programs, one to assess the ecological conditions of the state's watersheds and the other to support the birth and growth of inclusive, consensus-based grassroots watershed groups. A case study illustrates some lessons learned from the second program, focusing specifically on erosion problems.