Please join the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley for a public presentation by Friends of Blackwater Climate Outreach Coordinator Brian Bellew: “On the Chopping Block: Climate Change and the Allegheny Highlands – What’s at Stake, What’s at Risk, and What Are Our Choices?”
Tuesday, May 19, 6:00 PM, Massanutten Regional Library, 174 S. Main St., Harrisonburg
The Allegheny Highlands includes on its eastern edge Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park – and the magnificent Monongahela and George Washington National Forests, and much more. For generations, an intricate web of life based on the Highlands’ high-mountain climate has been central to the region’s vibrant forestry, agricultural, recreation, and hospitality economy.
But we can no longer take the Allegheny Highlands’ historic climate for granted.
Climate change impacts are already affecting temperatures, precipitation, weather, growing seasons, streams, forests, plants, animals and humans – and future impacts will be severe, unless global warming is reined in.
Today, the distinctive Highlands ecology and economy — that have enriched so many generations of residents and visitors — are “on the chopping block.”
Brian Bellew, staffer with Friends of Blackwater, an environmental and conservation organization headquartered in Davis, W.V., will present a program that highlights the scientific research that was presented at a June 2014 conference at Blackwater Falls State Park featuring a dozen experts.
Les Grady, Climate Action Alliance of the Valley member, will also talk about the effects of climate change on our bird population.
Contact Joni Grady at 540-209-9198 for more information.
Friends of Blackwater is a non-profit conservation organization working effectively in the Mid-Atlantic Appalachian Highlands with a mission to protect key landscapes and watersheds, natural and human communities, and to support economic development that maximizes biodiversity and outdoor recreational opportunities for future generations.
The Highlands region straddles the Appalachians’ highest peaks — including parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. Hundreds of thousands of people live and work in the Highlands, and each year thousands of visitors come to enjoy the distinctive highmountain climate. But unless the pace of global warming and climate change is slowed, the future of the ecology and economy that have enriched so many generations of residents and visitors is on the chopping block.
Friends of Blackwater is leading an Allegheny Highlands Climate Change Impacts Initiative highlighting the growing, dangerous impacts and risks from global warming and climate change to the Highlands’ economy and ecology.
Friends of Blackwater Climate Outreach Coordinator Brian Bellew is doing community presentations about their new Report, “On the Chopping Block – the Impacts of Climate Change on the Mid-Atlantic Allegheny Highlands.” You can read and download a copy of the Report here.
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 