This time last year, the Guardians had expected to get funding under three grants we had applied for in May 2023 to match funding from the Clean Water Act which West Virginia Water Research Institute at WVU had received to expand and improve our Lambert Run project. The project, over the 25 years we have planned and worked on it, cleaned up about 85% of the pollution, returned life to the stream, and improved the West Fork. In December 2024, we were asked to complete the paperwork to receive the funding, and did. We have not received it, and the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement has been unable to tell us anything but that there are new procedures. Now we see that Congress is planning to cut the funds available by half a billion dollars.
The Guardians are starting a monthly speaker’s series at the Waldomore (Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library). The first one, on February 24, will be an explanation of abandoned mine damage and restoration and a history of the work at Lambert Run. We will also honor the long-time volunteers who have made this possible, and the landowners who have given up parts of their fields and streams to make the reclamation wetlands that do the work possible.
Guardians of the West Fork Watershed 