West Virginia University Press has published Listening to the Land: Stories from the Cacapon and Lost River Valley and invites the public to join The Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust and Listening to the Land contributors at upcoming book launch celebrations.
The Cacapon and Lost River Valley is located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia’s eastern panhandle. Well loved by paddlers and anglers, this American Heritage River is surrounded by a lush valley of wildlife and flora that is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Although this area is still rural and mostly forested, development and land fragmentation in the Cacapon and Lost River Valley have increased over the last decades. Listening to the Land, by Jamie S. Ross with photographs by Tom Cogill, is a conversation between the people of this valley and their land, chronicling this community’s dedication to preserving its farms, forests and rural heritage.
United around a shared passion for stewardship, the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust and local landowners have permanently protected more than 11,000 acres by incorporating local values into permanent conservation action. Despite the economic pressures that have devastated nearby valleys over the past 20 years, natives and newcomers alike have worked to protect this valley by sustaining family homesteads and buying surrounding parcels.
This partnership between the Land Trust and the people of this valley, unprecedented in West Virginia and nationally recognized for its success, greatly enriches historic preservation and conservation movements, bringing to light the need to investigate, pursue, and listen to the enduring connection between people and place.
Jamie S. Ross is a writer, director, and producer of documentary work on American history and culture. She is the producer and co-writer of the acclaimed four-part PBS environmental history series A History of Mountains and Peoples, for which she received the Mountain Hero award from the Mountain Institute.
Tom Cogill is a freelance photographer. His work has appeared in U.S. News & World Report, American Heritage, National Geographic, NG Traveler, Science, Nature, The Chronicle of Higher Education and other publications.
Schedule of book launch events:
Monday, Oct. 14, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Lost River Brewing Company 155 West Main Street
Wardensville, WV 26851
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
National Wildlife Federation/901 E Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington DC 20004
Thursday, Nov. 7, 7-9 p.m.
Audubon Naturalist Society/Woodend Sanctuary H.Q.
8940 Jones Mill Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
Thursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
New Dominion Bookshop/404 E Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Learn more about The Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust:
Visit cacapon.org/Route 1 Box 328, High View, WV 26808/304 268 6167
To purchase this book, visit wvupress.com, phone (800) 621-2736, or visit a local bookstore.
Listening to the Land: Stories from the Cacapon and Lost River Valley
Text by Jamie S. Ross/Photographs by Tom Cogill/Introduction by Peter Forbes
October 2013/224pp/100 images/PB 978-1-935978-40-4/$25.99
