Visitors to Monongahela National Forest may have the opportunity to participate in the National Visitor Use Monitoring survey, which will be conducted from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024. This official survey is conducted on each national forest every five years. The last survey for Monongahela National Forest was done in Fiscal Year 2019. The survey will be carried out by Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area employees at both developed and dispersed recreation sites and along Forest Service Roads.

We held our annual Stakeholder Meeting last month in Lewisburg. We were joined by attendees representing diverse organizations from Greenbrier County and across our region. We spent the day getting to know our new and long-time partners and listening to their perspectives and priorities.

In one of the last acts in the 117th Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the National Heritage Area Act (S. 1942) by a bi-partisan vote of 326-95. Days earlier, the Senate passed the same bill without opposition. President Biden signed the legislation on January, 5th.

The National Heritage Area Act creates standard criteria for the funding, management, and designation of National Heritage Areas across the country and provides them an annual authorization of up to $1 million per year for the next 15 years.

The Highlands Creative Economy Council meets virtually once a month to network about tourism development. This open forum gives county tourism leaders and local businesses a chance to discuss successes, issues, and solutions, and to engage with guest speakers. This initiative has sponsored our monthly online meetings, dozens of free workshops and training, a pilot grant program, and the return of our annual Tourism Summit.