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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Push for Birthplace of Rivers National Monument

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Wednesday, September 30, 2015   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Folks are in Washington today to push for four new national monuments, and one would be the birthplace of rivers in Pocahontas County.

The nationwide lobbying effort includes Gil Willis, owner of the Elk River Inn and Restaurant. He said he built his business as a way to make a living in a forested mountain gem, and believes the national monument designation offers a lot of tourism potential and could help protect the state's waterways from chemical spills.

The birthplace of rivers in Pocahontas County also is just an amazing place to be as the leaves change and deer are out feeding in the woods, Willis said.

"Lot of acorns, lots of apples, lots of pears. You're walking around, it's crunchy," he said. "Your brook trout are starting to spawn, and they're incredibly beautiful this time of year. They get very reddish-orange color."

The birthplace would be the only national monument of its size in the eastern United States.

For the past two months, KEEN Footwear has sponsored a Live Monumental campaign, an effort to gain more protection for 3 million acres of public land, including special places in Nevada, Oregon and California. Keith Cozzens, a spokesman for the campaign, said the birthplace of rivers deserves monument status because that would help keep the area from being developed or degraded.

"It's located within a day's drive of nearly one third of our nation's population," he said, "and it marks the origin of six rivers, which provide drinking water to millions of people downstream."

There are good economic reasons for protecting the birthplace, Willis said, but it's also the kind of place where people in the state can connect with what makes it special.

"This is the premier part of the forest," he said. "It makes sense to preserve it, because future generations of West Virginians will always have a place to come and recreate."

More information on the campaign is online at keenfootwear.com/livemonumental.

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Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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