Imagine walking out your front door into a breathtakingly beautiful, fairytale-like forest of emerald ferns, vibrant green mosses, brilliant rhododendrons, and rare red spruce trees. Some would call it "heaven." Beth Little calls it home.
In the 1970s, Beth's life was very different. She was working in Los Angeles as a systems engineer for IBM. It was a hectic, fast-paced lifestyle, and she wanted a change. Beth and her family traveled around the United States and Canada, looking for a place to settle. They found that place in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, and the Monongahela National Forest. "It was just so unbelievably beautiful," says Beth. "When I got here, I had the feeling of being home. And I'd never really had that feeling."
As a child, Beth and her family moved a lot. "I had three different first grades," she says. Beth's father was a member of the Sierra Club, and a hiker and conservationist, and he had a great influence on her involvement in wilderness protection.
Beth's first years in West Virginia were busy with family, her work as a computer consultant, and getting to know her community. She first became involved in the West Virginia Chapter of Sierra Club in 1986, when her last child went off to college. Around this time, she started to notice new logging roads being built all over the forest, while a trail she used to get to Hills Creek Falls had deteriorated until it was barely passable. So she wrote a letter to Senator Robert C. Byrd about it.
Mary Wimmer with the West Virginia Sierra Club somehow heard about this woman in rural Pocahontas County who was getting involved with the Monongahela National Forest. "Mary called me up and invited me to a Forest Watch meeting, and that's how it all started," says Beth. Over the last two decades, Beth has continued to work for conservation, serving on the West Virginia Sierra Club's Executive Committee in a number of different roles, including vice-chair, secretary, treasurer, and Council delegate.
"What drives much of Beth's volunteer work is her passion for the Monongahela National Forest," says Mary. "Beth has the perfect personality for a wilderness activist and team member. She is kind, gentle, and considerate, while at the same time has the drive and passion to persevere over whatever threatens the Mon's wild lands. Her enthusiasm and energy are contagious to those who work with her!"
The Monongahela National Forest, which local residents call simply "the Mon," covers more than 916,000 acres across 10 counties in West Virginia, making it the fourth largest National Forest in 20 northeastern states. Currently, the Mon is home to four wilderness areas: Dolly Sods, Otter Creek, Cranberry, and Laurel Fork. It has been more than twenty years since any West Virginia lands were added to the National Wilderness Preservation System, but together with other organizations, businesses, and individuals, the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition is working diligently to see that additional special areas within the Monongahela National Forest receive the protection they deserve.
"It's really amazing to work on things that are longer than your lifetime. With such a fast-paced life, most Americans don't think beyond the next week or month. Working for a future of something really special is very important to me," says Beth. "There's something about being in the wild and being aware of our connection to nature that gives you a spiritual feeling, a sense of completeness. It's a connection that if you never get out in the wild, if you're living only in a world of man made things, you will miss, and it's important."
Beth has been an inspiration to many, including Congressman Rahall, who has served the people of West Virginia for nearly three decades in the U.S. Congress. "We have worked together for many years. She was one of the first people in Pocahontas County I met, long before it became part of my Congressional District. She instills in me the need to be active on forest issues," says Congressman Rahall.
We are honored to recognize Beth Little as a Wilderness Hero, and we wish her much success in her work with the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition to keep the Monongahela National Forest
