Rural Development Process

The complex nature of most social problems belies the idea that any single program or organization, however well managed and funded, can singlehandedly create lasting large-scale change.  Collective impact is generated by collaborative efforts that have achieved substantial impact on large scale social problems. This project has utilized principles found in   Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work, as published by the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

The Monongahela National Forest (MNF) in partnership with West Virginia University, and USDA Rural Development began bringing diverse stakeholders together in 2017 to create a shared recreation vision for each county and the greater region surrounding the MNF. Creating this dialogue with business owners and community leaders is important in understanding how we can move forward together to make full use of forest and community assets to attract and create a vibrant community experience for local residents and visitors. Producing a local climate where communities can rally around the recreational and cultural assets of the MNF will facilitate rural prosperity and economic development. 

Mon Forest Towns seek to cultivate relations across lands and forest gateway communities that will enhance the economy and quality of life for residents and visitors while sustaining the quality of the environment and society.  Having the resources, infrastructure, and the energy of local community groups will allow for loftier goals to be actively pursued. Creating partnerships and a culture of chasing goals as a community will open these towns to more resources and greater success. On May 2, 2017 a small gathering of community leaders, business owners, and non-profit partner organization representatives met to begin this discussion in the town of Davis.  Subsequent meetings were convened in Marlinton, Elkins, Richwood, Franklin, and Cowen.  The outcomes of these meetings helped to shape a recreation vision to help guide the project. 

To pursue this vision, recreation economy stakeholder teams were established in 10 Mon Forest Towns: Thomas, Davis, Parsons, Elkins, Petersburg, Franklin, Cowen, Richwood, Marlinton, White Sulphur Springs.  In 2017 and 2018, these teams actively participated in visioning, planning, and branding meetings.  On June 13, 2019, 85 stakeholders from throughout the forest met to exchange ideas and promote common goals at the Mon Forest Towns Summit. Representatives from several of the towns gave presentations highlighting their unique viewpoints. 

See Mon Forest Towns Strategic Plan for 2022-2026

Seven Goals for Developing Recreation Economies:
Goal #1: Improve community health and wellness through promotion of outdoor recreation activities and infrastructure improvement.
Goal #2: Develop an outdoor recreation entrepreneurial culture by supporting the creation and growth of local recreation and tourism-based businesses.
Goal #3: Promote the uniqueness of the Mon Forest Towns and recreation opportunities in the region through collaborative regional marketing.
Goal #4: Develop world-class trails and outdoor recreation opportunities in the Mon Forest Towns region
Goal #5: Increase employment opportunities in recreation related fields to build a year-round recreation economy
Goal #6: Create a downtown experience that recreationists would enjoy
Goal #7: Develop a Sustainable Partnership Framework

  A formal partnership agreement crafted by the charter partners was introduced at the Summit.  The purpose of the partnership is to serve as a catalyst and forum for the development and delivery of an integrated regional recreation partnership.  The partnership agreement includes operational guidelines that cover how the partnership conducts business and interacts with the steering committee, town representatives, partnership organizations, and how the partnership can grow to include new members.

Name	Affiliation	Town	County
Bob McCalley	Business owner/Lions Club	Petersburg rep	Grant
Carla Kaposy	Pendleton County CVB	Petersburg Alternate	Grant
Bruce Bowling	Mayor WSS	WSS Rep	Greenbrier
Lloyd Haynes	City Manager White Sulphur Springs	WSS Alternate	Greenbrier
Chris Tinney		Richwood Rep	Nicholas
Mary Jane Williams	Richwood Chamber of Commerce	Richwood Alternate	Nicholas
Amy Dinaldo	Richwood Chamber of Commerce
Ciara Lambert	Pendleton County CVB	Franklin Rep	Pendleton
Felicia Harper-Alt		Franklin Alternate	Pendleton
Laura Brown	Pendleton County EDA	Seneca Rocks Rep	Pendleton
Brooke Alt	WVU Extension	Seneca Rocks Alternate	Pendleton
Sam Felton	Town of Marlinton	Marlinton Rep	Pocahontas
Laura Bennett	Pocahontas County Park and Recreation	Marlinton Alternate	Pocahontas
Jessica Sutton	City of Elkins	Elkins Rep	Randolph
Mark Doak	Community Volunteer	Elkins Alternate	Randolph
Dorothy Judy	Mayor of Parsons	Parsons Rep	Tucker
Stephanie Murphy	City of Parsons	Parsons Alternate	Tucker
Erika Smith	City of Thomas and owner of Ella	Thomas Rep	Tucker
		Thomas Alternate	Tucker
Joe Holmes		Davis Rep	Tucker
Kevin Flanagan		Davis Alternate	Tucker
Kent Walker	Town of Cowen	Cowen Rep	Webster
Mayor Gerald Dornburg	Town of Cowen	Cowen Alternate	Webster
Shereen Bailey	Town of Durbin	Durbin Rep

Benefits of a mixed methods approach to the study of sustainable tourism include promoting societal change, managing social desirability, creating more robust data through stakeholder triangulation, and fostering sustainability through interdisciplinary cooperation (Molina-Azorín and Font, 2016).  Triangulation of research findings can increase the trustworthiness of tourism research (Belhassen and Santos, 2006).  The WVU Rural Tourism Design Team’s transdisciplinary, mixed methods, multi-phase research methodology is featured in our recent publication in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 

Arbogast, D., Butler, P., Faulkes, E., Eades, D., Deng, J., Maumbe, K., & Smaldone, D. (2020). Using social design to visualize outcomes of sustainable tourism planning: a multiphase, transdisciplinary approach.   International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 

Resident and Visitor Perceptions

The WVU Rural Tourism Design Team conducts transdisciplinary, mixed-methods participatory research to help guide tourism destinations in planning and decision-making.  Data is collected using both quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to solicit input from a broad spectrum of stakeholders. 

Faculty from the West Virginia University Extension Service and Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Program collaborated with local representatives from the Mon Forest Towns Partnership to identify the sustainability indicators (economic, environmental, and social) applicable to recreation economies and to develop an integrated process for measuring and evaluating these performance indicators which can be used to monitor and track, as a baseline, the impact of recreation economy development strategies. With funding from Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and WVU Community Engagement Grants, surveys of both local residents and visitors were conducted in 2021-2022 to learn more about recreation economy at the regional level in the Monongahela National Forest area. The main purpose is to triangulate data from multiple sources in order to examine how public land can impact local communities and what role recreation in public land plays in enhancing the quality of life for local residents and attracting visitors to the region in order to influence regional branding, marketing and asset development. Initial assessment of residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of recreation economy will establish the baseline with the intent to monitor this data every 5 years to determine trends over time. Reported here are results from the visitor survey. Results from the resident survey will be reported separately.

Visitors' Perceptions of Recreation Economy in the Mon. Nat. Forest Area ReportVisitors’ Perceptions in the Mon. Nat. Forest Area Presentation

Resident’s Perceptions of Recreation Economy in the Mon. Nat. Forest Area Report 

Resident’s Perceptions of Recreation Economy in the Mon. Nat. Forest Area Presentation

View the Mon Forest Towns Style Guide 

Types of Businesses Served

Yoga, Restaurants, Event Planning, Specialty Retail Shops, Galleries, Value-Added Food/Farm, Art, Environmental Consultant Firm, Axe Throwing Bar, Retreat Center, Trail Builder, Outdoor Education Organization, Campground, Spa, Hardware, Winery, Woodworking, Salon, Healthcare, Hatchery, Knife-making, Florist, Vacation Lodging, Coffee Shop, Downtown Building Redevelopment, Market, Outdoor Magazine, Bike Shop, Distillery, Outdoor Outfitter, XC Ski Resort, Lodging, Ice Cream Shop, Daycare, Wood Products, Coffee Shop, Photography, Hardware Store, Trail Riding, Acupuncture, White Water Company, Motel, Music Venue, Nonprofits, Soil Amendments, Printing, Bakery, Shuttle Service, Shipping, Fly Fishing Guide, Massage Therapy, Scenic Train, etc. 

Examples of Third-Party Consultants Contracted

Web design, IT setup, marketing planning/design, risk management planning, architecture/design, loan prep, accounting, QuickBooks setup/training, legal advising, workers compensation pool creation, photography, e-Commerce set up, trademarking advising, specialized trainings, logo design/branding, label review feasibility studies, video production, photography, POS consultation, historic tax credit consultation, Adobe training/setup, etc. 

• 171 businesses served
• 350 jobs created/retained
• 66 businesses that received direct COVID Assistance 
• $5,104,467 loans closed
• $21,030,100 investments leveraged  

Business Advisors

Marti Neustadt — (304) 704-1090

Kristen Beverage — 

Interpretive Guide Training   

With funding support from the USFS Tucker Community Foundation agreement 10 Canaan Valley Master Naturalists were able to attend a National Association of Interpretation Certified Interpretive Guide Training offered by WVU’s Rural Tourism Specialist and become Certified Interpretive Guides.  The interpretive programs they developed were offered at Canaan Valley State Park in the spring, summer, and fall of 2018.  A 2019 Flex-e-Grant from the West Virginia Development Office will provide funding for 15 additional guides from the MNF to become Certified Interpretive Guides.  The four-day Certified Interpretive Guide Training is being offered to provide a certification in interpretation through the National Association of Interpretation.  The NAI CIG training and certification is being recognized as the standard for interpretive guides across the country and internationally. 

This information was then entered into the IMBA Ride Center application and organized according to their application criteria and submitted to IMBA in July, 2018. IMBA conducted a comprehensive Ride Center assessment in the spring of 2019 and announced in early August 2019 that the newest recipient of their IMBA Ride Center™ designation is the Snowshoe Highlands Ride Center located in Pocahontas County, West Virginia awarded Bronze level.

According to the Ride Center assessment report, IMBA recognized that a strong coalition of stakeholders, including commercial operations (Snowshoe Resort), local advocates (Pocahontas Trails), and land managers (United States Forest Service) is working towards improving the quality and quantity of trails in the region. According Dave Wiens, IMBA Executive Director, “It is our pleasure to welcome Snowshoe Highlands as IMBA’s newest Ride Center, and first Ride Center in West Virginia. The IMBA Ride Center designation solidifies the enthusiasm for mountain biking in Snowshoe Highlands and recognizes it as one of today's exceptional mountain bike destinations.” More information can be found at IMBA's website.   

In 2020 the Snowshoe Highlands Area Recreation Coalition (SHARC) was formed with the goal to achieve Silver level Ride Center designation in 2020 and develop a strategic plan for regional trail and service/amenity improvements in order to become the first Gold level Ride Center on the east coast. 

After reviewing all of the categories, efforts and challenges; IMBA’s scoring supported the opinion that the destination is qualified to be a Silver level IMBA Ride Center with encouragement to continue using the Ride Center criteria/comments to make improvements in the area in order to achieve Gold level status.

A recommendation from the Ride Center report was to “Add bike-specific singletrack systems close to downtowns. Most of the riding occurs far from towns, the more connectivity mountain biking has with the local population the better the benefits. Trails close to towns are also a way to ensure visitors are spending time on main streets and in businesses.” A grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation provides funding for IMBA Trail Solutions to work with SHARC to develop a detailed plan for purpose- built mountain bike trails on a section of MNF land near the town of Marlinton in the Marlinton/White Sulphur Ranger District. This project will provide technical assistance from IMBA Trail Solutions who has extensive experience working on large-scale projects with multiple stakeholders including the USDA Forest Service. The plan would focus on developing stacked loop purpose-built mountain bike trails. Trail planning and design concluded in spring 2021. In the spring of 2022, an ARC POWER grant proposal was submitted for the construction of the Monday Lick Trail System just south of Marlinton.

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