People value our state parks and forests for a variety of reasons. For some, parks are places of quiet and solitude, where you can get away from daily routines and refresh mind, body, and soul. How better to do this than to sit by a campfire listening to great horned owls calling to one another, or to walk along a secluded trail, where the only sounds you hear are your own footsteps and the breeze whispering through a forest canopy?

To others, state parks and forests are places to conduct business meetings and seminars, or to challenge themselves with strenuous recreational activities like mountain biking and rock climbing. But regardless of the reasons for visiting these special areas, their value to visitors and to West Virginia is inestimable.

Public support and user fees fund day-to-day park operations, maintenance, and limited capital improvements. Yet, with ever-increasing operating costs, private support through the West Virginia State Parks Foundation is critical if we are to improve the quality of state park facilities. Importantly, gifts received through the Foundation are used to supplement, not replace, support from the State.

There are many ways to contribute to the West Virginia State Parks Foundation. Among them are outright gifts of cash, checks, real estate, life insurance, and securities that have appreciated in value (stocks can be donated). Some gifts are designated through wills earmarking all or a portion of an estate.

The West Virginia State Park Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation formed to solicit, receive and accept contributions, gifts, grants, and bequests of real or personal property in support of the West Virginia State Park system.

Gifts made to the Foundation may be designated for specific purposes such as facility improvements, new construction, programming, endowments, or equipment purchases at specific state parks or forests, or can be “unrestricted gifts” to be used at the discretion of park management.