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ELKINS -- The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's West Virginia Field Office is expected to move within months from its current location in Elkins after construction is completed on a new facility.
The field office will be moved from 90 Vance Drive in Elkins, near Elkins Fordland and the former Rite Aid store, to a new building in Tucker County, the construction of which has been underway since April.
"The reason we are moving is because the Fish & Wildlife Service is building a new building on the property of Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and our office will be co-located with them in that new facility," Barbara Douglas, the senior endangered species biologist at the facility, told The Inter-Mountain.
Douglas added that the building the field office is currently located in is leased by the government. The office includes seven employees.
"It's going to be a brand-new, state of the art facility with a visitor's center for folks, improved displays, and meeting facilities for our office and Canaan as well as the public. It should be good," she said.
Douglas said the move will likely take place toward the end of March, with a grand opening for the new facility to occur in May or June.
West Virginia Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, along with U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, toured the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge in July to see how work on the new visitors center was progressing.
Manchin and Capito encouraged the $7 million in construction funding for the project which was announced by the Department of the Interior in the 2018 fiscal year operations plan.
The new, 8,200 square foot facility will feature solar panels, a 60-seat meeting room, a conference room and 10 museum-style exhibit areas, plus an outdoor kiosk and a bookstore.
The Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1994.