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Mike FrielMike Friel

Mike Friel is a West Virginia communications professional, writer, and contributor to West Virginia Explorer Magazine who has long been associated with the Robert C. Byrd Institute and the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center, where he has served in communications and outreach roles supporting manufacturing, workforce development, and technology education initiatives in the Mountain State. A native of Pocahontas County, his writing often highlights innovation, economic development, Appalachian communities, and the people shaping West Virginia’s future through industry and education. He can be reached at mfriel@rcbi.org.
Native to northern Appalachia, porcupines have been slowly migrating south into West Virginia.
Communities

Porcupine invasion reaches into south-central West Virginia

by Mike Friel

In some corners of West Virginia, resident rodents such as squirrels and beavers are sharing habitat with their slow-moving, short-sighted, and very prickly cousin—the porcupine. Verifiable reports of these non-native animals in the Eastern Panhandle date back to at least the later 1980s, according to Rich Rogers, district wildlife biologist and furbearer program coordinator for … Read more