WVDOH finishes canopy clearing season with over 1,800 miles cleared

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West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) road crews have completed canopy clearing for the 2025-2026 season, clearing branches from roadways in all 55 counties.

Canopy clearing is the act of cutting branches and brush that overhang the Mountain State's roadways, and it's a vital part of the WVDOH's approach to long term highway maintenance and management. Eliminating shady areas along roads helps ice thaw more quickly in winter, and rain dry more quickly in the spring, summer, and fall, prolonging the life of the pavement on West Virginia's roughly 39,000 miles of road.

"Water is our number one enemy," said State Highway Engineer Jake Bumgarner. "Clearing the canopy helps get that sunlight down to the roadway to dry the roadway out and allow the road to last longer."

But by federal law, maintenance crews are only allowed to clear canopy between November 15 and March 31.

Why? During the spring, summer, and fall, species like the Indiana Bat live in trees in West Virginia forests. But in the winter the bats move to the sanctuary of caves, leaving the trees bat-free.

In years past, the WVDOH was restricted to cutting a total of 140 acres of canopy a year, or 14 acres for each of the state's 10 highway districts. In 2022 that restriction was lifted, allowing districts to clear as much canopy as possible, provided they stay between the November - March time restriction.

From Saturday, November 15, 2025, through Tuesday, March 31, 2026, WVDOH road crews cleared a little over 313 acres of canopy. That's in addition to their other duties and fighting several of the worst snowstorms West Virginia has seen in years.

Three hundred acres may not seem like a lot, But the WVDOH only clears branches that hang directly over the road.

Do the math, and those 313 acres work out to canopy clearing along 1,821 miles of Mountain State roadway. That's the distance to fly south from Charleston to Venezuela, or to drive west to Nevada.

And no bats were harmed in the process.​