CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In midsummer, West Virginia’s forests yield one of their richest annual harvests. Blackberries spill over abandoned fence rows. Raspberries brighten sunny hillsides. Blueberries and huckleberries ripen on the state’s highest mountains.

For generations, families have carried buckets into the woods to gather berries for cobblers, jams, and pies. Yet these fruits nourish far more than Appalachian traditions. Each summer, millions of berries feed an extraordinary variety of wildlife, helping sustain everything from songbirds and wild turkeys to white-tailed deer and black bears.

Wildlife experts say the annual berry crop is one of the Appalachian forest’s most important natural food sources, influencing where animals travel, how they raise their young, and even how often people encounter bears.

Nature’s midsummer pantry

By July, West Virginia’s forests enter one of their most productive seasons. Forester William N. Grafton, a longtime specialist with the West Virginia University Extension Service, wrote in the West Virginia Encyclopedia that the Mountain State is home to “dozens of native berry plants, ranging from trees and shrubs to vines and herbs.”

Among the berries most prized by both people and wildlife, he wrote, are blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, strawberries, serviceberries, and raspberries.

“July and August are the best months for juicy, tart blackberries,” Grafton wrote. “These months are also best for raspberries (black, red, and wineberry).”

Blueberries and glossy huckleberries continue to ripen from July through September, especially along forest margins, open woodlands, and high mountain ridges.

According to Grafton, these delicious fruits—known to wildlife biologists as “soft mast”—provide critical nutrition for numerous species during summer. Black bears, deer, raccoons, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks, wild turkeys, grouse, and countless songbirds depend on seasonal berry crops as they build energy reserves for the months ahead.

Berry patches also provide much more than food. Dense blackberry thickets offer nesting cover, escape habitat, and shelter for birds and small mammals, making them among the most valuable habitats along forest edges, old fields, and woodland openings.

Why berry season changes bear behavior

The arrival of berry season can also help explain a pattern many West Virginians notice each year. Black bears often become highly visible in late spring, wandering through neighborhoods in search of easy meals before natural foods become abundant. By July, however, reports of bears visiting residential areas frequently decline.

“The decrease in cumulative conflicts in the month of July coincides with the ripening of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries,” according to Colin Carpenter, black bear project leader with the W.Va. Division of Natural Resources.

As these natural foods become plentiful, bears spend more time feeding deep in forests and less time searching neighborhoods for garbage, bird feeders, livestock feed, or pet food.

“Bear movements are tied to food sources,” Carpenter says. “Bears that roam around residential areas in search of food are less likely to stay if they do not find anything to eat.”

While bears remain opportunistic feeders throughout the summer, abundant wild crops help keep many of them focused on natural forage rather than human-provided food sources.

Read more: Why more West Virginians are seeing black bears this summer

A tradition rooted in Appalachia

Long before grocery stores, midsummer berry season was among Appalachia’s most anticipated harvests.

Native peoples gathered wild berries for food and medicine, and later settlers preserved them as jams and jellies, baked them into pies, and canned them for winter. For many families, berry picking became both a necessity and a cherished summertime tradition.

For Matt Welsch, a West Virginia food historian, chef, and advocate for Appalachian foodways, berry picking remains one of the state’s most enduring seasonal rituals.

“I grew up picking berries on the farm,” Welsch says. “It was a family activity, a communion, and it always ended in a treat, whether that was something simple like fresh berries over cornbread with sugar and milk or a fresh fruit pie.”

Although the fruits now fill supermarket shelves year-round, he says gathering them in the woods offers something modern conveniences cannot replace.

“They say splitting your own wood warms you twice,” Welsch says. “Gathering forest berries is a treat twice over. Berries are in every grocery store these days, but nothing compares to those fresh from the woods. Picking berries is a touchstone for who we really are.”

That tradition remains especially strong in West Virginia’s high country. Grafton noted that “hundreds of people make annual forays to Dolly Sods, Spruce Knob, and nearby areas to pick blueberries,” a seasonal pilgrimage that continues today as hikers combine mountain adventures with one of the state’s most celebrated natural harvests.

Elsewhere, blackberry patches flourish along abandoned farmsteads, old logging roads, utility corridors, reclaimed meadows, and sunny woodland edges, offering some of the easiest and most rewarding wild foods to gather.

Welsch says those outings often became treasured family memories, even if they didn’t always seem that way at the time.

“I don’t want to put on airs,” he says. “I remember a lot of griping when we’d head out to pick berries. But even at my crabbiest, I couldn’t deny what coming home with a full pail meant. The griping was part of it. So was the pie.”

Reading the health of the forest

To wildlife biologists, berry patches reveal much more than where to find summer fruit.

The abundance—or scarcity—of the fruits reflects weather patterns, forest health, and habitat quality. Strong berry years provide ample nutrition for wildlife, helping many species raise young successfully and prepare for the changing seasons. Poor berry crops, caused by late frosts, drought, or other environmental conditions, can force animals to travel farther in search of food.

For black bears especially, the difference can be noticeable. When natural foods are scarce, bears are more likely to investigate neighborhoods and campsites in search of alternative meals. When berry crops are abundant, many remain deep within forests, where food is plentiful.

For Welsch, berry patches also remind people that they share the mountains with countless other creatures.

“My favorite thing to do out there is look for animal signs,” he says. “Tracks and scat show me I’m part of a larger ecosystem, standing in the same patch the bears and the birds are working. It connects me with the land. I treasure that feeling.”

Knowing which berries to pick

Not every colorful berry growing in the woods is safe to eat. Grafton advised that “white or whitish fruits generally should be regarded as toxic and poisonous.”

Plants such as poison ivy, poison sumac, doll’s-eyes, white coralberry, and mistletoe produce berries that should be avoided.

He also warned that the unripe fruits of may-apple and groundcherry are toxic, and that the seeds of cherries and pokeberries contain poisonous compounds. Even experienced foragers harvest only berries they can identify with certainty.

Fortunately, West Virginia’s best-known edible berries—blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries, strawberries, and serviceberries—are among the easiest to recognize when ripe.

Why wild berries taste different

Welsch believes wild berries have flavors that cultivated fruit simply cannot duplicate.

“Wild berries had to fight for everything, so the flavor is concentrated,” he says. “A grocery-store blackberry was bred to survive a truck ride. A wild one was bred by the hillside it grew on. More acid, more perfume, less water.”

His favorite preparation remains the simplest. “Cornbread, sugar, milk, berries,” Welsch says. “That’s the one I reach for first because that’s what berries meant on the farm.”

Today, he also enjoys using wild fruit in savory dishes, especially blackberry gastriques and sauces served with locally raised beef.

“A blackberry-based steak sauce is a current favorite,” he says. “Wild blackberries, a splash of vinegar, and a good cut of beef will tell you everything about a West Virginia summer.”

More than a summer harvest

Every berry patch tells a larger story about West Virginia’s forests. It feeds migrating birds before autumn, fuels growing bear cubs through summer, shelters rabbits and nesting songbirds beneath tangled canes, supports pollinators, and sustains a seasonal tradition that has connected generations of West Virginians to the land. It also preserves recipes, family memories, and food traditions that remain deeply rooted in Appalachian culture.

For visitors exploring the state’s back roads and mountain trails this July, the ripening fruits are evidence of a healthy Appalachian landscape where people and wildlife continue to share the same seasonal harvest—a reminder that some of West Virginia’s oldest traditions begin with something as simple as a blackberry by the trail.

With Miami-Dade Superintendent Jose Dotres’ contract ending in February 2027, school board members are now looking to have his replacement by August.

Dotres has served as the superintendent for the third-largest school district since 2022. The school board started the search for his replacement in April.

More than 20 people applied for the position, but now only six have secured spots as semifinalists.

Here’s a closer look at who Miami-Dade’s superintendent might be:

Jose Bueno

With roughly 33 years of experience within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Bueno currently serves as Dotres’ Chief of Staff.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Bueno’s tasks include coordinating and implementing major projects “that have significant district-wide impact on the goals of the district and involve coordination of other divisions and offices.”

He started as a teacher within the country back in 1993 and is a Florida International University and Nova Southeastern University graduate.

Ernie Lozano

Lozano is currently Broward County’s Public Schools Chief Human Resources Officer.

His passion is creating a safe and secure environment for both students and staff.

“He has been recognized for his contributions to the District’s safety and security initiatives, receiving accolades for his exceptional leadership and commitment to student and staff well-being,” according to a bio on the site for the National Student Safety and Security Conference & Workshop.

Before his career in human resources, Lozano served within education as a teacher, assistant principal and more.

Sylvia Mitchell

Hope builder, executive leadership coach and seasoned superintendent are all descriptions Mitchell has on her LinkedIn.

Living in Houston, Texas, Mitchell is familiar with the Sunshine State since she was a principal at Charter Schools USA in Fort Lauderdale back in 2012.

She has also served as superintendent twice in Texas and is currently Executive Vice President, Curriculum, Design & Development for Per Scholars.

Carlos Perez

Perez is a charter school principal in West Palm Beach and the former executive director of the Education Reform Project, a nonprofit organization based in Miami Beach.

According to the nonprofit, Perez has over 25 years of experience within education, mainly in New York, but now in Florida.

Perez has also been an assistant superintendent in the past, as well as taking part as an Executive Board Member for the New York State Association of School Personnel Administrators.

Christopher Ruszkowski

Currently based in South Carolina as CEO of South Carolina’s Children’s Fund, Ruszkowski has moved all over the country, and Florida will be no exception.

According to his LinkedIn, he served as New Mexico’s Secretary of Education back in 2019. Before living in South Carolina, he was a conservator for the Texas Education Agency. A conservator oversees the state’s takeovers of large school districts and charter school networks.

Getting his master’s at Stanford, Ruszkowski was a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institute located within the university.

Rafael Villalobos

Since 2022, Villalobos has been the South Region Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Before that, he was a principal for over ten years.

The Nova Southeastern alum has been in Miami for most of his life, even graduating from South Miami Senior High School in 1990.