Archive for March 2007
Across Appalachia
Tennessee: New Law Allows Citizens to Comment on Water Permits On June 7, the Tennessee state legislature unanimously passed a bill that will allow citizens to comment on pollution and water quality permits for the first time in 30 years. Prior to the bill’s passage, when a polluter applied for a permit, there was no…
Read MoreLetters from Readers
Dear Appalachian Voice I am a woman who’s life yearning is to help, heal, and save the world and its living beings. I pray many hours a day and night for healing of us and the other living beings including plants and animal kingdoms. I yearn to be praying with others-all people to want us…
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Alabama: Snails Back from Supposed Extinction The Nature Conservancy of Alabama has reported that three species of snail thought to have been extinct for decades have been spotted in the Coosa and Cahaba rivers in Alabama. Jeff Garner, a biologist and mollusk researcher for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources stumbled across the…
Read MoreLetters from Readers
Dear Appalachian Voices, I recently left the Appalachian region and felt the need to commend you all on your environmental endeavors that protect the vitality of the Appalachians. I am thoroughly impressed with your effort to take action opposing the “Clear Skies Initiative.” Appalachian Voices successfully rallied environmental enthusiasts in a jovial and fun manner.…
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West VIrginia: Forest Management Plan Released for Monongahela National Forest The US Forest Service has released a draft of the forest management plan that will guide all activities on West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest for the next fifteen to twenty years. The proposed plan will triple the amount of logging allowed on the Monongahela, and…
Read MoreTeachers learn to dance the chemistry of acid mine runoff
MARYVIlLLE, TN — Oxygen and Pyrite stood together, giggling like fourth graders, as Water danced between them, singing a water song and tugging on Iron’s sleeve. “Come away with me,” she sang. Dancing out the chemistry of acid mine runoff, building models of how runoff works, and tie-dying kerchiefs with rusty water — these were…
Read MoreEnviromental Education from the Heart
Since the first Earth Day, environmental education has become a standard part of the science curriculum in schools nationwide. “Students will learn,” say the standards committees, about the web of life, about interrelationships among ecosystems, about biological communities, and about the natural world. Ironically, this formal appreciation for nature comes at a time when children…
Read MoreRecognizing “nature deficit disorder”
Q How did you first become interested in the way children are being closed off from nature? A. I started researching Last Child in the Woods in the late 1980s, when I was working on The Future of Childhood. I looked for repeating themes, and I noticed that people had this feeling, they couldn’t name…
Read MoreGreen Burial Preserve Breaks Away From Traditional Burial Practices
But let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life… they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights. All is divine harmony. -John Muir from A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf…
Read MoreInvestigating Looney Creek: An ecosystem autopsy in which we suspect mining as the cause of death fo
Looney Creek’s watershed stretches up Black Mountain on the Virginia side of the Kentucky border, near Rt. 160. The mountainside up near the ridge line is mixed hardwood forest, logged most recently maybe 15 or 20 years ago but not clearcut, as some older trees remain. Although this slope has probably been logged many times,…
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