Appalachia Needs Appropriate Technology

By Al Fritsch and
Paul Gallimore
Excerpt from “Healing Appalachia,” University of Kentucky Press, 2007

Appropriate technology is a necessity for our planet as well as our country and the Appalachian region. We hope to offer a regional model of what the rest of the country and world could do and be. This is a place where good ecology and good economics could come together. If we are to attract a substantial number of tourists to Appalachia, our naturally beautiful region must divorce itself from its heavy dependence on resource extractive industries such as coal mining and ecologically devastating timbering. Trees provide more jobs when they are left standing than when they are logged. The US Forest Service reports that income provided by national forests come from recreation, and only 3 percent from timer. Keeping the forests intact will allow for a tourism that will fuel the economy of our region, furnish a livelihood for the people, and still preserve the unique environment of Appalachia. The challenge is to offer low-priced, people friendly and ecologically sound solutions to problems so that people and land may thrive together.