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Blasting Permit Granted on Coal River Mountain
Story by Sarah Vig Bulldozers are set to begin moving dirt on Coal River Mountain, and Massey Energy, with the permit granted to them by West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, can begin blasting at any time. The permit’s approval, which was announced in late November, was met with anger and disappointment from community members…
Read MoreBiker Merges Law With Advocacy
By Sarah Vig Sam Evans’ environmental consciousness has always been linked to his bike. As a teenager growing up in Walker county, Alabama, Evans started riding in high school for transportation. “I didn’t have a car,” he explained sheepishly. Beyond simple transportation, biking led Evans to what he describes as his personal “environmental epiphany.” While…
Read MoreAppalachian Bookshelf
These four picks for Appalachian literature and history represent an astonishing depth and variety. For more, see www.appvoices.org/books. • Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants, by Bradford Angier, Stackpole Books (2008). This revised edition brings back a 30-year-old classic field guide with the help of biologist David K. Foster. In the book, for instance, you will…
Read MoreAppalachia 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…
Read MoreAppalachia Cannot Become a Sacrifice Zone
By Wendell Berry Wendell Berry is a world-renowned author of 25 books of poems, 16 volumes of essays, and 11 novels and short story collections. He is widely known as the conscience of Appalachia. These remarks were made at the Society of Environmental Journalists in Roanoke, Va. on Oct. 19, 2008 There is a phrase…
Read MoreFuture Depends on Vision
By Bill Kovarik Fifty years ago, America discovered Appalachia and the “sense of despair which lingers over the valleys and ridges,” as one Washington Post writer put it. Stark images of poverty aroused the conscience of the nation, and a few years later, President Lyndon Johnson traveled to Inez, Kentucky to announce his “War on…
Read MoreHow We Talk Can Be As Important As the Problems We Talk About
By Kathy Mattea Kathy Mattea is a Grammy-Award winning country singer and songwriter whose most recent album, “Coal” was inspired by the Sago Mine Disaster of 2006. See www.mattea.com. I have come to believe that the future of Appalachia’s environment is directly related to the level of discourse we are able to have about the…
Read MoreBuilding on Character, Respecting the Environment
By Rep. Heath Schuler Congressional Representative of North Carolina’s 11th District As a native of Western North Carolina and the representative of the 11th Congressional District, I am proud of the shared history and cultural identity of the Appalachian region. From our forbears, we as a people have inherited an appreciation for strong work ethic,…
Read MoreInaugural New River Trail Race a Success
Runners of the first New River Trail 50K (NRT 50K) began their race with foggy 48 degree temperatures on Saturday, October 11, but finished with bright skies and sunny conditions. Of the 102 racers at the start of the 50K (31.1 miles) course—known as an “ultramarathon”—100 crossed the finish line and 96 finished in the…
Read MoreAppalachian Voices Is Earthfare’s December Friend of the Month
Appalachian Voices has always been a friend of the earth, but now we’re also a friend of Earthfare. For the entire month of December, Appalachian Voices will be the featured organization of Earthfare’s Friend of the Month program in Boone, NC. Throughout the month, special fundraising events will take place at Earthfare’s Boone location, all…
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