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Energy by and for the people
Public opinion polls are showing a serious problem with the debate over our future sources of energy: the American people strongly agree on solutions. Well over 80 percent of Americans consistently agree on renewable energy and conservation. In poll after poll, people strongly approve of the idea of building a sustainable future for their children.…
Read MoreA High Water Year on the New & Gauley Rivers
By Tom Cormons I made the best move of my life in the spring of 1997. With my ’84 Firebird stuffed with most of the gear I’d use to live outside until October, I left Charlottesville, headed west. I’d made this trip to West Virginia’s New River Gorge many times before, but always knowing that…
Read MoreThe greening of a Cherokee school
The Eastern Band’s new K-12 campus By Margaret V. Williams Seen from high above, the new school might remind you of the outline of the Big Dipper — a short handle with two circles at the end. Zoom in, and you see the circles are two-story buildings ringing huge, one-acre courtyards, and the handle holds…
Read MoreHow Green is your Campus?
There are many ways to find out how green your school is. The US EPA has a green power challenge for colleges, and Princeton Review has a rating system. There are also a dozen ways to make your school greener. And there are new funding initiatives through the Dept. of Education for financing green initiatives…
Read MoreBig Trouble on the Gauley
Gauley and New River Gorge residents worry that new mining operations will destroy tourism and their hopes for the future Story by Bill Kovarik American’s best whitewater is in big trouble. Mountaintop removal mining has arrived. Already one trout stream is dead and another is in jeopardy. Whitewater rafters and kayakers who flock to the…
Read MoreNational Parks threatened
By Katie Easter Fact—one in three national parks have above standard air pollution. Fact—there are over 100 new coal fired plants across the country. Fact—currently 28 new plants are to be developed within 186 miles of ten national parks. The Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and the Shenandoah…
Read MoreTrampling the Promised Land
Suburban Sprawl Now Dominates The Rural Landscape of America By Kathleen Marshall The story of development in Appalachia goes back to 1585, when Lt. Ralph Lane sent surveyors to explore from what would, one day, be Chesapeake Bay south to present-day North Carolina. In a letter back to England, the Elizabethan explorer wrote, “.…
Read MoreNaturalists Notebook – Switchgrass
You’ve probably driven by fields full of switch grass a hundred times and never known it. Varieties of the warm season grass – Panicum virgatum – can be found all over the Southeast and the Midwest. Switch grass looks humble enough in the spring, but by autumn it can be six to ten feet tall.…
Read MoreLetters to the editor
Dear Editor, Every article is different, stimulating, provocative, and something you won’t find anyplace else. Thanks. Su Clauson-Wicher Chilhowie, VA Dear Appalachian Voices, Finally, my Economic Stimulus “Kicker” from the Federal Gov’t. came, and I was able to donate part of it to your fine organization. I would love to encourage others who received a…
Read MoreNatural gas — Appalachia’s other energy dilemma
Stand on a ridgeline in southwestern Virginia. You’ll see lush hardwood forests, dark-green groves of rhododendron, blue skies … and square, neat clearings, marked by green tanks and red well heads. They dot almost every ridge, every nook and knob in the mountainous terrain. Look directly overhead, and you might also be standing under a…
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