2003 – Issue 2 (September)

Longtime coal miner Bernard Gibson can see what’s there and see what coming. “It’s going,” Gibson said. “I can’t predict when and you can’t either. But it’s got to go.” ‘It’ is the fractured point on the southern face of Kayford Mountain near Dorothy, West Virginia where for the past year residents have monitored a…

By Harvard Ayers Blaine Meador’s wife has heard Kayford Mountain talk, and she doesn’t like what it’s saying. Looming above Dorothy, West Virginia, a giant crack has opened out of coal-mined Kayford Mountain that she and everyone else in town worries may break off a chunk of the mountain, a chunk large enough to slide…

Local and regional land trusts all over the country struggle to cover their operating costs, which can be considerable, given the price of legal expenses and the price of land these days. Foundation grants are the traditional major source of funding but grants are ever-harder come by because of tough competition from other groups with…

images/voice_uploads/VA-wilderness-mary-burnham.gif The face of Southern Appalachia is rapidly changing. It’s valleys and mountaintops are beginning to show their age at the hands of new development and mismanaged forestlands. A growing environmental awareness among residents of the region has provided fertile ground for organizations working to lessen the growing pains of modernity. The three organizations profiled…

When something as lovely as the Blue Ridge Parkway passes through one’s own backyard, it’s easy to take it for granted—the peaceful, curling road, the superb mountain vistas, and the economic rewards of Parkway related tourism. But residents of the Roanoke Valley of Virginia may soon be paying the price for ignoring the loveliness in…

Jefferson National Forest contains 58,000 acres of wilderness areas. The Draft Management Plan recommends another 28,000 acres for wilderness study. The Radford Coalition is an ad-hoc organization made up of representatives from the Virginia Wilderness Committee, Appalachian Trail Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Sierra Club, Virginia Forest Watch, Wild Law, Pacific Rivers Council, Mountain Heritage…

DatelineAppalachia New Documentary Showcases Region Over one trillion dollars; 1,000,000,000,000,000. That would represent one estimate totalling the value of the natural resources extracted out of Appalachia since the industrial age chugged up the mountains. This funnelling of the area’s riches all too often left many Appalachian communities at the bottom of the spout, mired in…

Virginia landowners will have an opportunity this fall to observe first hand possible alternatives for their forest and for the critters that depend upon it. Experts in managing forests for the future will be featured at Virginia Forest Watch’s (VAFW) fifth annual conference. “We want folks to know that there are alternatives to clear cutting…