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…