Visionaries
Bill Howley: Making Electricity Local
By Harrison Dreves In 1974, a trip to West Virginia changed the course of Bill Howley’s life. The recent Yale graduate was immediately entranced by the taste of blackberries, the view of receding ridgelines and the smell of Appalachia in June. Three years later, he purchased 46 acres in a West Virginia valley and made…
Read MoreKnoxville: “The Sustainable City”
By Nolen Nychay Knoxville, Tenn. ranks second in the nation for growth in green jobs and is one of only a handful of American cities to have fully bounced back from the economic recession, according to a recent Brookings Institute report. Since 2006, the city has reduced carbon emissions by 17 percent, and under Mayor…
Read MoreA Science of Responsibility:
Dr. Ben Stout’s Dedication to Community-Based Research By Brian Sewell Dr. Ben Stout, a stream ecologist and professor of biology at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, is as at home in nearby communities as he is in the classroom. For more than 20 years, he has conducted his research outside of the lab and…
Read MoreTeacher, Wife, Activist, Mother:
Wilma Lee Steele Turns Focus to Healing By Molly Moore For Wilma Lee Steele, the devastation wrought by mountaintop removal coal mining can’t be measured solely by polluted streams or transformed ridgelines. For someone as spiritually connected to the mountains of her West Virginia home as Steele is, blasting away mountaintops for the sake of…
Read MoreAnna Behnke: A Seventh Grade Activist
By Sarah Kellogg Seventh grader Anna Behnke loves to swim in Mountain Island Lake, but two years ago, she learned about the water pollution caused by Duke Energy’s Riverbend coal-fired power plant and began to worry about the impact the pollution could have on children’s health. So, for a sixth grade science project, Behnke tested…
Read MoreInnovating with Electric Cooperatives
By Sarah Kellogg An inspiring, forward-thinking businessman, Mike Couick works to distribute affordable electricity to rural homes. “I don’t believe it’s a sustainable business plan to try to sell electricity that a member can’t afford,” Couick says. “The bottom line is their satisfaction and well-being.” Couick is the CEO of the Electric Cooperatives of South…
Read MoreDiane Pitcock Connects Landowners to Fracking Researchers
By Molly Moore When Diane Pitcock and her family retired to rural Doddridge County, W.Va., in 2005, she planned on canning garden vegetables, watching the stars and listening to the owls. Today, however, four Marcellus Shale gas rigs surround her land, and the ridge behind her home hosts an access road instead of a forest.…
Read MoreRalph Davis: Exploring Appalachia’s Future
By Nolen Nychay In his 21 years of journalistic work at publications such as the Jackson County Sun, Paintsville Herald and Floyd County Times, Ralph Davis developed a close relationship with the small communities of eastern Kentucky and the rural lifestyle the region prides itself on. When Davis began work on his master’s thesis in…
Read MoreHigher Ground: Staging Solutions in Harlan County
By Rachel Ellen Simon The old adage holds that it takes a village to raise a child. But in Harlan County, Ky., the community has come together to raise more than that, including: theater sets, awareness and, ultimately, spirits. A series of participatory community theater projects, “Higher Ground” involves upwards of 100 Harlan County locals…
Read MoreJohnny Cummings: Small Town with Big Ideals
By Kimber Ray For a small eastern Kentucky town, Vicco has been making big headlines. The driving force of this publicity is the town’s energetic and openly gay mayor, Johnny Cummings. Locals praise their mayor for leading ambitious community projects in economic revitalization and infrastructure repair. Nationally, however, Cummings astonished much of the country by…
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