The Appalachian Voice
Thousand Cankers Disease Hits East Tennessee
By Meredith Warfield Black walnut trees are dying in Morgan and Rhea counties of eastern Tennessee. The culprit, according to a Tennessee Department of Agriculture announcement made this November, is Thousand Cankers Disease. The disease is a recent phenomenon in the East, but has been wreaking havoc in the western United States for the past…
Read MoreProgress and Setbacks for Appalachia’s Environment
Asheville City Council Approves Clean Energy Resolution In October, the city council of Asheville, N.C., unanimously approved a resolution to phase out the city’s use of coal-fired electricity and increase power generated from cleaner sources and saved through energy efficiency. Led by local citizen groups including the Western North Carolina Alliance and the Asheville Beyond…
Read MoreTennessee Valley Authority Announces Major Coal Cutbacks
By Brian Sewell After more than 50 years of supplying most of its power plants with coal, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it will idle 3,308 megawatts of capacity at eight coal units in Kentucky and Alabama — approximately half of its coal-based generation. Citing market factors, declining demand and stricter environmental rules, board members…
Read MoreThe Forest’s Bread and Butter
By Chris Samoray Bring down the mast. But hold on seafarers, leave the sails flying. In the forests of Appalachia, this lingo doesn’t refer to sailing. Instead, it’s used by outdoor folk to describe the fruits of plants and trees, with blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, hickory nuts, walnuts and beechnuts constituting just a few. Although these…
Read MoreGood Ole Rocky Top: Trail Repair in the Smokies
By Davis Wax Leaving I-40 South near Newport, Tenn., heading down Cosby Highway, I slowed down and leaned forward over the steering wheel, watching as the late September sky disappeared behind undulations of green and blue earth. The Great Smoky Mountains loomed ahead, as did my next adventure on the Appalachian Trail, a footpath —…
Read MoreOn the Right Side of the Law
By Molly Moore From the gallery of the Kentucky State Capitol, lawyer Wes Addington and a group of women from eastern Kentucky — mostly widows of coal miners — watched the Kentucky House pass a bill expanding legal and safety protections for state miners. The women had advocated tirelessly in support of the law, and…
Read MoreKen Hechler: An Epoch of Activism
By Rachel Ellen Simon For the vast majority of his nearly 100 years, Ken Hechler has been one of the mountains’ strongest advocates. A Democrat from West Virginia, Ken Hechler served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 straight years, beginning in 1958. During this time, Hechler championed the abolition of strip mining and…
Read MoreGreen Tea With a Splash of Bipartisanism
By Nolen Nychay A new bipartisan coalition called Green Tea has emerged in Georgia, united by a mutual objective to revise the state’s environmental and economic legislation. The new alliance includes Libertarians, environmentalists, Tea Partiers and other conservative interest groups. The coalition aims to “educate and empower American consumers, advocate for common-sense energy policy and…
Read MorePodcasting Appalachian History
By Bill Kovarik Dave Tabler’s education in art history didn’t prepare him to be an Appalachian historian so much as his hope to overcome the way his father “spent a lifetime running away from mean jokes about marrying your cousin and swilling moonshine.” After helping his father with a book, Tabler started the Appalachian History…
Read MoreAppalachia’s Contested History
By Bill Kovarik It has been 50 years since Harry Caudill wrote “Night Comes to the Cumberlands,” a landmark history that rejected stereotypes of Appalachian people as backward hillbillies and described the ruthless exploitation they suffered. The book spoke with eloquence to the American conscience and set off a firestorm of controversy. Within a year,…
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