The Appalachian Voice
A Cautionary Tree Tale
images/voice_uploads/june_o7/tree_circle.gif In this story our victim is an 84-year-old widow who lives alone on 22 mountaintop acres in Tennessee. Our villain is a 30-something guy who talks a very good talk. And then we have a supporting cast consisting of an expert witness who offers some very good advice and a local sheriff and district…
Read MoreAlternatives to Styrofoam
Canyon’s Restaurant Sitting overlooking one of the most gorgeous mountain views in the Appalachians, Bart Conway, owner and manager of Canyon’s Restaurant in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, is going vegetarian. No, he still serves (and eats) many delicious meat dishes, but he is lowering his carbon footprint by using canola fryer oil to heat with…
Read MoreThe Crooked Road
Climbing into the Cumberland Mountains, Virginia’s Heritage MusicTrail – “The Crooked Road” – comes to Clintwood and stops at a mighty mansion bearing the name of Ralph Stanley. A smoky-voiced singer, the 80-year-old Stanley is one of Southwest Virginia’s greatest musical success stories. As one half of The Stanley Brothers, Ralph created some of the…
Read MoreThe Pines: The Good and the Bad
Jim Minick is a professor of English at Radford University and the author of Finding a Clear Path_, a collection of essays was published by West Virginia University press. Pine trees receive a large share of bad press in environmental circles, and sometimes rightly so. Their use in plantations has been linked to increasing global…
Read MoreStrange Bedfellows
The strangest bedfellows in West Virginia, the AFL-CIO / United Mine Workers union and the WV Chamber of Commerce, joined hands recently to write an article entitled “Economic cornerstone of W.Va. under attack.” They are strange bedfellows because the Chamber of Commerce would stomp out the United Mine Workers and any other union in a…
Read MoreEditorial
Jobs? What mining jobs? That strange noise coming from Appalachia’s coal fields is the sound that the truth makes when it is being mercilessly twisted. In rallies and op-ed essays this spring, the “friends of coal” have focused on a consistent theme: Jobs. A good many Appalachian politicians, union leaders and business leaders are claiming…
Read MoreBlair Mountain: New Archeological Data Heats up Mine Wars
images/voice_uploads/june_o7/circle_blair.gif Like his grandfather, Kenny King figured he just had to do something. Hallowed ground was about to be clearcut, bulldozed, and blasted down to rubble. The site of the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain battle between miners and coal company forces would be gone forever. “I just hated to see it be destroyed,” he…
Read MoreNews Briefs
New Chief Dooms Roadless Areas In June, newly appointed Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth announced that commercial logging and road construction can resume on National Forest roadless areas with his permission. Bosworth also announced his intention to make roadless area protection subject to the forest planning process. Under existing forest plans, 50% of all roadless…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I appreciated your article on “modern day midwives.” I am glad to see more publicity given to natural birth and midwifery. In today’s technological environment, it is often hard to have a birth free of IVs, continuous monitoring, etc. unless one delivers outside the hospital. The statistics provided by Ms. Bellebuono accurately reflect…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor
Dear Editor This letter is an appeal to the residents of this state to rise to the task of preventing an unfortunate, and disgraceful assault on some new residents of our state: the bald eagle. The first time I was privileged enough to see these magnificent birds was early in the summer of 1998. My…
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