The Appalachian Voice
Wayne Bailey Fought to Preserve Eastern Wild Turkeys
Conservationists, turkeys and turkey hunters alike have lost a great friend. Wayne Bailey, one of a handful of people who brought the wild turkey back from the brink of disaster, died Feb. 27 in his Danville, Va. home after a long battle with cancer. Bailey, who was born in 1918 at Rock, W.Va. is known…
Read MoreCoal Synfuels: A Giant Leap Backward
America’s coal companies and their political supporters continue to push for the creation of a massive coal synthetic fuels industry. This time, they say, it would be a real industry, not the half-baked “spray and pray” operations that have legally but unethically siphoned off billions in tax dollars for bogus “synthetic” fuels projects. Recently, a…
Read MoreCelebrating Earth Day
Thirty seven years ago, American rivers were still catching fire and city dwellers had to choke through a pall of smoke just getting to work. Fed up with unregulated pollution, millions of Americans joined together on Earth Day and demanded that air and water pollution be cleaned up. The environmental movement was one of the…
Read MoreSquirreling away secrets at the US Fish & Wildlife Service
images/uploads/squirral_circle.gif “Ginny,” the West Virginia northern flying squirrel (glaucomys sabrinus fuscus) is a charming, big-eyed, nocturnal creature that lives only in the high Allegheny Mountains — in seven counties in West Virginia, and one county in Virginia. At night, Ginny and her family glide from the trees to the moist forest floor, where they feed…
Read MoreThe wiley coyote makes a comeback — and not everyone finds it amusing
Historically, the coyote’s range was restricted to the Great Plains area, but today the coyote can be found from Alaska to Central America, as far west as the Los Angeles city limits, and as far east as the Atlantic Ocean. The coyote (Canis latrans) weighs around 40 pounds and is larger than its western cousin,…
Read MoreKids Connect with Nature at Apple Tree Ridge Farm
images/uploads/green_circle.gif COPPER HILL, VA — Nestled into the side of a mountain near Roanoke, Apple Ridge Farm gives city children the opportunity to learn through camps and nature. “It is important for children to connect with nature,” said Laura Wasko, Environmental Education coordinator. “It’s important…as we’re moving into this electronic age.” The rolling property is…
Read MoreMelungeons celebrate heritage, ties to Europe
Meet Appalachian Voices Youngest Volunteer
When asked what Olivia “Blue” Stegall thought of mountaintop removal coal mining she described it as “eeewy.” This was the word that Appalachian Voices’ youngest and highly dedicated volunteer had to say about people blowing up the mountains. Blue, a Johnson County, TN native, attests that it makes her sad when she sees destruction of…
Read MoreDominion Power’s Blank Check
Deregulation of Virginia’s electric utilities has been a failure – almost everyone agrees on that. What to do about it ought to be the subject of a broad and far-reaching public policy debate. Instead, Virginia’s leading utility, which wrote its own ticket for deregulation back in 1999, is now hurrying to write itself a blank…
Read MoreTwo Catholic Sisters: Working in the Web of Life
For the past 26 years, Sister Beth Davies has lived in one of the most remote towns of southwestern Virginia, in a little coal camp called St. Charles. Her “holler” literally dead ends into a mountain, but it is neither a metaphor for the way she lives or what she has helped the people of…
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