The Appalachian Voice
Deer Infected with Chronic Wasting Disease Discovered in West Virginia
Chronic wasting disease, a disease in deer caused by a protein that literally eats away brain tissue, has finally arrived in the southern Appalachians. In September, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) found the first known case of chronic wasting disease in the region. The two-year-old infected buck was killed on a Hampshire…
Read MoreNorth Carolina Towns and Counties Vote for Cleaner Air
Editors note: Erica Palmer is a superstar intern at Appalachian Voices. In recent months, she has been working with members and volunteers to help pass town and county resolutions in support of our clean air protections, which are currently threatened by proposed federal rollbacks of the Clean Air Act. Since passing the Clean Smokestacks Act…
Read MoreThe Marriage of Science and Religion
I have spent my life in a lover’s quarrel, not with my wife of four decades, but with the two disciplines I love: science and religion. I once started a Science and Religion class with the claim that these are the two most important things in the world. A student promptly objected: No, professor you…
Read MoreThe Last Leaf
I had risen, as was my custom, around 7:00 am, turned on the coffee pot, and looked across the tree tops to the bare mountain opposite my cabin on Blackrock Mountain. Pastel streaks of dawn lifted away the last vestiges of night. It was the first official day of winter, though the preceding weeks had…
Read MoreDeer Hunting
Photo of a white-tailed deer courtesy of Scott Bauer, USDA Agricultural Research Service, www.forestryimages.org https://appvoices.org/images/AppalachianVoice/AVOct05/Photos/circles/Circle_Deer.gif As deer hunting seasons throughout the Appalachians get underway, hundreds of thousands will take to the woods and enjoy some of the world’s most beautiful terrain. Unfortunately, declining numbers of hunters are leading to burgeoning deer populations across the Appalachians.…
Read MoreAs the Forests Have Changed, So Have Residents’ Lives
With virtually no laws governing forest practices in Tennessee, timber companies have been free to clearcut hundreds of thousands of acres of native forest on the Cumberland Plateau, replacing them with loblolly pine plantations. Photos courtesy of the Dogwood Alliance. “Our forests are something we should be proud of… I don’t understand why people are…
Read MoreHaving Your Trees and Cutting them Too
Participants in the recent sustainable forestry workshop on the Cumberland Plateau hike through a healthy, native working forest. Photo by Foster Hunt. Forester Clint Trammel advocates an ecologically sensitive brand of forestry that is more concerned with what’s left behind than what’s taken out during a logging operation. Photo by Foster Hunt. https://appvoices.org/images/AppalachianVoice/AVOct05/Photos/circles/Circle_SustForestry.gif Sunlight filters…
Read MoreThe Bobcat: Apparition of the Appalachians
Photo courtesy of Terry Spivey, USDA Forest Service, www.forestryimages.org https://appvoices.org/images/AppalachianVoice/AVOct05/Photos/circles/Circle_Bobcat.gif Wild animals appeal to us for various reasons- the freedom of birds, the gracefulness of deer, the majesty of elk, and the strength and danger associated with bears. The fact that wild cats seem to possess all these characteristics in one animal may explain our…
Read MoreExploring and Preserving Wild Caves
They are a netherworld beneath our feet, time capsules and windows into history and geology, vast areas of both darkness and color, home to few and fascinating to many. They are the wild caves of the Blue Ridge, and they are increasingly vulnerable to misuse and vandalism by thieves looking for artifacts and careless humans…
Read MoreProtecting a Global Hotspot of Biodiversity in Virginia
images/voice_uploads/Circle_NewRiver.gif As a boy, Neal Kilgore encountered his version of a horror story during an innocent fishing trip with a buddy. Casting their lines into the Clinch River in Wise County, Va., around 1970, the boys noticed fish floating on the surface. For as far as they could see, bass, bluegill and other species up…
Read More