The Appalachian Voice
A Catholic Bishop Speaks Out Against Mountaintop Removal
Reprinted from the Catholic Virginian. First published on January 16, 2004. About 10 days before Christmas, I together with Steve Colecchi of our Justice and Peace Office traveled to eastern Kentucky to join a delegation of church leaders who wanted to experience the devastating environmental disaster of “mountain top removal.” Our delegation included Bishop Ronald…
Read MoreProtecting a Southern Legacy
editor’s note: In the last issue of the Appalachian Voice, we wrote about the incredible discovery of an ivory-billed woodpecker – previously thought extinct for more than 50 years – in the lowland cypress forests of Arkansas. As a follow-up, we decided to include this short piece from the good folks at the Gulf Restoration…
Read MorePraying for a Good Predator
images/voice_uploads/Circle_Hemlock.gif It is late spring, a bright afternoon full of the sunshine of approaching summer and I am driving slowly up a graveled fire road approach to the summit of Reddish Knob. This lonesome mountaintop in the George Washington National Forest straddles the border between Virginia and West Virginia to the west of Harrisonburg and…
Read MoreStanding Up – and Sitting Down – for the Mountains
As this issue of the Appalachian Voice goes to press, Ed Wiley, a grandfather from West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, has just ended his sit in and hunger strike on the steps of the West Virginia state capitol. Wiley, a coal miner, went to Charleston to demand a meeting with Governor Joe Manchin about a…
Read MoreTrail Running in the Mountains
images/voice_uploads/Circle_TrailRunning.gif Have you ever been strolling along a mountain trail enjoying the peaceful serenity of nature, only to have someone in running shoes blast by you and speed ahead into the forest? If you aren’t a runner, you may very well have been irritated, or at least puzzled, by this outdoor over-achiever. After all, isn’t…
Read MoreThe Greening of Gatlinburg
images/voice_uploads/Circle_Gatlinburg.gif “Gatlinburg.” For a lot of people the name Gatlinburg, Tenn., conjures up the worst kind of Southern sprawl: huge billboards, flashing signs, tacky theme parks, trash, abandoned cars, and decaying buildings. Well, hold onto your hats! Gatlinburg turns out on closer inspection to be the best kind of green destination, one that many tourist…
Read MoreThe Battle of Blair Mountain….Revisited
In late August and September of 1921, the largest armed rebellion in the U.S. since the Civil War was mounted in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. Union coal miners gathered, in numbers estimated anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 strong, outside of Charleston. It is perhaps misleading to call them an “army”, for they had…
Read MoreBlowin’ in the Wind
images/voice_uploads/Circle_WindFarm.gif Editor’s note: While Appalachian Voices is generally supportive of wind power development, the controversies over siting wind turbines in the mountains are only likely to grow over time. For this reason, we will try to cover both sides of the issue for our readers. Please note, however, that the views expressed in this article…
Read MoreA Second Chance
For nearly fifty years, one of North America’s most magnificent bird species was thought to be extinct. But just a week before the printing of this paper, scientists confirmed that at least one ivory-billed woodpecker – and they suspect at least a few more – is alive and well in Arkansas. Tim Gallagher from the…
Read MoreNew Life for Appalachian Homebuilding Tradition
images/voice_uploads/PoplarCircle.gif The passion in Chris McCurry’s voice can bring tears to your eyes. And she’s not talking about solving world peace or finding cures for childhood diseases. Chris is talking about using poplar bark as siding for homes and businesses. “The importance of this really hits a chord with me,” she says. “Bark siding is…
Read More