The Appalachian Voice
Conservationists, Industry Reach Historic Agreement to Protect Forests on the Cumberland Plateau
The practice of converting hardwood forests to pine plantations has long been criticized by scientists and conservationists in the Southeast who maintain that pine monocultures fail to provide adequate habitat for wildlife, fail to protect water quality as a natural forest would, and require heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers. Photo courtesy of the Dogwood…
Read MoreSmiling at the Gas Pump
Think badly of me if you must, but I’ve actually enjoyed watching gasoline prices rise to their recent unprecedented levels. When the local TV news crew does a story on higher gas prices at the pump, I smile as the owners of big SUV’s whine and complain to the reporters. I laugh when I see…
Read MoreDeer 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 MoreAppalachian Voices Welcomes AmeriCorps Member
If you are one of the hundreds of landowners who requested a copy of the first edition of the Appalachian Voices sustainable forestry handbook, then you undoubtedly heard from us this summer. Our Stanback intern from Duke University, Christine Jolley, worked with Appalachian State University student Grant Crider to contact each one of you, and…
Read MoreColossal Failures of the Government
As the shock of the tragedy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina begins to fade for some Americans, the horror remains and, for many, their emotions are beginning to turn to anger. After all, it isn’t easy to understand how such an avoidable tragedy could have occurred in America. How…
Read MoreThe Lost Lane-End into Heaven
Ward Burton is living proof that one person can change the world. Single-handedly, and mostly out of sheer determination, he has saved 2100 acres of Southside Virginia riverfront wilderness, preserving it as a wildlife habitat, and keeping it safe from development in perpetuity. He began this endeavor without government assistance, without university degrees, without a…
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…
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