The Appalachian Voice
Student Volunteers Take Appalachian Voices by Storm
Editors note: Students from Appalachian State University have been flooding the offices of Appalachian Voices for nights we call “Pizzas and Vistas,” where they mobilize dozens of volunteers to advance Appalachian Voices’ clean air campaign. We thought one night per week would suffice, but so many students converged on the office that they now work…
Read MoreWendell Berry on Sustainability, Citizenship and Becoming a Native
For over forty years, Wendell Berry has written from his hillside farm in Kentucky. Through more than thirty books of fiction, poetry and nonfiction, he has critiqued the many problems of our American lifestyle while also offering more ecologically sane alternatives. What follows are excerpts from an interview with Berry conducted in November of 2003.…
Read MoreBlue Ridge Echo
images/voice_uploads/BrushyMtnsCircle.gif Stop at almost any east-facing overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway in northwestern North Carolina and you will see layers of mountains retreating into the distance. Most people assume that they are looking at the Blue Ridge Mountains. While spurs of the Blue Ridge range do taper to the east, the most prominent peaks…
Read MoreThe Healthy Air Industry
images/voice_uploads/MarshallSmokestackCircle.gif When Person County Manager Steve Carpenter talks about the North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act (CSA), the enthusiasm in his voice is unmistakable. But the enthusiasm is not because of the much cleaner air that he and his constituents will soon be breathing as a direct result of the CSA. No, when Steve Carpenter thinks…
Read MoreAppalachian Voices Sets Course for Future at Strategic Planning Retreat
On a beautiful November weekend in Boone, members of Appalachian Voices staff and board of directors met to set the course for the organization for the next three years. We discussed our conservation programs, as well the organizational nuts and bolts necessary to meet our goals of ending mountaintop removal, eliminating air pollution, and restoring…
Read MoreSue Daniel Memorial Fund Announced
Appalachian Voices is honored to be chosen as a recipient of donations in memory of Sue Daniels, a leading mountaintop removal activist from Blacksburg, Virginia, who passed away in November. As a leader of the Blacksburg-based organization Mountain Justice, Sue’s dedication to ending mountaintop removal was extraordinary. Sue took dozens of people to West Virginia…
Read MoreGive a Gift to the Mountains
Have you ever thought of a dollar as a vote? The average American will spend $800 on gifts this holiday season, and with each dollar, consumers have the choice to cast their vote for businesses that care about their communities and the environment. Appalachia is home to thousands of locally-owned businesses that have been sustaining…
Read MoreTo Save the Land and People
Reviewed by Michael Hodges-Foret How can a land be so rich, and its people so poor? According to Chad Montrie, a historian at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, this is the “enduring paradox” of Appalachia. To Save the Land and People explores one aspect of that paradox, the opposition to surface coal mining in Appalachia. Montrie…
Read MoreLeaves of Three, Let it Be
images/voice_uploads/PoisonIvyCircle.gif My last article for the Appalachian Voice addressed the exquisite little inconvenience known as chiggers. I’ll continue on the theme of “itch” and explore the plant of myth and misery known as poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). A member of the cashew family, poison ivy has close cousins in poison oak, and poison sumac. However,…
Read MoreThe Electoral Non-Issue
On November 2nd, Americans turned out in droves to cast their votes for president. Yet before a single vote was counted, it was clear who the real losers of the 2004 election were. They were the future generations of Americans whose health and quality of life depend so heavily on decisions our political leaders make…
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