The Appalachian Voice
Blowin’ 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 MoreNew Group Brings Christian Ethics to Conservation
“The Earth is the Lord’s” was the theme of over 20 Christians gathering in Charleston to organize a strategy to protect and restore God’s creation in the Appalachian region. Deriving their stance from an array of scriptures including Psalm 24’s “The Earth is the Lord’s,” the group pledged their efforts to mobilize Christians and their…
Read MoreAppalachian Voices Hires Volunteer Coordinator
Shelly Connor is the membership and volunteer coordinator for Appalachian Voices. She has worked for 6 years in the non-profit sector in many capacities. Shelly earned her BA degree in Biology and MS degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Her previous experience includes working as a volunteer coordinator for two after school…
Read MoreA 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 MoreBest Birding Spots in the Southern Appalachians
Brasstown Bald, Georgia: Species sighted here include Canada warbler, black-throated blue warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak, blackburnian warbler, scarlet tanager, and blue-headed vireo, ravens, and winter wrens. Mount Mitchell, North Carolina: There has been massive and visible die-off of Fraser Fir here, making the mountaintop home to birds that prefer shrubs and thickets like the hermit thrush,…
Read MoreRemoving Barriers to Healthier Rivers
images/voice_uploads/DamCircle.gif As the splendor of another Appalachian spring unfolds, birds are not the only migrants returning to the mountains where they were born. Shad, a native fish once abundant in the mid Atlantic states, are moving up through the estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay on their way back to their natal rivers. Adult male and…
Read MoreAppalachian Voice Members: Hear Them Roar!
This spring, Appalachian Voices’ staff, members and volunteers worked together to achieve an enormous success for clean air in North Carolina and across the Southeast. As a result of those efforts, North Carolina is taking bipartisan strides to help keep big industrial polluters from weakening federal clean air standards and further dirtying our air in…
Read MoreAppalachian Treasures Project Touring Nation to Protect Coalfield Communities
On a recent March morning, a group of community and business leaders from Ashtabula, Ohio sat riveted and astonished as they listened to the stories of three visitors from Appalachia. They learned about how the peaceful lives of the two elderly women, members of coal mining families and life-long residents of the mountains of southern…
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