The Appalachian Voice
New 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 MoreSupporting Their Farming “Habit”
“Know how to make a small fortune farming?” “Start out with a large fortune and pretty soon you’ll have a small one.” This sort of wry humor is standard among farmers when talking about their declining profession. It’s no secret that the family farm is in financial trouble – the nation’s small farms have been…
Read MoreLooking Out for Our Feathered Friends
images/voice_uploads/BirdCircle.gif They come here with names as rich as the velvety colors of their wings—scarlet tanager, rose-breasted grosbeak, belted kingfisher, golden-winged warbler, and yellow-bellied sapsucker. The year-round residents, the seasonal migrants, the sparsely spotted interlopers that have been driven here by odd weather and confusion make up a diverse and beautiful range of color 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 MoreToo Hot to Handle?
images/voice_uploads/MtRogers.gif We’ve heard about the threat of global warming for decades, but for those of us who live in the Appalachian Mountains, the danger may seem far away. Amidst all the talk of melting ice caps and flooded coastal cities, of droughts on the Great Plains and melting glaciers in Rockies, you don’t hear much…
Read MoreHow to Help Stop Global Warming
There are many groups both national and regional that are working to educate people and encourage political leaders to take global warming seriously. One of the most interesting of these is the Climate Connection, a program of the North Carolina Council of Churches (NCCC). According to Alice Loyd, Chair of the program, “Climate Connection works…
Read MoreSmall Farms Get Creative to Survive
images/voice_uploads/MaverickCircle.gif They’re all mavericks of a sort – unmarked and unbranded, apart from the crowd and outside of the mainstream, and just outside of Boone, NC. They believe the traditional family farm is in danger, yet they are not all family in terms of blood relation. Family is important, however, to the farmers of Maverick…
Read MoreStudent 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 MoreAction Alert! Help Stop Rollbacks of Clean Air Laws
As the 109th Congress launches its session, the administration in Washington is clearly determined to advance new air pollution laws that will undermine the existing Clean Air Act. Their first attempt comes in the form of the Clear Skies Act, a bill with a misleading name that would actually allow more air pollution and delay…
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