The Appalachian Voice
Moving Mountains
Willie Nelson’s stage manager once called the country music legend “the king of the common man,” so it’s no surprise that Nelson has thrown his support behind a new album entitled Moving Mountains: Voices of Appalachia Rise Up Against Mountaintop Removal. The album features musicians from across Appalachia who have come together to help their…
Read MoreThe Raven: Oracle of the High Peaks
Growing up on the Blue Ridge, I frequently heard the strange call of a bird near the crest of the escarpment. The call had a watery, gargling sound. My grandfather identified the bird as a “rain-crow,” and often planned our farm work in response to the call. He explained that the cry of a rain-crow…
Read MoreThe Real “Chicken Littles”
During the negotiations leading up to the Clean Air Act of 1970, Ford Motor Company issued a warning that the act “could prevent continued production of automobiles,” and “is a threat to the entire American economy and to every person in America.” Similarly, shortly before the Clean Air Act was strengthened in 1990, the National…
Read MoreLeading the Way For Clean Air in the Southeast
images/voice_uploads/ContentsMarshall.gif On a warm, mid-February day of this year, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley joined dignitaries from across the state in Catawba County to witness the groundbreaking of a new “scrubber” at Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station. This sophisticated air pollution filter is one of the first new devices put in place as a result…
Read MoreVirginia Introduces Clean Smokestacks Legislation
The 2002 passage of the North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act has had ripple effects across the South, and one of the latest is the introduction of a Clean Smokestacks bill in the Virginia state legislature. The legislation was modeled after North Carolina’s landmark air pollution law. Richmond Republican Delegate John S. Reid introduced the Virginia…
Read MoreBlack Bear Parts in the Blue Ridge
images/voice_uploads/Black-Bear.gif The American black bear is one of the most beloved icons of the southern Appalachian wilderness, and seeing one in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or in Shenandoah National Park is often listed as a top priority among surveyed visitors. Both national parks as well as the areas that surround them continue to…
Read MoreThreats to Native Fauna: WIld American Ginsing
Black bear parts aren’t the only wild resources in the Blue Ridge being traded on the black market. Virginia’s Operation VIPER also zeroed in on the ginseng trade. As with bear parts, ginseng is also used in traditional Chinese medicine and is believed to provide stress relief, improved mental efficiency, and better stamina. It also…
Read MoreModern-Day Moonshiners
images/voice_uploads/ContentsMooshiner.gif Locals know that there is a place, a little bar set up inside a double-wide trailer perched on a hillside far from the main roads in the mountains of east Tennessee, where you can still get moonshine by the shot (in a small plastic Dixie cup) or by the quart jar. The proprietors of…
Read MoreBirds on the Wing
Spring is perhaps the best time of year for watching birds, and, ironically, is one of only a couple times each year one might actually see a Tennessee warbler in Tennessee or a Nashville warbler stop to rest its wings on a WSM transmitter. There is no better time to watch birds than when they…
Read MoreWinter in the Cranberry Wilderness
images/voice_uploads/p2cranberry.gif As West Virginia’s Cranberry Wilderness Area is a winter time haven for cross-country skiers and snowshoers, Charleston, West Virginia resident John Edwards wasn’t at all surprised that the outlines of snowshoes in the rock-hard snow were the first tracks he saw as he searched for a campsite high on Kennison Mountain. He chose to…
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