Posts Tagged ‘2013 — Issue 6 (Dec/Jan)’
Lenny Kohm: Creating a Better Appalachia
By Molly Moore At Appalachian Voices, the nonprofit organization that publishes The Appalachian Voice, it’s impossible to think of regional visionaries and leaders without considering one of our own — Senior Campaign Advisor Lenny Kohm. His journey into environmental work began on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and Canada…
Read MoreInvestigation Finds Fraud in Black Lung Cases
By Kimber Ray A year-long investigation revealed evidence this fall that the coal industry has supported fraudulent practices in order to block workers’ compensation claims for black lung disease. According to the investigation conducted by The Center for Public Integrity and ABC News, it appears that officials at prestigious medical institutions including Johns Hopkins Hospital…
Read MoreThousand Cankers Disease Hits East Tennessee
By Meredith Warfield Black walnut trees are dying in Morgan and Rhea counties of eastern Tennessee. The culprit, according to a Tennessee Department of Agriculture announcement made this November, is Thousand Cankers Disease. The disease is a recent phenomenon in the East, but has been wreaking havoc in the western United States for the past…
Read MoreProgress and Setbacks for Appalachia’s Environment
Asheville City Council Approves Clean Energy Resolution In October, the city council of Asheville, N.C., unanimously approved a resolution to phase out the city’s use of coal-fired electricity and increase power generated from cleaner sources and saved through energy efficiency. Led by local citizen groups including the Western North Carolina Alliance and the Asheville Beyond…
Read MoreTennessee Valley Authority Announces Major Coal Cutbacks
By Brian Sewell After more than 50 years of supplying most of its power plants with coal, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it will idle 3,308 megawatts of capacity at eight coal units in Kentucky and Alabama — approximately half of its coal-based generation. Citing market factors, declining demand and stricter environmental rules, board members…
Read MoreThe Forest’s Bread and Butter
By Chris Samoray Bring down the mast. But hold on seafarers, leave the sails flying. In the forests of Appalachia, this lingo doesn’t refer to sailing. Instead, it’s used by outdoor folk to describe the fruits of plants and trees, with blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, hickory nuts, walnuts and beechnuts constituting just a few. Although these…
Read MoreGood Ole Rocky Top: Trail Repair in the Smokies
By Davis Wax Leaving I-40 South near Newport, Tenn., heading down Cosby Highway, I slowed down and leaned forward over the steering wheel, watching as the late September sky disappeared behind undulations of green and blue earth. The Great Smoky Mountains loomed ahead, as did my next adventure on the Appalachian Trail, a footpath —…
Read MoreOn the Right Side of the Law
By Molly Moore From the gallery of the Kentucky State Capitol, lawyer Wes Addington and a group of women from eastern Kentucky — mostly widows of coal miners — watched the Kentucky House pass a bill expanding legal and safety protections for state miners. The women had advocated tirelessly in support of the law, and…
Read MoreKen Hechler: An Epoch of Activism
By Rachel Ellen Simon For the vast majority of his nearly 100 years, Ken Hechler has been one of the mountains’ strongest advocates. A Democrat from West Virginia, Ken Hechler served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 straight years, beginning in 1958. During this time, Hechler championed the abolition of strip mining and…
Read More