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November 18, 2006
Where Have All the Mountains Gone?
Mountaintop Removal as seen from the Pine Mountain Trail in Eastern Kentucky
Were you aware that there's a war going on, right here, right now, in our Homeland? No, I'm not talking about the war on terrorism. The war I'm referring to has received barely any notice by the mainstream media. What I'm talking about is mountaintop removal, and it's taking place right here in Appalachia.
Last May, an article entitled "The Rape of Appalachia" by Michael Shnayerson appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine. One of my partners at the National Park Service gave me a copy of the article to read. While the subject of mountaintop removal was not a new one to me, I was horrified by the impact on communities who live near mountaintop removal operations.
Now I've just finished a new book entitled Lost Mountain by Erik Reece. Reece is a Professor at the University of Kentucky, and is the co-director of the Summer Environment Writing Program conducted in eastern Kentucky's 10,000 acre Robinson Forest. Lost Mountain is a powerful and well written book chronicling the destruction of the ironically named "Lost Mountain" over the course of a year. For a sample of Reece's writing, you can read an article entitled "Moving Mountains" on the website of Orion Magazine.
Now I've learned that two campaigners from the West Virginia based Coal River Mountain Watch, as well as a representative from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth will be coming to The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee on Tuesday November 28. According to Dr. Bryan O'Neil from the University, this is "a very engaging program with personal testimony about the ills of a community living with mountaintop removal."
This road show will take place at 4:30 PM (Central Time) on the Sewanee Campus in Gailor Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. If you can't make this meeting, please visit ilovemountains.org to learn about the campaign to end mountaintop removal.
Unspoiled Mountains in Eastern Kentucky. Will they remain that way?
Conservation | By Jeffrey Hunter | 12:37 PM
