Appalachia

A Young Tree Sitter Starves In A Tent 50 Feet High To Stop A Pipeline

April 27, 2018 Staff, Itsgoingdown.org Resist! Appalachia, Pipelines, Protests

When a young girl got up in a monopod tent with limited food to prevent construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) back in March, she had no idea the movement her action would spark. A 61 year-old woman, “Red” Terry, would soon join the effort by climbing her own tree and making national news as police denied her food and water. Last Saturday, “Red” Terry told Police at the base of her maple tree that she was running out of food. Law enforcement looked back up at the 61-year old woman in her treehouse and said they would give her what she needed. They gave her stale cookies and a sandwich. Then law enforcement taped a piece of paper to her tree saying, “You should vacate immediately. I am posting a copy of the order on this tree.”

The South’s Pipe Dreams

March 12, 2018 By Seth Cline, Usnews.com Educate! Appalachia, Gas, Pipelines

The largest gas field in the world lies deep below the shimmering Persian Gulf, surrounded on all sides by wealthy OPEC nations. The second-largest sits largely beneath rural Appalachia. And as political opposition to fracking and pipelines builds in the Northeast, that gas glut is increasingly heading one direction: south. Once fueled by the nearby mountain coal mines, the South is set to become one of the biggest benefactors of America's natural gas boom. But first, the region will have to build the pipelines to transport it. "If you look at the numbers this whole (Appalachian) region would be the second-largest gas producing country in the world," says Akos Losz, a research analyst at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. "One way or another, gas has to find a way out of this region and the Southeast is one of the natural destination markets."

I’m An Eagle Scout, And I Don’t Want Pipelines In My Wilderness

February 22, 2018 By Griffin Bird, Otherwords.org Educate! Appalachia, Pipelines, Virginia

Troop 149, an enthusiastic and lively troop from Arlington, made me the person I am today. Being a member of Troop 149 meant a lot of things, but most importantly it meant incredible outdoor expeditions on the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail, a treasured 2,200-mile hiking trail that traverses the Appalachian Mountains, was a mainstay of my youth. I spent countless hours and made lots of memories on the trail — learning how to cook on a smoky campfire, leaving my tent to greet the crisp morning air, watching the sun dip below the mountains after a long day of backpacking. I wouldn’t trade these memories for anything. My visits to the Appalachian Trail became more infrequent as I got older and my Scouting career came to a close. I shipped off to a college on Virginia’s coast, far away from the mountains. Even as I grew older and busier, I found myself longing to be back out on that well-worn trail.

100-Year Capitalist Experiment Keeps Appalachia Poor & Stuck On Coal

January 3, 2018 Gwynn Guilford, Qz.com Educate! Appalachia, Capitalism, Coal, Mining, Poverty

The first time Nick Mullins entered Deep Mine 26, a coal mine in southwestern Virginia, the irony hit him hard. Once, his ancestors had owned the coal-seamed cavern that he was now descending into, his trainee miner hard-hat secure. His people had settled the Clintwood and George’s Fork area, along the Appalachian edge of southern Virginia, in the early 17th century. Around the turn of the 1900s, smooth-talking land agents from back east swept through the area, coaxing mountain people into selling the rights to the ground beneath them for cheap. One of Mullins’ ancestors received 12 rifles and 13 hogs—one apiece for each of his children, plus a hog for himself—in exchange for the rights to land that has since produced billions of dollars worth of coal.

This Proposed Pipeline Would Cut Right Through The Appalachian Trail

December 19, 2016 Hilary Hanson, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Appalachia, Pipelines

By Hilary Hanson for The Huffington Post - Environmental groups are voicing opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cut across the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and require clearing a previously protected corridor of forest. The Mountain Valley Pipeline would transport natural gas from northwest West Virginia to southern Virginia, according to The Wilderness Society, which published an editorial this week saying the pipeline would set a “dangerous precedent.” That’s because construction would involve clearing a 125-foot-wide section that would cross 3.4 miles of forest protected under the Forest Service’s “roadless rule ― litigation meant to protect lands from road construction and logging.

Coal Industry In Collapse, Mountains Not Coming Back

August 27, 2015 Laura Gottesdiener, www.tomdispatch.com Resist! Appalachia, Mountain Justice

By Laura Gottesdiener in Tom Dispatch - In Appalachia, explosions have leveled the mountain tops into perfect race tracks for Ryan Hensley’s all-terrain vehicle (ATV). At least, that’s how the 14-year-old sees the barren expanses of dirt that stretch for miles atop the hills surrounding his home in the former coal town of Whitesville, West Virginia. “They’re going to blast that one next,” he says, pointing to a peak in the distance. He’s referring to a process known as “mountain-top removal,” in which coal companies use explosives to blast away hundreds of feet of rock in order to unearth underground seams of coal. “And then it’ll be just blank space,” he adds. “Like the Taylor Swift song.”

Week Of Actions For Climate Justice In Appalachia

September 7, 2014 Dana Kuhnline, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Appalachia, Climate Change, Coal, Energy, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Mountaintop Removal

While much of the national climate movement has focused on gearing up towards the People’s Climate March in New York City later this month, frontline communities in Appalachia have been working hard at the local and regional level to address climate justice issues at the source. “Our people have been producing energy for this nation for over 100 years. We are proud of our heritage. But we can’t stay stuck in time,” said Teri Blanton, a long time organizer with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and The Alliance for Appalachia. “In Appalachia we’ve already seen what climate change can do — denuded and destroyed landscapes, poisoned water and a corrupt political system — it’s all together and it’s all connected. We have seen first hand that what they do to the land, they do to the people.” One of the key issues Appalachian leaders are organizing communities around is water pollution; lack of access to safe water has been an issue for decades in the region, a grim irony considering the area is a temperate rainforest.

WVA Implores Health Secretary To Stop Mountaintop Removal

September 4, 2014 Jeff Biggers, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Appalachia, Coal, health, Mountaintop Removal

Here’s a reality check: Since President Obama took office in 2009, not a single top level official from the White House, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Council on Environmental Quality, Department of the Interior or Department of Justice has ever made a fact-finding tour of mountaintop removal mining communities in central Appalachia, home to one of the worst health and humanitarian disasters in the nation. Even worse, a federal judge ruled last month that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may disregard studies on the health impacts of mountaintop removal mining in its permitting process. That could finally change with the newly appointed Department of Health and Human Service Secretary Sylvia Burwell, who was born and raised in Hinton, West Virginia. “We implore you to come home for a visit, come to our mountaintop removal communities in the Coal River Valley,” nationally-honored West Virginia advocate Bo Webb wrote in a letter to Burwell this week. “Come to Twilight and Lindytown and see what mountaintop removal is doing to us.”

Residents Demand New Jobs, Transparency On Strip Mine

August 21, 2014 Justice To Justice, www.justicetojustice.com Resist! Appalachia, Jobs, Mining, Protest

In the pre-dawn rain, members of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) waited to deliver a citizen mine inspection request letter to workers at the foot of an A&G Coal Corp. surface mine in Appalachia, VA. The strip mine on Looney Ridge of Black Mountain, above the community of Inman, was the source of the boulder that killed three-year-old Jeremy Davidson 10 years ago today1. The mine was recently cited for bond forfeiture by the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy2. Local residents are concerned that the mine, and many others controlled by billionaire Jim Justice, continues to be out of compliance for required reclamation and reforestation. The community group is asking that Jim Justice and the VA DMME allow for regular citizen mine inspections to ensure that Justice is in compliance with the law, and applying the best available reclamation techniques on operations like this one. The group has previously asked for citizen inspections of this mine, as allowed by SMCRA, but been denied. The Wise County residents hoped to meet the morning shift at 5:30 this morning, before delivering the same mine inspection request to the DMME. By 7:00 AM, workers had still not arrived, and so the group left their letter behind a band of caution tape in front of the entrance. The letter can be found at JusticeToJustice.com, or below.

Rising Tide’s Continental Gathering, August 22-24

June 19, 2014 Rising Tide North America, www.rtna.live2.radicaldesigns.org Organize! Activism, Appalachia, Conference, Mountaintop Removal, Rising Tide

Save the Date! Rising Tide North America Announces Our Continental Gathering! August 22-24 near Whitesburg, Kentucky Join us for the 2nd annual Rising Tide North America Continental Gathering, August 22-24 in eastern Kentucky. You can RSVP at http://bit.ly/1ihEyxn This year, Rising Tide North America’s network of activists and allies from around the continent will be converging in Appalachia at the tenth anniversary of Mountain Justice to learn from and support the struggle to stop mountaintop removal, connect with climate justice activists from around North America and strategize about how we want our movement to expand and grow. Additional details will be available soon..

I Let Go Of Being A Righteous Outside Organizer

June 8, 2014 Joe Solomon, www.medium.com Organize! Appalachia, Coal, Organizing

I want to share a story. And I should warn you: it’s full of hubris. I moved to West Virginia in December of 2012, thinking I could lead a blitz campaign to end the reign of mountaintop removal in the state. I spent a few months volunteering for local groups, like Coal River Mountain Watch, RAMPS, and so on, listening and learning, and trying to be of service — while looking for openings and seeing the need for an audacious all-out effort that would finally safeguard these mountains and her people. By the Summer of 2013, I thought I was ready to make my move. I wrote up a 7-page manifesto, which I have yet to share publicly, and mailed it (yes, snail-mailed it) to what I saw as some of the best organizers in the state (though not all). The manifesto was coupled with an invitation to join together for a visionary summit at the Southern Appalachian Labor School on August 17th 2013 — to brainstorm and possibly even launch a new campaign.

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