Wilson Creek, Kentucky
You can support Beverly May and the communities on Wilson Creek by supporting Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
"I always enjoy seeing folks make that transition from being just victims to being folks that are able to help other folks, and leaders in the community. It\'s the root of our democracy at work when it happens." - Beverly May, resident of Wilson Creek, KY
Beverly May\'s family has lived on Wilson Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky, for five generations, and was one of the first settling families in the region. Located in the heart of coal country in eastern Kentucky, Floyd County is dotted with small, quiet communities and families with stories similar to Beverly May\'s. The region, which lies within the Big Sandy Valley of eastern Kentucky, houses the Mountain Arts Center and the Kentucky Opry, and the Country Music Highway runs through the county seat of Prestonsburg. Country music stars such as Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs and Dwight Yoakam were born in neighboring counties. The Middle Creek National Battlefield in Floyd is the site of the largest and most significant Civil War battle in Eastern Kentucky, and the beautiful Jenny Wiley State Resort Park lies near the center of the county.
Floyd - part of the Appalachian Mountains\' Cumberland Plateau and once lush with beautiful hardwood forests - is one of the twelve major coal-producing counties in eastern Kentucky. In the last 30 years, Kentucky coal counties have seen a decrease in the amount of deep mined coal and an increase in the amount of strip-mined and mountaintop removal coal mining. Simultaneously, the number of mining jobs have decreased by 82%, resulting in high unemployment numbers for Floyd County.
Today, Miller Brothers Coal Company is trying to move into the small community of Maytown and mine the unspoiled ridge top above Wilson Creek. Plans include three valley fills, which would bury the headwaters of Wilson Creek and Big Fork. The Big Sandy River, which Wilson Creek flows into, is already known as the most polluted river in the state.
Hard experience has taught eastern Kentucky that a large mine can devastate a community. Homes can be severely damaged by blasting, water wells are lost, dust from coal trucks and the mine itself can make it difficult to breath and flash flooding is a worry every spring. Flooding is already so frequent and severe in Floyd County that the Army Corp of Engineers is relocating the small town of Martin. Many families become discouraged or intimidated and leave. Two families on Wilson Creek have sold their land to Miller Brothers and a few absentee landowners have leased their rights, but the majority of the 94 families who live in the community are fighting to save their homes.
"If you get put in this position you find out real fast that you can\'t do nothing [on your own], you have to organize and you have to fight it however you can," said Beverly.
Beverly May has joined with other local residents to oppose the planned mine and save her community. With help from the regional group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), they have succeeded in banning coal trucks on the curvy one-lane road that runs along Wilson Creek, but their fight is far from over.
"If enough land owners say no I absolutely will not sign, it means that it\'s not profitable, so what we have done is very vocally and publicly said no...not in my lifetime this is not going to happen," said Beverly.
To support Beverly and her community contact Kentuckians for the Commonwealth at 606-878-2161 or at www.kftc.org
You can support Beverly May and the communities on Wilson Creek by supporting Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
"[Mountaintop removal coal mining would] wipe out a large part of the southern end of the battlefield that was occupied by the union miners."
Blair Mountain, West Virginia is the site of the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, the historic push of unionized coal miners from the north to organize the workers of the southern coalfields. Involving 13,000 union miners and 2,000 anti-union defenders, the battle was the largest armed conflict in America since the Civil War!
It remains literally a battleground: a prime location for finding historic artifacts left from both sides of the conflict. It\'s also, however, a battleground between opponents of mountaintop removal coal mining and the coal companies themselves.
Kenny King, a resident of Blair Mountain since 1962, explains how this historical site, which he has been working to preserve for 17 years, is threatened by a 333 acre mining permit. "[Mountaintop removal coal mining would] wipe out a large part of the southern end of the battlefield that was occupied by the union miners."
A valuable piece of labor organizing history is not the only thing that would be destroyed by mining Blair Mountain. According to King, if they strip Blair Mountain, they\'ll lose innumerable natural resources: "Valuable hardwood forest, herbs like the ginseng, yellowroot, cohosh, and blood root... you\'ll never see it again. All will be lost; it\'ll just cease to exist. It will be erased off the face of the earth."
If you would like to help protect Blair Mountain\'s many valuable assets, please take King\'s advice: "Let [your representatives] know that there has to be a better way than sacrificing all the mountains and forest land and historical sites just for a convenient way of producing energy."
"We don\'t live where they mine coal. They mine coal where we live.... Our concern today is our homes, our environment, and the sustainability of the environment." - Lorelei Scarbro, resident of Coal River Valley, West Virginia
Lorelei Scarbro\'s house in the little community of Rock Creek, West Virginia is the same house her husband built with his own two hands when they were married, on land handed down to him from his parents. They raised their children in this house. Lorelei watches the deer in the field below, enjoys a fresh mountain stream running by the property and says that her granddaughter takes particular delight in the wild turkeys that frequent the neighborhood. Her husband, a coal miner for 35 years who died of of black lung, is buried in the family cemetery next to their home.
Lorelei\'s property in Rock Creek borders Coal River Mountain, one of the most beautiful mountains in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, and one of the few untouched mountains in the region. Miles of pristine creeks and waterfalls, horseback trails and stunning vistas are often overlooked as a prime eco-tourism location.
Now Coal River Mountain is slated for a mountaintop removal coal mine. If the coal company\'s plans go through, nearly 10 square miles of the mountain will be destroyed, and 18 valley fills will devastate the Coal River watershed.
But residents in the Coal River Valley have joined together to propose a new idea - one of sustainable energy. In 2006, a study of the wind potential on Coal River Mountain demonstrated that the mountain is an ideal location for developing utility-scale wind power.
The proposed Coal River Wild Project would produce enough wind power to keep the lights on in 150,000 homes, pump $20 million per year in direct local spending during construction, and $2 million per year thereafter. It would create hundreds of jobs and allow other uses of the land that would benefit local communities. Sustainable forestry, tourism, and harvesting of ginseng and other wild plants are just a few options for Coal River residents that would ultimately preserve the natural environment of Coal River Mountain for generations to come.
To support Lorelei and her community contact:
Coal River Mountain Watch
(304) 854-2182 • www.crmw.net or www.CoalRiverWind.org
The mission of Coal River Mountain Watch is to stop the destruction of our communities and environment by mountaintop removal mining, to improve the quality of life in our area and to help rebuild sustainable communities.
To support Father Crist, Cary Huffman and their community, contact:
Ansted Historical Preservation Council
SaveGauleyMtn@gmail.com
UPDATE: July 29th, 2008 - Cary Huffman was featured on the radio program \"Earthworms\" for his work to save Gauley Mountain and Ansted, WV. Listen to the entire broadcast here.
Earthworms is a production of KDHX Community Radio program in St Louis, MO.
COMMUNITY STORY
Until the mid-twentieth century, Ansted, West Virginia was a bustling coal camp. In 1950, the coal company that operated the local mine pulled out, leaving the community with a sense of economic depression. In the years that followed, residents banded together and reinspired a pride in their mountain region, eventually rebounding the local economy through a thriving tourism industry.
The town of Ansted and surrounding Fayette County possess an abundance of natural and historical resources. The region boasts the stunning confluence of the New and Gauley Rivers at the head of the New River Gorge, one of the most beautiful sights on the Eastern seaboard. The county also hosts the watershed of these rivers, as well as stunning views of the New River Gorge and Kanawha County. Visitors from all over visit Fayette County to paddle and fish the local rivers and hike mountain trails. Bald eagles and Peregrine falcons soar across regions of hardwood forest rich with fauna and flora. And prime farmland and natural springs still provide food and water to the local communities.
Father Roy Crist, the missioner of the New River Episcopal Ministry, became involved with efforts to save mountains when the county received an application for a mining permit on the backside of Gauley Mountain near the Gauley River and New River National Parks. Since mining began, the National Park Service noted no less than 16 violations of water quality. As mining continued, trout populations \'coincidentally\' dwindled in Rich Creek, which drains the new mine sites on Gauley Mountain.
Local residents, including Father Crist and Cary Huffman, a retired coal miner, formed the Ansted Historic Preservation Council to protect the local mountains and streams from potential mountaintop removal. Signs of exploration and road construction have residents concerned about plans for more mountaintop removal.
As Father Crist explains, "People say coal mining is a part of our history, and yes, it is. But destroying the mountains by blowing the tops off of them is not a part of our history."
To support Father Crist, Cary Huffman and their community, contact:
Ansted Historical Preservation Council
SaveGauleyMtn@gmail.com
To support Father Crist, Cary Huffman and their community, contact:
Ansted Historical Preservation Council
SaveGauleyMtn@gmail.com
"We are going to be the endangered species." - Daymon Morgan, resident of Huckleberry Ridge, KY
Daymon Morgan\'s woods are teeming with bloodroot, as well as golden seal, ginseng and wild ginger. Not too long ago, these native plants grew wild and plentiful not just in Morgan\'s woods but in the neighboring mountaintops adjoining his property, on the tree-laden slopes that have been part of the majesty of the Appalachian landscape - and integral to the lives of his community - for generations.
But now, the mountaintops surrounding Morgan\'s land are bleeding. More precisely, they are being blown apart with explosives. Mining companies are blasting the tops off the mountains, pursuing a technique that makes it easier and faster and cheaper to remove coal from the earth that holds it. It\'s an efficient technique: Explode the mountain; remove the coal; shove the waste over the nearest hillside; \"reclaim\" the site; move on to the next site.
Morgan\'s fear isn\'t just for the streams, or the trees, the deer or the wild turkeys, the ginseng or the bloodroot. It\'s for his family and friends; their health and safety. And he fears for the welfare of all the rest of us who, let\'s face it, live downstream.
"We are going to be the endangered species," Morgan said, his eyes stubbornly fixed on his visitors, making it clear whom he meant when he said \"we.\"
To support Daymon and his community contact:
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
(606) 878-2161 • www.kftc.org
KFTC works with people to organize in their home communities across Kentucky, helping everyday community members become extraordinary community leaders.
You can support the communities near Huckleberry Ridge by supporting Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
You can support the communities in Southwest Virginia by supporting Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards.
Wise County, Virginia was officially formed in 1856 from parts of Virginia\'s Lee, Russell, and Scott counties. Nestled on the Kentucky border, its one of the most beautiful counties in the Appalachian coalfields, but unfortunately is also one of hardest hit by surface coal mining. In fact, between 1950 and the present, 25% of Wise County\'s land area was devastated by mountaintop removal and other surface coal mines.
Despite the large scale extraction of natural resources (both coal and timber), county residents still have many things to be proud of. Wise County boasts some of the most beautiful mountaintop vistas in Appalachia. It\'s home to Jefferson National Forest, which protects High Knob and Little Stoney Creek Falls. The Clinch River, Guest River, Powell River, and Russell Fork are home to rare and endangered fresh water mussels, and offer miles of free-flowing canoeing for all skill levels. The Clinch is home to more varieties of fish than any river in Virginia.
Wise County also has a lively art community, with regular performances of the Trail of the Lonesome Pine Drama and shows at the Charles Harris Art Gallery. Art and river festivals attract people throughout the summer to celebrate the county\'s rich history and landscape.
But even with so many assets, Wise County is suffering from a lack of economic diversity and the effects of mountaintop removal. Unlike the surrounding counties that don\'t have coal, Wise is loosing population, and has a 22% poverty rate. What\'s worse, suicide rates in Wise are DOUBLE the state average.
"We have so much to share with the people who might visit us. If we could only stop blasting away our mountains and dumping them into valleys and streambeds. Mountaintop removal is destroying the land, the people, and our cultural heritage. We could make it if only our elected leaders shared our visionÑone that doesn\'t concentrate on destruction, but instead on construction." - Kathy Selvage, Resident, Wise County, VA
To support Kathy and her community contact:
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
(276) 565-1083 • www.samsva.org
SAMS is committed to stopping the destruction of communities by surface coal mining and to help rebuild sustainable communities.
You can support the communities in Southwest Virginia by supporting Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards.
Benham and Lynch are nestled in Harlan County at the foot of Black Maintain, Kentucky\'s highest peak. Established as "coal camps" in 1911 and 1917 respectively, they were towns built to support the coal mining operations of two corporations: the Wisconsin Steel division of International Harvester and the US Coal and Coke Company. (Coal camps were towns where every building, home, school, and store was owned by a company. They typically paid the workers in script that could only be used at the company store.)
Benham and Lynch were "captive" mines. Neither had to rely on the fluctuations of the coal market to sell the coal they mined. To maintain a stable workforce, these coal companies provided a better quality of life than found in most coal camps. For example, by the 1940s, approximately one-third of the graduates of Benham High School had completed at least one year of college.
In 1945, Lynch\'s population of 10,000 was reportedly the world\'s largest coal camp. Today, with one-third of the residents being African-American and many others tracing their ancestry to Eastern Europe and Italy, Lynch is one of the most diverse communities in Appalachian Kentucky.
As the years passed, the coal companies sold their property in the towns to town residents, but kept ownership of the surrounding mountains (and the coal in them). As larger machines were invented, coal mining methods transitioned from underground tunneling to mountaintop removal.
In the past two decades, Harlan County residents have joined together to protect the upper parts of Black Mountain from logging and mountaintop removal. During the most recent event in 2007, local residents drew on the expertise of local United Mine Workers of America members, the Lynch City Council, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and the Kentucky Resource Council to successfully prevent coal mining activities under the Lynch water system.
Currently, the residents of Benham and Lynch are concerned about a proposed 692 acre strip mine threatening the towns and their efforts to develop cultural heritage tourism. Many are also working to develop renewable energy resources and are looking at ways to reduce their energy consumption.
To support Carl and his community contact:
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
(606) 878-2161 • www.kftc.org
KFTC works with people to organize in their home communities across Kentucky, helping everyday community members become extraordinary community leaders.
When Wanda Hodge talks of Walden\'s Ridge, the pride in her voice is unmistakable. She tells of its long and rich history - first home to the Cherokee who hunted and lived in the area and then home to early pioneers who held community gatherings at the nearby Standing Stones. Walden\'s Ridge continues to be a gathering space today: bikers come to enjoy the winding roads, kayakers, fishermen and local residents enjoy the streams which still run pristine and clear and hang gliders from around the Southeast travel here to take in the scene from above.
Wanda and her community have good reason to be proud of what this area still is. Twenty years ago, they banded together and successfully fought coal companies who saw a large profit in mining the Sewannee Coal Seam which runs through Walden\'s Ridge. This seam is the most toxic acid coal seam in the U.S. and if mined, would release acid mine drainage which turns streams orange and kills all life in the rivers.
For Wanda, it\'s simple: "We don\'t want our children in east Tennessee to grow up thinking that streams should be orange.\' Wanda tells a story of school children in West Virginia who grew up thinking just that: they drew pictures with orange lines to represent the rivers in their community. "How sad that children have to grow up thinking that streams are not clear running pristine beautiful water. It\'s bad enough that it happened there, we don\'t want it here."
Wanda and her community won a "Lands Unsuitable For Mining" (LUMP) designation for the Rock Creek watershed, which is part of Walden\'s Ridge, and this has kept the area safe for the past 20 years. But today, the threat has returned and coal companies are working hard to overturn the LUMP designation. If this were overturned the entire area of Walden\'s Ridge would be open to heavy mining. Citizens in Walden\'s Ridge are once again preparing to fight, hopeful that their numbers and passion can still outweigh today\'s coal companies.
To support Wanda and her community contact:
Save Our Cumberland Mountains
(865) 426-9455 • info@socm.org • www.socm.org
SOCM\'s mission is to work toward environmental, economic and social justice for all Tennessee residents.
