"Oh the West Virginia Hills, how Magestic and how Grand. . ."

Hello blogosphere,

Coming at you from one of my favorite coffee shops in Milwaukee, SVENS!! Some of the best Fair Trade Coffee around. Today's blog is all about introducing you to my new adventure, my new call to action,  and my new journey. Brace yourself, it's not a pretty picture.

As you all know, because many of you that read my blog are family, I have a strong connection to my place of birth, to nature, and to my incredible friends and family who make my home state great. I'm a West Virginia girl through and through. Proud of my Appalachian heritage. Proud that my Grandpa Taylor worked hard on his farm, growing the tallest sunflowers I've ever seen and that my Grandmother Taylor went against the norm and drove a motorcycle at a time when ladies didn't do such things. I'm proud that my Maw Maw Frye stayed true to her hometown and Catholic roots. That my sisters and cousins work hard to instill virtues in their children, giving them a sense of strength and independence. I'm proud to be the daughter, of a once Union worker and Beauty School grad, who made sure their daughters knew the value of handwork, but also knew how to cope with disappointment and to rise above hardships. That's just how Mountaineers are raised. In West Virginia we rise to the challenge and gather our strength from the men and women who created a life in what some would consider the harshest territory in the U.S. A. Our roots go back to  Scottish Mountaineers, that looked at the Appalachian Mountains as a place of safety and refuge. Surviving in terrain that others said was uninhabitable.  These beautiful mountains define our state, define who we are, and keep us going when we find ourselves in the midst of ridicule and economic devastation. The soil that created these Mountains, runs through our veins as thick as blood. So why is it, that we as West Virginians, choose to destroy that which defines the very makeup of our being?

COAL. Its driven this state since the start of the industrial revolution and it continues to drive mankind and the United States.  There is no denying that Coal put West Virginia on the map. It was our Great Grandpa's and Grandpa's, fathers, sons, and brothers, that forged into the Mountains looking for black gold. It was the strong, that gave their lives in these mountains, fighting and dying by the hands of major Coal Barons for their right to Unionize and working full days, with little pay, to put food on the table for their babies. Their legacy should be uplifted and recognized, not destroyed by corporations like Massey Energy or ArchCoal. Men and women who sit in their large homes, with hot meals, and clean water, while the modern day miners,  men and women in the Hollows, go hungry so their children can eat.

We would fight if these monstrosities were happening to someone in our family. So how is it, that we sit back and allow for these injustices to occur in our own state?

Mining practices never set out to be something for the faint at heart. Conditions for miners have been barbaric since the first man travel deep into the mountain. But as we've grown as a culture and a country, so to have these horrific mining practices. Now we look to the grim reality that is modern day mining or Mountaintop Removal.

Mountaintop Removal. What is it? Where is it happening? When does it happen?  and Why?

Let's start with the what. Mountaintop Removal (MTR) or Mountaintop Mining is defined in the encyclopedia as "a form of surface mining of the summit or summit ridge of the mountain". Unlike our coal mining ancestors, MTR, uses dynamite to blast off the top of the mountain to get at coal from the top down, as opposed to going into the mountain from the base. MTR is a technique that uses less man-power and more machine power. Which ultimately means less jobs for an already crumbling economic area. An area, where people live in fear that their jobs will be taken away by the constant cries of Environmentalists. It is not us who threaten their lively hood, it's the company that signs their checks. Companies that killed the Unions, so that they could outsource mining jobs to non-union cheaper paid employees.

Where is it happening? In West Virginia, the leading state for MTR, you can see the effects happening from the Turnpike on any given day.  But the real damage is happening in and around the Hollows and mountain ranges of Boone, Logan, and Mingo County. But, it isn't just WV being effected by MTR, Kentucky, Illinois, Wyoming, are also being brought down by major Coal Companies, like Massey Energy in WV.

When? Weekly the mountains are carved away by ANFO (a mixture of ingredients that were also found in the explosives used for the Oklahoma City bombing). ANFO radiates millions of explosives in order to blast away the surface of the mountain. Before blasting can occur, the clearing of all vegetation and wildlife from the blast area must take place. Devastating the eco-systems that have called these mountains home for millions of years. Once this occurs, the mountain never rebuilds and the devastation is left for a lifetime and more.   Blast like these happen once a week and the ramifications of the blasts are seen in the children that live in the communities surrounding these mountains. Disease from run-off and tainted well water are causing not only birth defects, but chronic illnesses, cancer, asthma, brain tumors and more, in children.

Why? In a word, GREED. All us, near and far, are responsible for this greed. We look at energy and electricity as a right. Like most things, we live in disconnect to our actions. Like the old saying goes, "We love our hamburgers, but we don't want to see the inside of a slaughterhouse". We need the lights on, this is true, but at what cost? The cost of life, the cost of nature, the cost of children? There are more environmentally sound ways of getting that energy. Wind Powered Energy, for one.  Wind Farms located on the top of WV mountains (mountains that catch winds that are classified as category 5), could produce enough energy to cover most of the state and the profits generated, not to mention the jobs, could keep a community like Boone thriving for all of it's live long days. But, until we stand up and fight, MTR will continue. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly, Massey Energy will blast away at our heritage until the only thing left is the memory of the mountain and the ramifications in a sick child's eye when he/she looks at our devastation and says "Shame on them, they could have stopped all this and they said no".

After doing some research, I began to ask myself, "What needs to be done?". Not just on a state level, because Lord knows we can write letters to our Congressman until we are blue in the face, but on an individual level. What we need to do is educate. Educate each other and educate those who live in this reality everyday. It's not enough to sit back and hope someone bigger, with more money, and political game, swoops in and saves us from ourselves, it's up to us. There is strength in numbers. One voice may be quiet in the grand scheme, but a 1, 000 raised voices repeating the chant of the one, can be heard far and wide. My goal in the next couple of months is to work with Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, to  spread the word and pound the pavement getting that word out in West Virginia and beyond. Let us be the voice for the voiceless that have been oppressed by Big Coal for decades. I'm not afraid to be met with opposition and I look forward to some healthy debate with those I'm close to.

Please realize that the information that I have stated above, is only a small sliver of information that can found on Mountaintop Removal. There are so many ways in which you can find it, but my number one recommendation is to watch the 2011 documentary, THE LAST MOUNTAIN. It will introduce you to the devastation caused by MTR.  For more information about how MTR is effecting your own life, visit ilovemountains.org or the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and join us in the fight to save these beautiful Mountains that define our State and define us. Let conservation and respect for the natural world be the legacy we leave our children.


Happy Saving
Laura