West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
Two really important things in this week's edition of Mountain Monday, and i hope you'll read them both.
1) The Bush Administration is attempting to repeal the Stream Buffer Zone rule, a 1983 Reagan-era rule that creates a 100-foot protected area around streams that can not be disturbed by strip-mining. Please read below to learn what you can do to help save our headwater streams.
2) Guest contributor Allen Johnson gives us a very special recount of the recent "Blessing of the Mountains" event in Anstead, WV. Allen is the head of Christians for the Mountains. Its a huge honor to have Allen's contribution here, and I hope you'll all give it a good read.
1. Gauley Mountain and the town of Ansted In West Virginia - and indeed in the entire nation - there are few rivers better known for their wild and scenic stretches than the Gauley and New Rivers. I've heard locals boast that the New River is in fact the oldest river in the entire world.
People come from all over the nation to run and fish these rivers, and to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of West Virginia and the hospitality of the local residents. These tourists contribute millions to the local economy. Yet just a few miles from both the New and Gauley Rivers lies one of America's Most Endangered Mountains - Gauley Mountain, West Virginia - which is being targeted for mountaintop removal coal mining.
We started the America's Most Endangered Mountain video series because we wanted Americans to know that mountaintop removal coal mining destroys more than mountains. It can destroy the valleys, streams and rivers that surround them - and the communities that rely upon them.
Home is an invention on which no one has yet improved.
A man defending his home is worth 10 invaders.
There is no place like home.
Home is home, be it ever so humble.
These phrases may have graced our ears 3,592 times, but ponderings on the meaning of home mean a little bit more to those of us in Appalachia these days.
Mountain Mondays will be a weekly celebration of our mountain home in Appalachia.
You see, in many ways, Appalachia isn't what it used to be. We have lost more than 1 million acres of land, along with 1000+ of miles of our once pristine streams, and 90% of our traditional coal jobs to mountaintop removal mining. This barbaric practice has reduced much of our home to rubble, and further damaged our perennially struggling local economies. The jobs are gone. The people are leaving. The water is toxic. And they are blowing up the mountains themselves.
But the face of Appalachian resistance to "Big Coal" is changing...
Is your Senator one of the 12 cosponsors? Is your representative one of the 30 cosponsors in the house? The list is so long I had to put it below the break!
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In West Virginia - and indeed in the entire nation - there are few rivers better known for their wild and scenic stretches than the Gauley and New Rivers. I've heard locals boast that the New River is in fact the oldest river in the entire world.
Home is an invention on which no one has yet improved.
