The "Big Dogs" from Charlottesville, Virginia, have moved in with full force over at Ansted, WV. MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL! They are going to blow us off of the map!Amvest Corporation owns the Powellton Coal Company which owns 18,000 acres of land around this tiny Fayette County community. I figure it took decades to grab that much land from fledgling farmers and property owners. (11/13/07 update: we hear that Amvest has sold its West Virginia holdings to Consol Energy)
I went there on Sat. for the "Blessing of the Mountains." The clergy, historic preservation folks, and the local people held a very moving service to bid farewell to this ancient landscape. We all cried.
Afterward, a friendly Vietnam veteran, Joe Frantz, drove me up the mountain to get some shots. It was one of those typical foggy Appalachian mornings so we both had a bit of trouble capturing the carnage on film. (See more of his photos)
All of us here in West Virginia are familiar with the historic photos of deforestation and denuded landscape. But 100 years ago the "big railroad barons" were pulling the trees out for timber dollars. Now the same big Virginia barons are going after the COAL! It's the life-line of the railroad.I can't even guess how many acres we looked at where the trees were just shoved over with the big bulldozers. Pushed into the valley below - practically on top of the little community of Jodie. The pending size of the valley fill alone makes you shake in your boots.
I saw no sign of logging so I doubt that any of the timber has gone to market. That takes too much time. Wall Street pays no attention to time. Just get the coal out of there - load it up and haul it out - and all the investors get rich.
What the local community gets is NOTHING! I'm bewildered at the reality that some Americans are willing to go along with this "ethnic cleansing" in order to make a buck!
Adding insult to injury, West Virginia University had a group of students in Ansted over the weekend. Doing a study on "tourism" in the area. Give me break! Tourism just died!
We've gone to the dogs - the BIG DOGS!
Please - if you haven't done so - call your representative in Congress and urge them to co-sponsor the Clean Water Act. (Go here for info). And write a letter opposing the Buffer Zone Rule Change.
Visit I Love Mountains to take action - with your help we might have a fighting chance! THANK YOU!
5 comments:
Thanks, BJ for using my pictures.
I feel like a Star.
Hope to take you Picture hunting again soon.
Pappy
so glad to see a blog completely devoted to this travesty! good work! i'll be linking to this soon... i have been trying to spread the word on my blog, too: http://bluemountainmama.blogspot.com/search/label/Mountaintop%20Removal
let us keep fighting this injustice!
You rock BJ, keep o n talking the truth to power.
When you look at the mountains here in WV they do not belong to you. They are owned by others. The owner(s) have allowed the locals to use his(their)land, w/o charge, until he(they)decided to harvest their resources (ie: timber, oil, gas, coal or dirt and rock). Yes, the owner has the right to even harvest his own dirt and rock and haul it away to market to sell, if he so desires, leaving a big flat pancake.
Fledgling farmers....Duh....a 20% to 40% slope.....must had a mule with some weird looking legs, two on one side fourteen feet long and two on the other side 6 inches long. The female holding the camera in top photo is beside a logging operation. Also, the second photo is of a logging operation. New style of logging operation called "top down". They anchor where she is standing and cut to the bottom of the mountain. Then they move and repeat. So, we now can vertical stripes on the mountains.
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