The Young Turks

I've lived and worked with the Forest Service in western Virginia and eastern Kentucky.  I believe in timber harvest when it's done.  I believe in multiple use of the land, so I ain't no bleeding heart, granola eating tree-hugger.

Nothing, nothing you've ever seen compares to standing on Pine Mountain on the border between Virginia and Kentucky and seeing the moonscape strip mining has made of the mountains.  I've been trained as both a forest ecologist, geologist and soil scientist.  I've worked on research projects that try to find vegetation that will live and grow on the land after it's been strip mined.  It ain't easy.  It will take many hundreds of years to "reclaim" this land.  The best you can hope for is that you can get enough veg to grow so the whole hillside won't erode or slide.

What do they do with all the mountain they remove?  Why they fill valleys and creeks with it.  Literally.  Acid drainage off these mines absolutely destroy streams and rivers.  It's very difficult to "reclaim" the land after you've exposed the acid bedrock.  And that acidity will continue to drain off those hills and ruin fisheries for hundreds if not thousands of years.  They try to "fix" this acid problem by literally dumping tons of limestone rock into the creeks.  All this accomplishes are highly acid and basic pockets in the creeks.

Strip mining is an ecological catastrophe and don't let anyone tell you these lands can be easily reclaimed.  They can't.  

Put it this way.  I once looked at a vista of endless Kentucky strip mines with an old-timer who loves coal.  He said "you know, people pay a lot of money to see this kind of stuff in Utah.  And it gives the ATV's a place to ride."

Guess there's a silver lining in every F5 tornado.