Appalachia

“But I tell you, we in Harlan County, all of our life we’ve been kicked around. We’ve been put in jail. We’ve been shot at. We’ve had dynamite thrown at us. And then you don’t want us to have nothin’. Well, I tell you, Mr. Horn, I’m gonna be standin’ right there on that picket line lookin’ at you just as long as it takes.”

“You gotta win this fight yourselves. Now, it’s the first time East Kentucky has stood up against the coal operators, and you’re doin’ it. And when you win, you’re fighting for your kids and your grandkids. Every one of them will have a better life because of what you’re doin’ here. And that’s why the fight’s so hard. If there wasn’t so much at stake, they wouldn’t be fightin’ you this hard.”

For the mycophiles: a selection of Appalachia’s early spring fungi. Forgive me if I get any of these wrong, because I’m still learning how to identify all the wonderful fungi that grow in the woods around here. Incidentally, my go-to mycological bible is Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians, by William Roody. Maybe someday I can absorb just a fraction of the knowledge contained in this wonderful guide and become something more than a stumbling amateur.

Coal Miner Jim and his baby, Harlan County, Appalachia, Kentucky, 1946

Found him with chipped wings and thought his short life was nearly done

But when I brought him inside, he started flying around in good spirits, so I decided the only reasonable thing to do would be to take a few pictures and then promptly give him back to the Sun and the Moon

I released him with a wish 🌙

dusk in Appalachia

Dolly Sods and the adjacent Flat Rock and Roaring Plains sprawl across a rugged plateau at the edge of the Allegheny Front, which drains much of the moisture from passing clouds. The water drains poorly on the plateau, resulting in sphagnum bogs that host a variety of plants and animals uniquely adapted to the cool, acidic environment.

Cades Cove

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

February 2018

I haven’t really seen any talk of it on here, but us Appalachians are trying to fight the Mountain-Valley Pipeline that’s going to cut right through a lot of backyards! Not only that, but it’s slated to go through the Jefferson National Forest and even the Appalachian Trail. The company building the pipeline has already had over 300 accused water-quality violations (link also contains links to how the pipeline is going to cut through sensitive ecosystems, active seismic zones, unstable karst, and steep slopes). 

The pipeline, as of Wednesday, has potentially hit an aquifer, putting local well-water at severe risk. While the company is denying this, do we really want to mess with something that will put our water at risk? 

Here is an article from the Sierra Club that goes over the protests and potential environmental impacts of the pipeline. 

The pipeline would also desecrate land belonging to the Occaneechi band of the Saponi nation in North Carolina.  

A small petition in regards to the sediment pollution caused by the pipeline. 

They are not hesitating to use eminent domain to gain access to private property. 

10 people were just arrested for locking themselves to equipment in protest, and they’re not the first. 

Multiple people have been sitting in trees to protest, but they all have been arrested and removed. Such as a mother and daughter duo and even a professor from Virginia Tech. 

I don’t know of any bail funds at the moment. 

US Elevation.

They said “before dinosaurs,” but we have a cave here that began forming between 450 million to 550 million years ago.

There are no bones in that cave. No fossils. No nothing.

That’s because this cave began forming before bones existed on land, and had only just started to exist in the ocean. Shellfish hadn’t evolved yet. Limestone, which forms many caves, was just starting to become a more prevalent rock.