oh the hills

Perfect day for a swim! This is a picture I took along the Tygart River in Barbour County. Click it to see the photo in all of it's fabulous panoramic glory.

Wheeling, West Virginia

A massive dragline, dwarfed by the huge scale of the operation, at work

on a mountaintop removal operation near Kayford Mountain, W.Va

Photo by Vivian Stockman, Oct. 19, 2003

In the 1999-2000 election cycle, the coal mining industry contributed more than $3.6 million to federal parties and candidates.

West Virginia has 4 percent of the coal in the world. The U.S. has 21.1 percent of the world total.

The U.S. is responsible for 22.3 percent of the world's coal-related carbon emissions.

52 percent of U.S. energy is powered by coal.

Over 1000 miles of streams have been buried by strip mine waste in Appalachia.

In 2000, almost 170 million tons of coal were mined in West Virginia, with 60 million tons coming from strip mines.

In 1950, West Virginia employed 143,000 miners. By 1997, that number was down to 22,000. (The largest employer in West Virginia is currently Walmart)

75 percent of West Virginia's streams and rivers are polluted by mining and other industries.

300,000 acres of hardwood forest in West Virginia have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.

St. Louis-based Arch Coal is the nation's second-largest coal producer and accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. energy.

Fall color along the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River, located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia near the town of Petersburg.