Below:

• Come Out to Show Your Love For the Mountains (KY and NYC)

• In Charleston, WV: Help Hold DEP Accountable

• Sorry For The Mistake...Feb. 27 is Informational Meeting Not Public Speak Out!
     (but speak out about MTR anytime with letters to the editor)

• Volunteers needed for Appalachian Studies Conference

• Come out for E-Day!  Plus More Events and Support WV Wilderness Coalition

Come Out to Show Your Love For the Mountains
Tomorrow, Feb. 14: Show the mountains some love! Carpools leave from Huntington, W.Va. at 8 a.m. tomorrow, heading to Kentuckians For The Commonwealth's I Love Mountains Day, State Capitol, Frankfort, KY. For carpooling details, call Abe at 304-633-6976.

Tomorrow, Feb. 14:  6 p.m. Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Screening of Catherine Pancake's Black Diamonds. Look in the Jan./ Feb. issue of Utne Reader for a review of this documentary.  

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 In Charleston, WV: Help Hold DEP Accountable
Monday, Feb. 18: 10 a.m. at the Rotunda, State Capitol, Charleston, WV. West Virginia public workers will rally at the State Capitol to demand benefit protections, a living wage, and better enforcement of state environmental regulations. They'll call on the legislature to conduct an audit of the Department of Environmental Protection to determine why the agency has missed out on millions of dollars by not collecting fines from polluters.

Wednesday, Feb. 20:  9:30 a.m. Meet us in the Rotunda, State Capitol, Charleston, WV. Together, we'll head over to Senate Energy Industry and Mining Committee room for the 10 a.m.  oversight hearing on the Department of Environmental Protection. If you think DEP is doing a better job of protecting polluters than protecting the people and the land, you might want to be at this hearing. 

If you haven't done so already, please sign our online petition urging the legislature to make the DEP a stronger agency for the people (the petition is for West Virginia residents only). If you want to do more, download a pdf version of the petition so you can collect signatures from your family, friends and neighbors. Either mail filled-in petitions to the address on the document, or hand them over to Patricia the morning of the hearing. Please let folks who sign the petition know about the hearing. Thanks! 

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 Show Up--Say No to Mountaintop Removal
Your chance to let state Senators know how you feel about mountaintop removal / valley fill coal mining --by showing up, not by speaking at this particular event (you can always speak thru a letter to the editor...). Please plan to attend the informational meeting on SB 588 -- the bill Senator Jon Blair Hunter (D-Monongalia) introduced, which would effectively end the practice of burying thousand of miles of streams under the rubble created by mountaintop removal coal mining.  Show up--support Senator Hunter and SB 588 and stand against mountaintop removal!

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 Volunteers needed for Appalachian Studies Conference
OVEC will have a table at this year's Appalachian Studies Conference, March 28 -30 at Marshall University. Check out this pdf document listing all the panels and events at this year's conference--something for everyone. OVEC needs volunteers for our assorted activities at the conference. If you are interested in helping, please e-mail vivian@ohvec.org.

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 Come out for E-Day! and More Events
Check out our online calendar for loads of other upcoming events, including the WV Environmental Council's E-Day on Feb. 22.  The awards ceremony is always a special occasion. We are thrilled to note that Chrystal Gunnoe, the daughter of OVEC organizer Maria Gunnoe is receiving this year's Linda Schnautz Environmental Courage award, and OVEC super-volunteer Chuck Nelson is one of two people receiving the Laura Forman Grassroots Activist award.  Congratulations to all the folks receiving awards: our good friend Danny Chiotos, our champion Senator Jon Blair Hunter, Delegates Mike Burdiss and Joe Talbott, and the WV Wilderness Coalition's Matt Keller.

Support the Wilderness Coalition by contacting the WV congressional delegation about the Wild Monongahela Act.

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