Hobet 21 Complex, Boone and Lincoln Counties, WV
Feb 28, 2006 and June 4, 2006
Photos by Vivian Stockman

The Hobet 21 Complex is over 12,000 acres and growing. Below are photos from two different spots within the complex. 

The coal's gone from underneath Sugar Tree (off Mud River Road) and so is the mixed mesophytic forest. Spray on "hydroseed" (non-native grass seed and fertilizer) gives a nice green shade. You could spray this stuff on a car and it would grow. Seriously. Note the rubble where once was rich topsoil that took centuries to form.  That's reclamation, folks. Photo taken Feb. 26, 2006.

Close up of the rubble where once was rich topsoil that took centuries to form.  Photo taken Feb. 26, 2006.

Edge of the above "reclaimed" area. An un-mined strip in the middle, with a much older "reclamation" site behind. You can see some scrubby pines and some autumn olive shrubs (banned from sale in many states because it is so invasive it chokes out native shrubs) on the older "reclaimed" area.  So you've got some non-native grasses that wildlife doesn't like and some non-native shrubs that are banned in many states. You've got no soil, no seedbank in the soil. And you've got the federal studies in the Environmental Impact Statement on mountaintop removal saying our forest will take centuries to recover from this eco-cidal form of mining. Reclamation? Not!  Photo taken Feb. 26, 2006.

Foreground: Mixed mesophytic forest. Mid-ground: razed forest and understory, former trees not even harvested for timber. Background: Post-mining--Approximate original contour (as if?) mountains, sans a few hundred feet, with hydroseed. Photo taken June 4, 2006.

Foreground: Mixed mesophytic forest--not long for this world. Background: Post-mining--Approximate original contour (as if?) mountains, sans a few hundred feet, with hydroseed. Photo taken June 4, 2006.

Exact same remnant of a mountain as the first photo above, about four months later. Note the forested mountain in the background.  Photo taken June 4, 2006.

If there's coal under it, coal companies want to blow its top off.  Photo taken June 4, 2006.

There are those invasive autumn olive shrubs (banned from sale in many states) on the "reclaimed" valley fill in the background. Bye-bye biodiversity. How many strands can we pluck out of the web of life before it unravels completely?  Photo taken June 4, 2006.

Freshly mined area, a little patch of forest not yet mountaintop-removal-mined and the autumn-olive "reclaimed" areas. Plant species before mountaintop removal, from lichen and moss to tree: around 1,000. Plant species after reclamation: several varieties of non-native grass, autumn olive, some pines, perhaps some other non-native shrubs if you're lucky.  Photo taken June 4, 2006.