Awardees Visit OVEC to Learn More
About Mountain Massacre in WV

Five fellow awardees from the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World (LCW) program visited West Virginia in mid-May to learn more about OVEC’s work, especially fighting mountaintop removal.

These nationally-recognized leaders were among the 2001 winners when Dianne Bady, Janet Fout and Laura Forman were recognized as an award-winning grassroots leadership team.

The group, along with several of their colleagues, watched Mucked, a movie by film maker Bob Gates, showing the devastating coalfield floods in West Virginia in 2001 and 2002, where thousands of homes were destroyed and 14 people lost their lives as a result of mountaintop removal mining and deforestation.

Wanting to see mountaintop removal for themselves, the group braved heavy rains and dodged many gigantic coal trucks, to travel to Kayford Mountain where they met OVEC board member Larry Gibson. Larry demonstrated how the mountains are being annihilated around Kayford using the scale-model designed by artist Carol Jackson.

Folks were astounded by the destruction that they saw - incredulous that beautiful, forested mountains were being annihilated. Dale Asis, who lives and works in Chicago with immigrant communities, was awestruck by the many, varied shades of green that he saw on intact mountains - attesting to the unique diversity of West Virginia’s valuable hardwood forests.

A very special thanks goes to OVEC board co-chair John Taylor, who so graciously drove his van and spent time with our guests for three days!