It's A Small World - Big City Happenings with MTR

In early May I visited my daughter in Washington, D.C., where I was surprised to learn I could meet up with some Friends of the Mountains.

As part of a "road show" that educates people about the destruction caused by mountaintop removal and garners support for the Shays-Pallone Bill (to strengthen the Clean Water Act and stop the filling of our streams with mine waste), the good folks at Appalachian Voices (a regional environmental group from North Carolina that’s organizing the road show) had scheduled a fundraising/consciousness raising event at the Patagonia clothing store in Georgetown, just a few blocks away from my daughter’s apartment.

Patagonia is such a progressive company! Their foundation, which has funded OVEC for many years, provides grants to many environmental organizations doing good work throughout the country. (Thanks, Patagonia!)

I couldn’t resist seeing my friends and colleagues in action! After an introduction by Maryanne Hitt (director of Appalachian Voices), Lenny Kohm (of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge fame) showed his outstanding PowerPoint presentation, "Appalachian Treasures."

Folks listened intently to all the voices from the mountains as they pleaded for an end to the destruction of homeplaces, wildlife habitat and Appalachian heritage caused by mountaintop removal/valley fills – voices sometimes angry, sometimes plaintive. This heartbreaking presentation moves me to tears every time I view it. But hearing about the impacts of mountaintop removal from a coalfield resident affects me even more strongly.

Donna Price, a member of Coal River Mountain Watch and Sierra Club, who lives in the small town of Dorothy in Boone County, spoke quietly and effectively about how it feels to see all the land around her home being destroyed – how waterways are blackened by frequent coal slurry spills and what it’s like to live with daily blasting and the constant fear of flooding and death by drowning (it seems like every time it rains a few inches, southern West Virginia is declared a disaster area!).

She ended her presentation by reading her poem that’s now a song on the new Moving Mountains CD. We’re so proud to know people like Donna. She sacrifices her time to let the nation know that the price of electricity and coal is anything but cheap to folks living in the southern West Virginia coalfields. Thanks, Donna!