Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Kayford Mountain as viewed from Rock House



Last Sunday Allen took Sam and I up Rock House to see Kayford mountain and the MTR sites surrounding it from an entirely different angle. What follows are the pictures we have so far. Video will be up in a few days.

Allen and Jen standing on a drill bench site in Rock House facing East towards Kayford.

Looking at a haul road on the Red Warrior strip owned by Catanary Coal. The hump on the ridge to the right is where the Stanley Heirs cabins are. When they are finished, the entire area between where we are standing and the cabins will be flat.

A valley fill on the Seng Creek side of Catanary mines. The green area has been hydro-seeded. A massive flood in 2002 originated from this area.



Pictures from Kayford Mountain










for more photos visit OHVEC's website at

http://www.ohvec.org/

photos taken by Sam McCreery and David Bennett

Monday, July 30, 2007

Reforestation Project





These past two weeks, Tony Ervolina donated 50 hours of his time to create a nursery in Harrison county and transplant seedling trees for a future reforestation project here in Coal River. He planted Sugar Maples, White Ash, Hornbeam, Serviceberry, Dogwood, Hickory, Beech, Hawthorn, and Black Spruce. We will be able to use many of these trees next spring for a community reforestation program! Thanks Tony!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Kennedy's Speech

On July 17th, Robert Kennedy, Jr, came to the church in Rock Creek, West Virginia to give a speech. The campaign house cooked a dinner for him and the church house was packed with local people interested in what he had to say.

The speech started around 6pm and Kennedy spoke for about an hour and then spent a long time answering questions from the audience.

“He did a good job connecting environmental destruction and pollution as criminal acts. If you pollute the air and child gets asthma it should be considered child abuse. If you pollute the water and people get sick, it should be considered human rights abuse. It’s a pretty simple statement, but it’s not being done.”
-Bobby Mitchell

"Kennedy is a man who speaks truth to power. He doesn't pull any punches. I really respect how he truly uses his voice in our society to speak for the land and the people who usually aren't heard. It's inspiring to see a man with such speaking power who doesn't just use it for himself."
-Jen Osha

“Mr. Kennedy’s visit was a great moral booster. Good to know that there are people who care about what’s happening here and aren’t ready to sacrifice the people and the region for coal.”
-Vernon Haltom

“I was glad to here Kennedy address the issue of jobs in the area and how it’s the government’s responsibility to provide transitional funds for families who depend on surface mining for a living when mountaintop removal is phased out.”
-Sarah Haltom

"Thanks Mr. Kennedy for telling it like it is and not leaving anyone out.
He really hit home when he says a journalist isn't supposed to write about sides, its about the truth and not a balanced story."
Patty Sebok




Preparing food before the speech.




The parking lot filled up quickly. Bobby was in charge of organizing the cars.




Gathering in front of the church before the speech.




Debbie Wiley gave the introduction.




Kennedy speaking...he got some good shouts and hollers from the community!


Thank you, Bobby!

A link to an article about Kennedy's book "Crimes Against Nature"



Monday, July 16, 2007

The Campaign House - Where Everyday is an Adventure

Today, many people put a lot of energy towards getting ready for Kennedy's visit to Rock Creek tomorrow. We wanted to prepare a meal for him and his crew that came directly from the land that he was helping us to stand up for.



Becky picking Basil in the garden.


Nathan's fudge in the cool down stage.


Nathan is the resident fudge expert. This is an action shot of him putting it into the pan.

Rhubarb and raspberries from...


Ed and Debbie's garden!


Rhurbarb and rapsberry pies.


The finished pies.


The beginning stages of lasagna.

This is how more lasagna ingredients arrived. Thanks, Dustin!

Becky and her potato salad.

Community effort in the clean-up stage of cooking. Thanks, Julia!

Nathan and Dustin doing more dishes.

Bobby and his new haircut!

Kathy Mattea Visits

Watch the video of Kathy Mattea's visit:
http://media.cnpapers.com/mattea/

Read an article and see pictures of the visit:
http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/people_in_action/2007/07_10/index.html

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Black Bears Bulldozed in West Virginia

When Ed Wiley’s granddaughter, Kayla, first started getting sick at Marshfork elementary school, Ed started spending more time at the strip mine behind the school. An avid hunter and woodsman, Ed knew the site of a black bear den where the overburden (all the earth, trees, and creatures living above the coal seam) was being shoved over. It was springtime, and he knew that the mother would still be inside nursing her cubs, so he hiked up behind the school to take a look.

“They had done cut all the timber off of the site,” Ed remembers. “I got to sit there lookin. Dozers were pushing the soil off. I saw that the momma bear had poked out her head, heard the dozer, and then gone back inside. They kept gouging her way… and then I watched them doze her in.” As Ed watched, the momma bear was buried alive with her cubs at her side.

“Now I’ve heard a bear die, and it depends how they’re shot. But there ain’t nothing like hearin that momma bawl, knowin her babies are dying as she gets dozed in. Those cubs don’t even have their eyes open. They might have been old enough to crawl, but they weren’t old enough to escape. What it witnessed that spring, it bothered me. It hurt me. I feel something needs to be done.”

Watch a video of Ed behind Marshfork


Watch a video of a bear running on an active Mountaintop Removal site.




More about the Black Bear

The Black Bear, Ursus americanas, is the state animal of West Virginia. It is the smallest bear in North America, with females typically weighing 100-200 lbs and males weighing 150-400 lbs. They may have a light brown or tan muzzle and some bears may have white chest markings. Black Bears are usually about 3 ft high and 4-6 ft in length. They are solitary animals except when a mother has cubs. Females usually give birth to 2 or 3 cubs and the cubs stay with their mother for about a year. Black bears eat all types of vegetation as well as fish, small mammals and carrion. Black bears have territory that can range up to 200 square miles for males and anywhere from one to 35 square miles for females. Usually males’ territories will overlap with other bear’s territories while females’ territories do not. Bear hunting is allowed in West Virginia and in 2006, between both the archery and gun seasons, 1,705 bears were taken.
Currently the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources is studying bear populations using radio tracking devices, so the sites of many of the dens are already known. Ed hopes that if more people learn about the bears being killed at the mountaintop removal sites, perhaps the state DNR and conservation groups can work with the coal companies to remove the bears from their dens before they are crushed.


Some useful links:

http://www.bear.org/Black/BB_Home.html

http://www.wvdnr.gov/Hunting/BBear.shtm

http://www.shgresources.com/wv/symbols/animal/


Text by Jen Osha and Sam McCreery

Photos by Sam McCreery

Video by Ed Wiley and Jen Osha

March to June 2007

On March 17th, Aurora Lights worked with lots of great folks to organize the Mountain Justice Concert in Charleston, West Virginia. The day before, there was a mass musical sit-in in Governor Manchin’s office in protest of the situation at Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, West Virginia. Articles and pictures of the protest can be found at http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/people_in_action/2007/03_16/index.html .
This is a picture of the Capitol Center in Charleston where the concert took place.



Sound Storm: Adam Chase, Jen Osha, Kate Jaworski, Abram Racine, Corey Bonasso, Dan Israel, Cory Chase, Daniel Facemire






In May, we traveled to New York as part of the coal-field delegation to the United Nations conference on sustainable development, during which residents presented their stories about Mountain Top Removal coal mining. This is a picture of the press conference that was held after the MTR summit. Larry Gibson is speaking.






We also worked hard to help organize a concert to benefit the fight against Mountain Top Removal at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on 126th Street in Harlem. The church was packed with people listening to music. Jean Ritchie graced us with her music, and Robert Kennedy, Jr., came to speak as well.




The Hillkeepers: Abram Racine, Daniel Facemire,
Ross Bishop, and Jen Osha.


Director of Aurora Lights, Jen Osha, summer intern, Sam McCreery, and Coal River Mountain Watch intern, Bobby Mitchell, have started work in the Coal River Valley on a PGIS mapping project. Work on the mapping project includes taking interviews,
pictures, and collecting stories about areas and people affected by mountaintop removal mining. We are also hard at work on the second Moving Mountains CD. Jen Osha is shown in the photograph taking footage of a MTR site behind Marshfork elementary school.







Text by Jen Osha and Sam McCreery
Pictures by Sam McCreery