[PCA] NEWS: The battle over Coal River Mountain

[Melinda Hughes-Wert]

Olivia,
I want to commend you for sharing this article with the community on this 
listserv. Being a native of Western PA coal country, I recently returned 
after a 6 year stint in Washington DC to work with the residents of this 
area as well as other parts of the country to preserve what's left of our 
natural resources. It's a long journey ahead with a lot of public outreach 
to take place. Although we'll always have the scars of mining and drilling 
in front of us, we won't be standing back just watching the destruction.

In addition to the mountaintop removal, other actions taking place include 
drilling of the Marcellus Shell and over timbering. We've got a real problem 
here, and with the economy the way it is, landowners are looking to make 
some quick cash from oil/coal companies or timbering their properties in 
spite of the damage these actions can cause.

In the past month, a couple things taking place just here in Clearfield, PA: 
an ethanol plant is being built, and the water authority leased 850 acres of 
land bordering the reservoir to an oil company for multi-year drilling. Up 
the road a ways,  a couple disgruntled oil company employees vandalized some 
oil storage tanks, leaking 45,000 of cruse oil into the Allegheny National 
Forest, significantly impacting 6 miles of pristine stream, including a 
tributary where trout naturally reproduce. The impact to flora and fauna has 
been significant to say the least.

Again, I thank you for bringing mountaintop removal to the forefront.

Sincerely,
Melinda

Melinda Hughes-Wert, President
Nature Abounds
PO Box 241
Clearfield PA 16830
814-765-1453 / melinda at natureabounds.org

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Olivia Kwong" <plant at plantconservation.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 10:00 AM
To: <native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org>
Subject: [PCA] NEWS: The battle over Coal River Mountain

> http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/07/coal.river/index.html
>
> The battle over Coal River Mountain
> By Deborah Feyerick
> CNN's American Morning
>
> RALIEGH COUNTY, West Virginia (CNN) -- Lorelei Scarboro loves to talk 
> about the wild turkeys and bears living on West Virginia's Coal River 
> Mountain.
>
> She watches them from the home her husband built when they were first 
> married. But Scarboro is convinced it could all become a casualty of 
> blasting that could begin on the mountaintop which is just 100 yards from 
> the family cemetery where her husband is buried.
>
> See the link above for the full article text.
>
>
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