Latest Appalachian Mountains Stories
Volunteers in Kentucky are gathering to plant millions of trees in a massive reforestation project to undo the damages caused to Appalachian mining sites. Last week, about 70 volunteers came into Blackey, Kentucky as a part of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative, a movement led by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining to plant thousands of trees on lands that were left barren by coal mining projects. "We've got an estimated 741,000 acres in Appalachia that are barren," Sam...
New research by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists and partners suggests the hemlock woolly adelgid is killing hemlock trees faster than expected in the southern Appalachians and rapidly altering the carbon cycle of these forests. SRS researchers and cooperators from the University of Georgia published the findings in the most recent issue of the journal Ecosystems."The study marks the first time that scientists have tracked the short-term effects hemlock...
By Laurie Edwards After a lengthy discussion, the Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission on Tuesday voted by a slim margin to postpone responding to the U.S. Coast Guard regarding the conversion of the lake's navigation system. On July 9, TLAC, which maintains the lake's navigational markers, received a letter from the Coast Guard requesting TLAC submit an application by Nov. 9 detailing how the board would undergo the conversion to Coast Guard-approved markers. The current navigation...
Zone Oil & Gas, LLC (ZONE) announced today that it has signed an Exploration and Geophysical Joint Venture Agreement with Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA). The Joint Venture covers approximately 40,000 acres under lease in Tioga, Potter, Somerset, Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, Pennsylvania, and centers on exploring the Marcellus Shale, and the Oriskany and Tuscarora formations. Under the terms of the agreement, the joint venture will conduct at least one 3-D seismic survey and...
By Cathy Benson cathy.benson@botetourtview.com Ben Shrader, of Bedford, is a volunteer doing a motion camera project, particularly along the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail, called the Appalachian Trail project. It could put the issue to rest that there are no mountain lions in Virginia. These pictures came from the Cove Mountain area of Botetourt before the fire. Shrader once saw what he believes to be a mountain lion in the Blue Ridge Parkway area but he has his doubts as...
By Laurie Edwards The Department of Environmental Quality currently is reviewing Appalachian Power's permit application to continue operating the Smith Mountain Project, a hydroelectric powerhouse consisting of Smith Mountain and Leesville dams. The application is part of Appalachian's relicensing process through Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The current license expires in 2010. Joe Hassel of DEQ will lead a public hearing on Aug. 7 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Gretna High School to...
In a double-barreled approach to environmental restoration, Appalachian mountains scarred by strip-mining are being planted with American chestnut trees, a species that has been all but wiped out in the United States by a fungus. For 30 years or so, federal regulations essentially said that once a forested mountainside was scraped open and the coal extracted, mine companies had to smooth the soil over and seed it with grass. But recently, federal regulators have begun promoting the planting...
By Abrams, Marc D No species in the eastern United States better exemplifies a ubiquitous yet subordinate tree than does blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica). What enables blackgum to grow nearly everywhere, but almost always at very low densities? It is the longest-lived hardwood species in the eastern United States, with a maximum age that can exceed 650 years. It is inherently slow growing, which most likely explains its great longevity and high shade tolerance; it is also one of the few tree...
By GREG BLUESTEIN ATHENS, Ga. - Like a bloodsucking mosquito, the hemlock woolly adelgid plunges its needle-like mouth deep into the branches of hemlock trees and slowly sucks out the nutrients. The pest's telltale sign is the touch of frost-like wool it produces near tree needles, but the real signal of its wrath comes when the evergreen trees die about a decade later. Since the adelgid migrated from Asia to Virginia in the 1950s, it's at once fascinated and frustrated forest researchers who...
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- American ginseng, sister of the Asian wonder herb and a seasonal cash crop in Appalachia, has two obstacles to long-term survival in the United States: Man and deer. That's the conclusion of West Virginia University biologist James McGraw, who says that since humans aren't going anywhere, it's time to do something about the deer. In Friday's edition of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, McGraw says natural, slow-growing...
