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Reforesting reclaimed minelands in Appalachia – one tiny tree at a time October 6, 2025 by Elizabeth McGowan - Russell County, Va.—On a sunny Friday morning in late March, the scene atop a 21.5-acre dome of bare, grooved soil at remote Stonecoal Creek unfolded like an outdoor ballet. A dozen or so agile men lined up across the slope of a shuttered coal mine, gliding synchronously to an inaudible beat that repetition had embedded in their muscle memories. In unison, each man raises a hoe-dad in one arm, arcing it high enough for the pick-like tool to pierce the earth with just enough force. Seconds later, the other hand plucks a tiny tree seedling from a cloth bag draped from the opposite shoulder, placing… Read more >
Beyond Lip Service: Why can’t Congress fund an Rx for Appalachian coal country? April 19, 2019 by Elizabeth McGowan - WHITESBURG, Ky.—Clinton Sanders can never gulp quite enough air. At night, he is tethered to an oxygen machine. And his constant daytime companion is a small, blue zippered case packed with an array of inhalers and other medicines doctors have prescribed to open passageways to his darkened, shriveled lungs. The soft-spoken 79-year-old, who spent 27 years mining coal near his hometown of Ashcamp, was diagnosed with black lung disease in 2010. And like the thousands of other miners, young and old, slowly suffocating from an incurable disease that has reached epidemic proportions in the region, the great-grandfather of five never knows if his next breath… Read more >
Let There Be Sunlight: Switch to solar keeps historic Appalachian coal camp on energy map September 26, 2018 by Elizabeth McGowan - Benham, Ky—Black rock buried thousands of feet under the Cumberland Mountains might have put Benham on the energy map, but sunlight beaming from 93 million miles away might keep the former coal camp from fading away. The city of barely 500 residents in the heart of Appalachia is in the midst of switching to solar energy to save on electric bills and—ironically—to keep its prized Kentucky Coal Mining Museum afloat. Yes, it’s the same museum that drew national attention last year when media outlets noted the paradoxical transition to solar. But the high cost of electricity was on the verge of draining Benham of assets… Read more >