No, not a natural disaster. Unless you consider the gas companies, coal companies and logging a natural disaster. I have touched on the devastation these companies leave in our beautiful state numerous times. It seems that every time I do somebody that lives nowhere near West Virginia feels the need to comment and let me know just how much I don’t have a clue. The photos in this post are from the area surrounding a gaswell. The woods are just like this in a half mile radius all the way around the gaswell. The trees are cut down and left to rot where they lie. It will take twenty years or more for these hardwood trees to rot.
There are a number of people that live in the vicinity of this mess. It will be years before these woods can be enjoyed by hunters, hikers or anybody for that matter. For the life of me I can’t understand why these companies are allowed to get away with this. If the gas companies feel the need to destroy our forests then they should be required to, at the very least, clean up their mess.
On another note, there was a security guard patrolling the roads above. I wonder what he was guarding?
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August 6th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I thought that companies like that were required to replant trees. Maybe that’s just the lumber companies in Michigan. I know they are, or at least were, required to plant new growth forests when they logged the old growth.
I agree, it is sad that such amazing natural beauty is ruined.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Another pet peeve of mine. This one really pisses me off. I’ve said before also about the reclamation process. It doesn’t happen to benefit anybody especially the ecology. It’s pictures like these that cause me to go off on the companies that created messes like this.
Take all the natural resources needed to help sustain our country. I don’t care, I do care about the aftermath. Reclaim by definition is to return to suitable / usable habitat. I think someone is missing the target and nobody cares.
It’s a money thing…