A Hiker’s View

One thing a reader to my blog needs to keep in mind when I talk about mountaintop removal I’m looking at it not only as a resident of the coal fields but also as an avid hiker. This blog is entitled The BackWoods Drifter because I love to hike West Virginia’s backwoods. Being as that is the case it is only natural I get fired up concerning mountaintop removal and even the gas companies in some instances. The mountains are quickly becoming impassable.

A lot of people look at MTR for the obvious destruction. I look at it and the collateral damage it causes. In the following photos a right of way has been cut by the coal company for high tension power lines. This is what they do with the trees. These pictures only show a very small part of the destruction. The right of way could be potentially miles long. Notice most of the trees are laying in what would normally be a natural drainage path during rains. If this were a clearing for an MTR site those trees would be at the bottom of a valley fill.

Something I think about - furniture companies, paper mills, etc. buy everyday what we cut down and leave to rot.

Looking at this with a hiker’s perspective - this land will be useless for generations. There will be no hiking or crossing the entire length of this right of way. It will be a place of briar thickets, rattle snakes, and broken bones.

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Sometimes I wonder -
When the coal is gone, what are we going to do with all this dirt?