I don’t like to think of mountains as having to be useful in order for them to exist. They should be allowed their majesty without requiring that they produce a profit. But to counter the argument that mountain top removal strip-mining is good for West Virginia’s economy, here is a use for the mountains that leaves them in place.

Bill Maxey, the number one forester in West Virginia, retired from being chief of the Division of Forestry because of his hatred for mountain top removal strip-mining. Maxey told me that the mountains can be saved and jobs will be preserved. His argument: each year an average of two hundred board feet of hardwood timber grow on an acre of forest. Over 300,000 acres of mountains have been decapitated since 1977 by mountain top removal strip-mining. Two hundred board feet of lumber could be produced from each of those 300,000 acres every year, forever. That is sixty million board feet of lumber lost every year; Enough to keep three large modern bandmills running forever. That is jobs forever.

Mountain top removal means jobs that run out when the mountains are all flattened. It seems that more jobs run out as more mountain top removal we have -- more coal production with fewer and fewer miners. That dragline is eating up coal mining jobs. As Larry Gibson said, "If the coal industry is creating jobs as they claim, I hope they stop because at the rate they are doing it there will be no jobs in ten years."

In the long run mountain top removal is bad for the economy. Right now it removes three hundred thousand acres of hardwood forest from production every year forever. This loss increases daily.

There is need for alarm about the future of these beautiful West Virginia mountains. Since the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy filed suit to stop the illegal filling of streams with mountain top removal waste, thirty-four mountain top removal permits have been issued, fifteen of those since Judge Haden’s ruling. [italics added by editor]

It appears to me that the people running this state, the politicians and departments like the one that says it is supposed to protect the environment, hate mountains and valleys. These politicians remind me of a wife of a stripminer I talked with a few years ago in Madison, West Virginia. She didn’t like these mountains – she preferred flat land like in her home state of Missouri. Our mountains made her uncomfortable. And there was the Lincoln County commissioner who once said that he liked the way strip-mines looked, it reminded him of Wyoming and Arizona. These are true environmental extremists for sure!

Mountains also seem to have made ex-Governor Underwood uncomfortable, he wanted them flattened for economic development which has never and will never occur to any significant extent on the 300,000 acres that have already been flattened. To give you an idea of how much land it takes for this so called economic development: the new, huge, ugly, tacky shopping centers on Corridor G just south of Charleston (sounding the death bell for downtown business) cover about one-fifth of the land that would be flattened by one large mountain top removal strip mine. We have hundreds already flattened and more planned for future decapitation.

Our new governor, Bob Wise, believes that "responsible" mountain top removal can take place. As an indication of which side he is on he uses the coal industry’s euphemism of "mountain top mining." He also mouths the coal industry’s other euphemism "surface mining" instead of "strip mining." "Mountain top removal" and "strip mining" say exactly what is going on -- they are ugly words that describe an ugly business. The Orwellian public relations hacks replaced these and other ugly words with less harsh words to fool the public.

Bob Wise has also created a sort of commissar of political favors for southern West Virginia and appointed a man to that job as his special assistant. That man, Art Kirkendoll, a county commissioner of Logan County, was spokesman and part of a mob that assaulted people marching to honor our grandfathers who fought at the battle of Blair Mountain. Among those assaulted were some West Virginia Highlands Conservancy members including a board member, members of the Coal River Mountain Watch, members of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, citizens of the coal fields and Ken Hechler, West Virginia’s Secretary of State. An excuse has been offered for Kirkendoll’s mob – they thought they were attacking a march in opposition to mountain top removal. Is it then all right to assault people who are opposed to mountain top removal? One poll showed that 80% of the people in West Virginia are opposed to this form of mining. What would be the Governor’s reaction to mob violence if it had been directed toward people marching to honor Martin Luther King, or honor the suffragettes or Republicans marching to honor Abraham Lincoln? Would Governor Wise have appointed the leader of the mob to be his special assistant?

Governor Wise said he would not be bullied to get rid of Kirkendoll by people he claims have no evidence. I beg to differ! There’s plenty of evidence. Besides eyewitness observations, there are also photographs showing Kirkendoll in the mob. Wise’s man, Kirkendoll, and his mob, drove sixty miles from Logan County to Kanawha County to intercept and assault the marchers.

It appears Kirkendoll will be the man people go to in southern West Virginia to obtain intercession with Bob Wise. Considering his manner of dealing with those he disagrees with, I suppose Kirkendoll will just punch them in the nose if they ask him for help he doesn’t want to give.

Ironically, Wise honored Kirkendoll at the inauguration on Martin Luther King Day.