[Coach_Owens87]

This may be the reason your not seeing a lot of trees in those pictures and why a lot of the land is flat, also this may or may not help you understanding the reclaimation process. After the 1977 ruling a coal company had three options for their post land use methods (1) Forest land use in which trees are planted, and is used primarily on Contour mining areas. (2) Hay land / Pasture land is preferred by property owners who want to leave their property flatter so they can use it to farm, graze cattle, build barns etc., trees are not planted on these areas. Today to have this method approved the property owner has to prove to the state how they plan to use this land. (3) Industrial/Commercial use, which would basically leave the land flat this method was the most popular in the late 70's and 80's. During the late 70' and early 80's a coal company along with approval from the property owner could claim that there were plans for either Industrial or Comercial use. Today it is very difficult to have a Industrial/ Commercial post land use approved, you basically have to have a contract with a company stating they will build on this particular site. I personally don't see any company agreeing to this since it will take nearly 3 years to obtain a mining permit, then depending on the size the permit about 5 years or so to mine the area, then at least anoth 5 years to obtain a bond release, that means a company would have to wait around 13 years from signing a contract before they could ever start construction on their buildings. Here's a few question for the areas that you are looking at on Google, Do you know when they were permitted? When were they mined? Could they have been permitted as Industrial/Commercial post land use or Hay land / Pasture land? I personally don't know the answer to those questions, but you and the anti-coal groups seem to jump to conclsions before you know all the facts.

You keep saying that reclaimation is a joke and that trees will never grow on destroyed land. Since I visited the sites that you recommended and I think it's only right that you take a look at these sites that shows recalaimed sites from all across the U.S.


http://www.mii.org/reclcoal.html

http://www.coaleducation.org/ky_coal_facts/default.htm

I took a look at those sites, and I guess to some people those relcamation sites would be bueatiful, great open pastures, rolling hills, but this is appalachia, not the midwest. Most of the pictures I saw were just grass, some companies put in wetlands and other wildlife habitats, but most of that was for non native game species, such as rocky mountain elk. It just doesnt make sense to take out 10,000 acres of forest, put in a 100 acre wetland, and say you helped the environment.

I understand most of what you mentioned in your article, I have written some essay papers on the subject. I have read a great deal about the SMCRA signed in 1977. The problem with the law IMO is that it leaves most of the regulation of the law in control of the state, the federal government just oversees the process. The last two Ky Governors have been very coal freindly, and a lot of waivers have been issued from the state and Corps of Egineers that allowed illegal valley fills. Lets keep in mind that Strip mining isnt really the best term for the mining happening today, MTR is massive compared to the forms of strip mining that where around in the 70's.

I remember reading, and I guess you could clarify this, that companies must put up a bond that covers a certian percentage of reclamation cost before they mine. This has lead to problems, a lot of companies only end up paying that amount in total for various reasons (bankruptcy, state waivers, etc.), this leaves the state to pay the rest, and in most cases reclamation is only done with the small amount of money put up the companies before mining. This leads to very poor reclamation. My cousin who is a foreman at a MTR site in knott county told me, and this is in his words " We just had to pay to plant grass before we mined." Doesnt sound like his company is too concerned about reclamation.

Google
I do not know when all mine sites where permitted, but by using the feature from ilovemountains.org you can view all of that. I think they have somewhere around 20 mine sites that you can tour. It has the date when mining started, the company mining, pictures of the land before mining, the image of the mining process, and a virtual picture of the site after mining, they get that info from the blueprints released about the proposed mine site from the mining companies, and the corps of egineers.


I remember reading a paper from Loyal Jones, a reat appalachain citizen, he said that the appalachain people's best traits are what is keeping us down. We dont like confrontation, we get so involved with individuals that we dont realize what is going on socially in the country. These family ties keep many people from challenging big companies, no one wants to see people lose jobs. But what is there to lose, counties that produce coal have no better of an economy than bodering counties that dont produce coal. We need to move forward, find better sources of energy, we need to protect what is really important to this area, the natural beauty of this land. The land that we all call home, but if people like you have they're way, there wont be any appalchia left.