I was back in Clay’s Branch for most of the afternoon today. This time instead of being there with a filmmaker I was there with a professional photographer. I also came at the site from a different direction and was enlightened in a scary way. The site is directly connected to the site behind Marsh Fork Elementary and has just expanded into the Drews Creek / Clay’s Branch area. I would hate to even attempt to guess the acreage the entire site consists of. Suffice it to say - it is friggin’ huge.

I took quite a few photos myself and have a lot I want to show you but I thought I would just start by showing you what valley fills are made of. This was the first time I had been that close to an active valley fill. While myself and my new friend were standing there taking photos there was just one rock slide after another. It was like the whole fill was totally unstable and to be honest - you couldn’t have gotten me to walk out on it on a bet. There is no doubt one would end up covered up and a part of the fill before they knew what happened.

Thinking about that - the road we were on was cut into the mountain by the coal company and we saw bear tracks headed in the direction of the fill. Thankfully we also saw bear tracks heading away from the fill so I would say it is safe to assume the bear wanted no part of the valley fill either.

You will never get me to believe this is a good thing. The only difference between this valley fill and a finished valley fill is the size of the surface rock and cosmetics. There will never be another tree grow here - you remember what trees look like? Yeah those tall brown and green things with branches and leaves that helped supply us with the very air we breath.

I’m going to tell you what - when the beauty of Appalachia is gone the way of the bulldozer - every person on this planet will lose. We will lose the opportunity to hike the old mountains. We will lose the opportunity to hunt natural healing herbs or hunt for the big buck in the pristine hollows. We will lose a culture that has for generations sustained itself off the land. We will lose the second most bio-diverse forest in the world - second only to the Amazon.

We will lose this…

and this…

And the coal industry loves to term it a win win. I fail to see the win in any part of mountaintop removal coal mining. I’ll make a deal with the coal industry - I’ll turn my lights off if they will stop blowing up Appalachia. Because we all know - coal keeps the lights on.