Restoration Appalachia

Book excerpt: Appalachia follows the topographical boundary of the Appalachian Mountains which runs north-south along the Eastern Coast of the United States. This paper focuses on the Central Appalachia subregion of West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky, as characterized by large-scale Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining operations. Indigenous nations reliant for subsistence on this region's ecological base were, over-time, increasingly displaced by communities dependent on resource extraction-oriented companies. This transition is chronicled through historical overviews and visual aids of Timber Harvest, Underground Mining, and Surface Mining processes. These resource extraction methods are then analyzed as ecological disturbances that damage, degrade and destroy ecosystems that previously served as an ecological base for subsistence communities. Following the overview of Restoration Ecology, potentials for ecological restoration of Appalachian minelands are presented through relevant policy.