Struggle to protect state’s mountains is a moral issue at heart for activist

By Bryan Stevens

The motivation to protect the scenic vistas provided by Tennessee’s mountains comes quite naturally to Jennie Young, a crusader determined to end the scourge of mountaintop removal mining.

“I was a mountain kid, born and raised on a hilltop near Erwin, and know how deeply these mountains are every Tennessean’s birthright,” Young said.

For the past two years, Young has attended First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethton, where she recently became involved with the Peace Committee at the church. She noted that the Peace Committee’s areas of concern, the environment and social justice, resonate with her.

The desire to do her part for the preservation of Tennessee’s mountains seemed to take on renewed emphasis with Young after she saw a documentary, Mountain Mourning, published by WVA-based Christians for the Mountains.

“It was shown at the church’s Thursday book club,” Young recalled. “It’s a painful, compelling look at MTR narrated by real people whose real homes and real communities are located at the base of active MTR sites. I hadn’t known until discussion surrounding that viewing that already 500 Appalachian mountaintops are exploded away, with 200 new permits now in the pipeline for approval, and that our Cumberlands are to provide the newest concentration. There seemed to be such a finality about it that I wasn’t prepared to accept. Once I learned about the resistance legislation, The Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, then in committee in Nashville, it seemed there was really no choice but to get involved.”

Young knows firsthand about the effects of MTR and its devastation of scenic vistas.

“I spent my first working years in Eastern Kentucky coal communities and understand why we must protect our mountains,” Young said. “Kentucky and West Virginia lost control long ago and can never restore what they’ve lost. We know the implications, and there’s still time for Tennessee to claim and frame this issue and just say ‘No,’ not to coal mining if we decide it’s necessary, but ‘No’ to exploding mountaintops, its frighteningly toxic results and the devastating effects on mountain families and communities. I would be so proud if my state claimed the distinction of being the first in the nation to enact legislation that puts the people in charge of what happens to our ancient treasures.”

For a time, the state legislature seemed to be moving in that direction.

Young explained that the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship (LEAF) and the National Parks Conservation Service authored the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, which was introduced to House and Senate committees in Nashville some four years ago.

“LEAF sent us the documentary Mountain Mourning and I requested to be put on their mailing list for email alerts regarding the progress of the bill,” Young said. “Last winter, the church hosted an anti-MTR benefit concert and key members of LEAF came up from Knoxville to participate in the event. We looked to them for guidance as we put together our information/action packet. They have been at work on this for four long frustrating years.”

A setback on the long road came this spring.

“The bill failed in Senate committee on March 30 after the industry lobbyists showed up and bullied their way to its defeat,” Young said. “The 6-2 vote, along party lines, doubly hurt as it was obvious that at least three who voted against it did not want to. Tennesseans who know what’s going on with our mountains particularly as well as with the other 500 are overwhelmingly against MTR. We need to be very noisy when the bill is reintroduced in January.”

Young and the Peace Committee at First Presbyterian have been thinking of ways to produce some noise locally to foster awareness of the issue of mountaintop removal and the need for preservation of scenic vistas. Carter County alone is home to such beautiful mountains as Holston and Roan.

Young maintains that public opinion is on the side of those hoping to preserve the state’s scenic vistas.

“I guess it’s just a matter of paying attention and how much time folks have for staying informed,” she said. “Recent polling shows that only 50 percent of Tennesseans are aware of MTR and the threat to our mountains, but that two-thirds of the other 50 percent strongly oppose it.”

Her hope is there will be more news coverage in print and on the airwaves once the legislature is involved again.

“Folks need to know that in the 2010 election Tennessee politicians received over $300,000 for their campaigns from the coal industry,” Young said.

She noted that $195,000 of that amount went to Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey alone.

Young said that level of lobbying by the coal industry is new and a clear indicator that the state’s mountains are in the sights of some pretty big industry guns with deep pockets. She added that all those coal industry-related companies are also from out of state.

“The fact that statewide awareness is sketchy is not indicative of overall awareness and resistance,” Young said. “The Southern Baptist, United Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Catholic, Mennonite and Unitarian churches have all issued formal statements opposing MTR as a stewardship and moral concern,” she said.

Young noted that it isn’t just churches opposed to MTR.

“JPMorganChase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Credit Souisse announced in 2010 that they would no longer provide financing for coal operations which used mountaintop removal as a way to access coal,” she said. “The Clinton administration effectively banned the process, but in 2002 the floodgates were opened again when the Bush administration, without Congressional involvement, changed a few words in the law, crippling it so effectively that we’re at 500 now.

“The Obama administration halted the permitting process, but MTR proponents in Congress are working relentlessly to weaken EPA water quality regulations which now stand in the way,” she continued. “Virginia’s ninth district representative, Morgan Griffith, leads the charge.”

Young added that U.S. Rep. Phil Roe seems to be of the same mind.

For Young and her fellow Peace Committee members, the fight against MTR is being waged as part of being good stewards for the Earth.

“Stewardship is valuing what we have and taking care of it,” Young explained. “Our mountains, the watersheds, the presence of hard even to imagine biodiversity are gifts and sustain us in ways we take for granted. When you consider it takes a hundred years to grow one inch of topsoil, it doesn’t take much figuring to realize that watersheds will not be restored ever nor will trees ever grow back.

“Forget biodiversity,” she continued. “Some, like Ron Ramsey, say it’s God-given and ours to subdue in the interest of progress and profit, no matter how short term, but I doubt if many in Eastern Kentucky or West Virginia would refuse the chance to start over if they could have 500 mountaintops, 2,000 miles of clean streams and rivers, and numerous mountain communities back.”

Quite simply, for Young, a moral issue is at the center of the fight.

“It’s a moral issue because it’s carried out without regard for the health and safety of the local communities adjacent to these sites,” she said. “The health and safety statistics around MTR sites is appalling. These mountains are ancient and are among the most biodiverse in the world. Anytime bullies and greed are behind the scene making choices that best serve that interest, questions of morality must arise. Gallup Healthways Well Being Index ranked West Virginia at the bottom nationally with Kentucky a close 49th for life evaluation and physical and emotional health.”

Young said that coal slurry from MTR sites poisons waterways and wells and forceful blasting sends boulders along with a blanketing of dust into homes at the base.

“A pre-Halloween listing of the ten scariest real places in America gave ‘Downhill from a strip mine operation in West Virginia’ the number one spot,” Young said.

Young, a retired school teacher, said she is prepared to do whatever is asked of her on the issue of MTR as well as a range of other issues.

“When Glenn Beck railed about churches involved with social issues and demanding that his listeners run from any church which even used the words ‘social justice,’ I had a hard time squaring such language with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,” Young said. “Ayn Rand, whom Beck seems to admire so, hated Christianity because of its commitment to social justice and taking care of people.”

Young has had a lot of help and support. She said those in the church working for the protection and preservation of scenic vistas include Pastor John Shuck, Sandra Garrett, Gary and Nancy Barrigar, David and Lydia Roane, Steve Ferguson, Debra Ilves, Judy Garland and Gil and Carolyn Bailey as well as Carol Landis of the Green Inter-faith Network and her neighbors, particularly Lana Perry, and members of her family.

“They’re too many to mention, actually,” Young said.

The Green Inter-faith Network has provided a helping hand to the effort.

“In this area, the network involves 10 or so churches,” Young said. “They work on spreading awareness of green issues. I’m new with them, but they have helped disseminate our information packet.”

According to the network’s website, its vision is to be a model for green faith communities in the Southern Appalachians and to become a spiritual voice for environmental sustainability in the Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia region. The network offers resources on Earth stewardship, eco-justice and advocacy, and spiritual tools for growth. Through events, meetings and a web-based community, the network also offers opportunities to connect with others who share similar values.

For Young, the effort is a worthwhile one.

“We will lose our mountains and look like Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia if we can’t be more influential than all the power and money working against reasonable legislation,” she warned. “It’s important for folks to know that the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act only protects the signature virgin ridgelines above 2,000 feet, those ridgelines we and visitors see and which define us so distinctively.”

Young noted that 90 percent of the coal (all thin seams and low grade stuff which is slated for Asia, not U.S. markets) is found at the lower elevations.

“The Industry still intends that no legislation regarding the mining of coal on any mountain anywhere be enacted,” she said. “They intend a repeat of the Kentucky/West Virginia short-sighted approach and they’re willing to buy whatever influence it takes.

“The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce is already theirs, which makes no sense in a state where tourism is our major industry,” Young added. “There’s a reason we don’t have to compete for tourists with those states north of us. The Cumberlands are simply gorgeous and responsible mining doesn’t have to change that. The coal companies make more money when so few jobs (most not local and all temporary) are involved which is the whole idea.

“The sacrifice isn’t worth it,” Young said. “What we lose, we never get back.”

She doesn’t want to think of the consequences of failing to enact the legislation.

“We will lose our mountains, adding our own number to the 500 already blasted away,” Young said. “We will poison our waterways, and who knows the human impacts on the communities at the base of those mountains. There are already 18 surface mines in the state, mostly small and most, excepting Zeb, Leach, Double Mountain, Bull Ridge, Mingo and Cross, still with their tops.”

However, Young noted that eight new permits are currently in the pipeline.

“We can stop this, but only by enacting legislation which prevents the industry from picking off our mountains one by one,” Young said. “We have to keep the issue front and center and pelt our legislators with reminders that we are watching. We have an edge in that they don’t want to be exposed on this. They know it’s ugly, too. But seriously important issues have a way of getting lost in who owes what to whom, political allegiances and all that money.”

Young said that even if it isn’t local mountains which are threatened, the Cumberlands are part of the birthright of all Tennesseans.

“We will regret abandonment of any one of them,” she said.

Young said that information/action packets for churches and groups are available by emailing not1more@embarqmail. com.

“We hope to show The Last Mountain, the Academy-Award-nominated documentary, locally and at as many venues as possible,” she said. “The church has another anti-MTR benefit concert planned in January with Dana and Susan Robinson. And talk, talk, talk wherever anyone will listen.”

The Bonnie Kate Theatre will host a screening of The Last Mountain at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 2. Young has worked to line up sponsors for the screening and she noted that State Rep. Kent Williams will introduce the documentary.