Will Parker

12/9/08

Cascades

     Any Radford student or resident who normally come up with excuses as to why they need to stay inside for the entire span of Sunday, whether it be football or because of a hangover, I recommend to you one of the hidden gems in the New River valley that makes living in this area so special. The cascade falls in Pembroke will provide you not only with a great hike and amazing photo op’s, but with an appreciation of how important preservation of the area around it is, so that future generations have a chance to make the same trip I did.

        

     Like most Sundays for Radford students, I also was hung-over and awaiting a Redskins football game that started at 1. I had no intention of setting foot outside the house unless it was to tip the pizza delivery guy, but my roommate foiled my plans by waking me up at 8 in the morning and telling me I was going to the Cascades. I did not like the idea at first. But with the added stress that his parents were coming along, the excuse of not going because I drank too much probably wouldn’t settle with the folks when we have dinner later that night.

   After a 45 mile drive and a 30-minute nap in the backseat, I awoke to trees. I was reluctant about the trip as I took in a huge yawn full of the cleanest air I’ve ever tasted. With a filled water bottle tucked under my arm, I tightened up my laces and got ready for the 4-mile hike ahead.

As our party made its way to the trails entrance, a slab of stone that which had the words, “Take many memories, leave only footprints,” engraved into it greeted us. The philosophical rock got me thinking about how much it must effort it takes to maintain and preserve a trail like this. Or does it take any effort at all? Natural flood planes created over millions of years, which in turn affected the topography of the land that has made it possible for people to once live along the lush creek-bed, and now hike across it.

As you make your way up and over large rocks, your constantly having to watch out for tree roots and slippery wet patches that can make a simple injury feel turn into a horrible ache as the terrain gets more rugged and even testy at times. The passing party’s on their way back from the waterfall each have a smirk on their faces, either from the spectacular view of a waterfall they just witnessed, or because they were walking downhill instead of straight up it.

There are plenty of opportunities to get off the trail beaten path and explore and climb around the huge boulders in the middle of the creek. Each massive stone creates placid ponds that are teeming with smaller fish while the larger ones fight against the mild rapids. Deer tracks and droppings are present all along the trail, and birds watch from the trees that block out the suns rays and create a very temperate environment, perfect for a hike.

It’s easy to forget about the world outside of a place that seems so perfectly natural. Everything seemed to make so much more sense in the woods. Constant babbling from the crystal clear creek and ambient birdcalls in the distance almost makes me wish I were into Buddhism or meditation, but it doesn’t take a deep thinker to appreciate the free beauty provided here.

You can start to hear the waterfall surging and feel mist drizzle slightly against your face, as we got closer to our destination. The creek looks more like a river now, as white water rushes with immense force caused by the falls.

All you can really say when you first see the it is, “wow.” It takes awhile to soak it all in, as tons of water effortlessly pours off the top of a ledge sixty-six feet off the ground. The rocks that remain below have been chipped away and slowly changed shape over time showing it’s the form it is today. Further up a wooden walkway, there is a viewing platform that can get you close to eye level with the waterfalls crest. A recent drought exposed a lot of the rocks that are normally saturated by the falls, and gave us a great idea of the potential that this force of nature has on its surroundings.    

     We took all the pictures our camera would hold, and took in one final glance of the majestic falls. The experience brought all of us closer after having endured a steep hike for a worthwhile view. We chit-chat and laugh on our stroll down the trail, shooting grins at each exhausted face we passed on the way down.

A nice long hike, and a chance to catch a great view of what the New Rive valley is about left me feeling rejuvenated and thankful for making the trip. As we got back into the car, I could’ve cared less about who won the skin’s game, seeing how it was almost 5 o’clock by now. I strongly advise anyone who is in need of a refreshing change of pace and wants to forget about the world for a while, to make the trip to the Cascade falls and see what I mean for yourself.     

 

 

Will Parker

11-29-08

Blue Ridge Choo-choo

 

            It’s the Sunday following thanksgiving break, and distant family members and college students are filled with turkey and pumpkin pie, but the trip back on route 81 wouldn’t be complete without unwanted leftovers. It starts with a traffic jam… strawberry if you will, which will turn a 4 hour trip from northern Virginia into an 8 hour constipated lag. Flashing blue and red emergency lights dance across the wet pavement after each bend, and like moths drawn toward a flame, rubber neckers eyes wonder in curiousity and progress down the road slower than a gob of peanut butter stuck in to the back of your throat. Lastly, loaf shaped 18 wheelers and big rigs carelessly sandwich cars and terrify drivers on the winding two lane highway. The frustrating sandwich metaphor is complete. But where is the milk?

 

        I propose that a passenger train be built that will parallel along route 81, making stops at JMU, Virginia Tech, and Radford among other locations. Not only would this be a great way for students to save what little gas they can afford, it creates more opportunities for tourism and visitation in a gorgeous area that goes unnoticed. The tracks would go up and down the mountain side along the Blue Ridge valley, providing a beautiful scenic view of what makes the New River Valley so special.

 

            Radford Virginia and the rest of the New River Valley are on the rise as far as commercial and economical development goes, which will potentially create more income for this once impoverished region. As school sizes increase in Virginia Tech and Radford University, more and more students are subjected to a long and tedious drive, more so during the holiday season. Very few kids carpool during the trip, and with gas prices and green house gas emissions being higher than ever, it would only make sense to utilize a more practical form of transportation. Not everyone can afford to take airport out of Christiansburg, and the bus runs on a tight schedule which doesn’t guarantee a ride every time (not to mention the traffic you’d have to sit in.)  

            Although this sounds like an environmentally sound idea, there are possible negative effects that could go along with creating easier access to more rural areas. The cultural autonomy that has existed among Southwestern Virginians could be jeopardized by the possibility of urbanization. 

 

Rupert Cutler -

 

 

 

 

 

Will Parker

9/20/08

 

    This article covered the fourteenth annual American Public Health convention, on Sept. 18th, 1912. At the session were representatives of the American Public Health Association, mainly doctors, who laid out actions of public health work in cities and progress that needs to be made in effort to decline the spread of typhoid fever and promote general health awareness.

    To give an idea of what the overall tone was for the conference, this quote sums up one doctors attitude towards state officials. “I wish all the infectious disease of Washington would attack the families of members of congress, and leave the rest of us free,” spited Dr. Wiley. “We are ruled by a board of governors, who hold imperial sway. They do not welcome you, because they are not representatives of the city. There is no place where you could do better missionary health work than here.” 

    Wiley said that the trouble with public health is getting the public interested. He later goes on to describe that you must take small steps in order to make a big change in public health. Ideas like if your child has a sore throat, they should stay home and not infect the other children in school. By improving the conditions of where people live, evidence showed that disease will be less of a threat to them.  Dr. Samuel Dixon, of Pennsylvania, made a startling announcement that a 73% decrease of typhoid fever in rural communities is due to the prevention of pollution contaminating local streams and creeks.  

    Later in the session, Dr. Woodward invited members of the Official Agricultural Chemists Association to take part in all future meetings. This article is an early stepping stone which will lead up to important public health findings such as Silent Spring, which will open the peoples eyes to a grave reality and what changes need to be made in order to preserve our countries agricultural integrity.  

 

http://lib-proxy.radford.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=141545892&Fmt=10&clientId=8926&RQT=309&VName=HNP

 

 

Will Parker

 

10-18-08

 

SEJ – Biodiversity

 

 

 

            In an area that has an economic basis which thrives off the production and distribution of its natural resources, it’s easy to look past preserving the various wildlife species that are on the brink of extinction as a result. The habitat degradation of the Appalachian region is happening on a massive scale and is wiping out many different fresh water fish and muscle species that will continue to diminish until they are all gone, and the aspects that make the New River Valley unique will no longer exist due to excessive mining practices and deforestation.

 

            Among the panel of speakers at the 16th annual SEJ conference in Roanoke were experts in the field of biodiversity: John Kunich, Jerry Moles, Roberta Hylton, and Paul Angermeter. These speakers stressed the importance of opening our eyes to the devastation that is going on in our back yard, and will continue until we clear ourselves out. They also spoke about the depressing role that our government is playing and how there is no national or international laws that protect bio-diversity or prioritize where the money is spent in conserving the region.

 

            “We on our way to the 6th mass extinction our world has seen in about 65 million years,” explained Kunich, “this time, it isn’t going to be because of a meteor hitting the earth causing drastic global warming and the ice caps melting... the ball is in our court.”

 

            Kunich used a good example that I never had considered prior to his mentioning. During the last mass extinction when the dinosaurs were all killed, it didn’t happen over night. It was all the side affects of the meteor’s impact such as flooding and fires that slowly over thousands of years that killed the surviving dinosaurs who were struggling to adapt. Issues that are overlooked by the government such as global/climate change has the same affect, but has yet to be affectively addressed with legal response. Kunich put it best when he described our governments view on the destruction of the area as, “calamity masquerading in calm.” In other words, we are gambling with our own world… and we’re all in.

 

            It is hard sound the alarm and awaken the people in this area when they have become so desensitized to all the destruction happening around them. The need for social concern is one of the biggest challenges in turning around the preservation and growth of endangered species. An estimated 60% of people in the country consider themselves as “environmentalist,” but only 2% act on it by making donations or major/minor contributions to different environmental agencies. The idea that the people who live in the destruction zones are so ill informed about what is going on, the land that they had hoped to pass on to their children and their children may no longer exist due to drastic changes in the topography of the land around them.

 

“Poor people make poor conservationists,” said Roberta Hylton. “ It’s hard to shed light on a dieing species of animals that isn’t a mascot of a team… only the glorified animals are saved while 30 others are forgotten.”

 

          Ways people can make a difference in biodiversity and land preservation by paying attention to your local government meetings and trying to form rally groups that express what needs to be done. Outside of the government, watching what you eat, where it comes from, and where you spend your money. By doing what you can to encourage people to understand preservation and what their role is in the environment could one day lead to the prosperity of a dieing breed… us.

 

Will Parker

11-2-08

SEJ – Deforestation

            The Society of Environmental Journalists met early Saturday morning in Roanoke Virginia on the 16th of October to discuss different environmental issues that our country is faced with; more so in the Appalachian region where the conference took place.  The four panelists who specialize in deforestation and the restoration of mined lands consisted of James Burger, Joe Lovett, Terry Sammons and Spencer Hunt. Although their goals we all the same, not all their views coincided with one another.

 

            Mining in the Appalachian area takes a toll on several aspects that of this region that makes it so beautiful. Aside from the massive amounts of earth that is carelessly dug up for small segments of coal, trees are being leveled on an immense scale. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was implemented in 1977, and states that all disrupted land from mining will be restored to its original state, if not better.

 

            James Burger is a professor at Virginia tech and a strong advocate for the forestry reclamation approach. Burger leads teams of students to various mining sites and implant tree saplings in the unearthed land. “I have been responsible for planting over 1,000 trees in the Appalachia,” says Burger. “But we are not making as much progress as we should.”

 

            “Operation Springboard” was launched by Burger in spite of the lack of hybrid Japanese chestnut tree’s that have come close to extinction due to excessive mining practices. Photos show the new trees being planted; the flimsy stems were supported by PVC pipes for the first few months, and eventually grow into study trees from which our children will be able to swing from. It will take about 40 years for the tree to be at a decent and healthy height, so to get to this point; a top-soil substitute is laid down where the original soil was blasted away. After the site is prepared, and a compatible ground cover is in place, tree planters will implant the saplings in the newly refurbished soil. One problem that exists in this whole process is that the substitute top-soil that is used is no where near as nutrient rich and provides inadequate living conditions for different smaller ground dwelling species.

 

            Mingo County is one of many areas in West Virginia that has been devastated by over-mining. Their economy has struggled, and continues to decline as “the best and brightest of Mingo county have all gone off to college, and rarely return home” due to the poor job market. Terry Samones is a part of a grass-roots driven organization whose goal is to find new uses for previously mined land. In order to diversify the rural economy that struggles today, he hopes to create job opportunities by trying to convince companies to build their business on post-mined land. The main problem with Samones ideas are the lack of a clean water source. Companies won’t build and expand where the streams and creeks have been severally polluted with selenium among other toxic substances that making the water supply undrinkable.

 

            “Coal miners are supposed to prove that the new topsoil is just as good or better then before they had mined it… and this is not happening,” said Joe Lovett, the pessimist of the panel. “There are no productivity standards for forests, and the soil disturbance is too great to grow trees affectively with in the last 20 years.”

 

            In 1950, there were 120,000 miners employed in the area. Today, there are less than 20,000 workers that are doing the same amount of work. With little or no government oversight, coal companies are using excessive practices while spending as little money as possible to mine the coal. In order to create a sustainable economy, coal companies need to stop externalizing costs. Lovett predicts that it could either take 60 to 200 years to restore the woods back to their original state, pending on immediate government intervention.

 

 

Will Parker

11/03/08

SEJ - Forestry

 

 

 

            Mining in the Appalachian area is taking a toll on several aspects that of this region that makes it so beautiful. Aside from the massive amounts of earth that is carelessly dug up for fractions of coal, trees are being leveled on a vast scale. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was implemented in 1977, and states that all disrupted land from mining will be restored to its original state, if not better.

 

            James Burger is a professor at Virginia tech and a strong advocate for the forestry reclamation approach. Burger leads teams of students to various mining sites and implants tree saplings in the unearthed land. “I have been responsible for planting over 1,000 trees in the Appalachia,” says Burger. “But we are not making as much progress as we should.”

 

            “Operation Springboard” was launched by Burger in spite of the lack of hybrid Japanese chestnut tree’s that have come close to extinction due to excessive mining practices. A forestry reclamation approach is taken in order to accomplish such as task. First, a topsoil substitute is laid down where the original soil was blasted away. After the site is prepared, and a compatible ground cover is in place, tree planters will implant the saplings in the newly refurbished soil. One problem that exists in this whole process is that the substitute top-soil that is used is no where near as nutrient rich and provides inadequate living conditions for different smaller ground dwelling species.

 

            Mingo County is one of many areas in West Virginia that has been devastated by over-mining. Terry Samones is apart of a grass-roots driven organization whose goal is to find new uses for previously mined land. In order to diversify the rural economy that struggles today, he hopes to create job opportunities by trying to convince companies to build their business on post-mined land. The main problems with Samones ideas are the lack of a clean water source. Companies won’t build and expand where the streams and creeks have been severally polluted with selenium among other toxic substances that making the water supply undrinkable.

 

            “Coal miners are supposed to prove that the new topsoil is just as good or better then before they had mined it… and this is not happening,” said Joe Lovett, the pessimist of the panel. “There are no productivity standards for forests, and the soil disturbance is too great to grow trees affectively for the next 20 years.”

 

            In 1950, there were 120,000 miners employed in the area. Today, there are less than 20,000 workers that are doing the same amount of work. With little or no government oversight, coal companies are using excessive practices while spending as little money as possible to mine the coal. In order to create a sustainable economy, coal companies need to stop externalizing costs. Lovett predicts that it could either take 60 to 200 years to restore the woods back to their original state, pending on government intervention.