By Davic Lillard
West Virginia was once a leading producer of maple syrup. Today, even though 80 percent of the Mountain State is covered with hardwoods—about 110,000 square miles of them—West Virginia barely registers in syrup production. Neal Super’s Mountain State Maple is starting a homegrown sugarin’ renaissance here in the relative flatlands of Jefferson County. In February, when the days are warming but the nights are still cold, it’s sugaring time in our region. Unlike many sap tappers, solitary figures working sugar stands in a secluded hollow, for Super it’s …

By Lyn Widmyer
I consider myself an environmentalist with one major exception: brown marmorated stink bugs. I don’t care about the circle of life and ecological balance when it comes to these marauders. I say kill them all.
I am like the Terminator when it comes to brown stink bugs. The difference is I am armed with a vacuum cleaner instead of a machine gun. I am merciless in finding those stink bugs and believe me they are everywhere. Globs of them hide in folds of draperies and under bedding. Wielding my …

by Jeff Feldman
I sat engrossed in Coal Country during last month’s American Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown. The film documents a range of perspectives on the issue of surface mining for coal in Appalachia, what many have come to call mountaintop removal. Interviews and footage depict miners expressing pride in their heritage; locals struggling to navigate a range of assaults upon their quality of life, health, jobs, and sense of community; and coal company representatives, lawyers, citizen activists, and elected officials each interjecting their own sometimes narrow view of the …

By Glenn Scherer and David Lillard
When our economy tanked last year, politicians told us that our nation’s financial institutions were “too big to fail,” and the federal government immediately proceeded to bail out the banks. Now, as world leaders prepare for a critically important climate summit in Copenhagen, we need to ask: Is Earth too big to fail? And if the collapse of our planet’s life support systems is unacceptable to us, then how do we shatter the climate change policy logjam once and for all?
One answer is to stop …

Two Edwight, W.Va.  tree sitters, Nick Stocks and Laura Steepleton, came down from their 80-foot tulip poplar perches this afternoon and were taken into State Police custody.  They have been preventing more blasting from rocking the homes of Pettry Bottom.  They have both been charged with trespass, obstruction and littering, and their bail has been set at $25,000 each.  For the past five days, they endured psychological torture, verbal assault and threats.
Anonymous eyewitnesses said the Massey-hired security guards were telling the treesitters they were going to rape and kill the …