June 11, 2009

The Indypendent: Operation Appalachian Spring Photo Essay

From the Indypendent, a bi-monthly newspaper produced by the volunteer staff of the New York City Independent Media Center (NYC IMC). The Indypendent is the longest running print project of more than 100 Independent Media Centers (IMC) around the world.

Copies of the June 5, 2009 edition of the Indypendent will soon be available from the offices of Climate Ground Zero in Rock Creek, WV. To view the newspaper online, download a .pdf here.

Operation Appalachian Spring
text and photos by antrim caskey

Since the late 1880s, powerful coal mining companies have dominated Appalachia, ravaging the land with underground mining, strip and contour mining and the latest method, mountaintop removal coal mining. After the Surface Mine Reclamation and Control Act (SMRCA) passed in 1977, mountaintop removal was basically institutionalized, facilitating the destruction of hundreds mountains, mountain communities and their people.

All for coal.

Today, local residents and environmentalists say, “Enough! You’ll have to put me in jail to get at that coal.”


Operation Appalachian Spring  (text and photos by Antrim Caskey (c) 2009 )

Operation Appalachian Spring (text and photos by Antrim Caskey (c) 2009 )


To view the photographs in Photoshelter, click on the images below, you will be re-directed.




THE INDYPENDENT - Images by antrim caskey