everbody knows that Google and other Satelite photo programs run old and even winter photos, so enough with the “its so green” nonsense. I look at GIS/Satelite maps all the time, and you are simply being untruthful about what they portray.

the coalfield Appalachians have lost at least over 500 square miles of forest – that’s about 2/3 of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

and while we are on forests, why do you coal miners think you have more right to wreck that land and take away jobs from loggers? Cause when a logger cuts a tree in the Appalachians there is a good chance it is going to sprout from the stump or its seed is nearby and gonna take advantage of the light. When a strip miner cuts off the top of a mountain, good trees are not going to grow there for a very long time. They will eventually, but not in your lifetime and probably not in your grandchildren’s lifetime.

And I don’t want to hear about your reclamation – I follow the ARRI stuff and know for a fact how few mining companies are adapting that practice and I’ve been on MTR sites with trees (and planted a few) and those trees just don’t grow with the same vigor and vitality. Nor will the forest be the same for a coupla hundred if not thousands of years.

again, why do y’all feel so privileged that you get to take away jobs from loggers and lifeways away from hunters, fishermen, ginseng collectors, mushroom hunters and so on?