What gets lost when you blow up an Appalachian mountain

an excerpt from a recent New York Times article on mountaintop removal coal mining -

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“Not every place on the mountains has waterfalls like Bad Branch,” Ms. Chapman-Crane said. “But this is pretty much what it’s like on the mountains here. The forests of the Appalachian range are like a northern rain forest.”

Mary Yoder, who had volunteered to come on the trip for her congregation, Columbus Mennonite Church in Columbus, Ohio, asked, “So this is the kind of place that gets blown up in mountaintop removal?”

Mr. Chapman-Crane replied, “This is what would be lost, is lost, when they blast a mountaintop.”

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