by Laurence Hammack | Mar 16, 2012 | Environment
On top of Warm Springs Mountain, the conditions are dry, the temperature is 61, the winds are light and the humidity is low. It is a good day to start a forest fire. And that is just what The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service did Thursday. “This is...
by Laurence Hammack | Dec 12, 2011 | Environment
CHATHAM — Of all the cow pastures in Pittsylvania County, where dairy farms dot the rolling landscape, this one looks no different than the rest. But it is, as Patrick Wales and his Geiger counter are about to demonstrate. On a blustery November afternoon, Wales...
by Laurence Hammack | Oct 10, 2011 | Environment
CARBO — Here on the banks of the Clinch River, a hulking, soot-stained structure churns out two things: electricity that powers Southwest Virginia, and emissions that pollute its air. The common denominator is coal. About 500,000 tons of coal a year are burned...
by Laurence Hammack | Sep 29, 2011 | Environment
They stand on top of Roanoke County’s highest mountain, heads tilted backward and binoculars pointed skyward, and strain to see even higher. “Here’s something good coming through,” one of the bird counters says as a speck in the sky, a hawk,...
by Laurence Hammack | Jun 12, 2011 | Environment
DUO, W. Va. — Up on Shellcamp Ridge, a cluster of ramshackle houses and junked cars lingers where a community once thrived on the coal beneath it. The coal camp of Duo sprang up almost overnight in 1933, when the Raine Coal Co. built rows of identical frame...
by Laurence Hammack | Nov 7, 2010 | Environment
On a balmy October evening, deep in the woods of Craig County, Wil Orndorff stood waiting at the mouth of a cave. “We’re hoping the warm weather will bring them out tonight,” he said. “Them” being the bats. About 30 feet inside, a team of...