Lost Mountain

"Erik Reece issues a stinging account and an inspiring call to arms to defend one of America's most threatened natural treasures." "The mountains of Appalachia are home to one of the great forests of the world - scientists refer to it as the "rainforest" of North America because it predates the Ice Age and continues to host a remarkable density of diverse species. These mountains also hold the mother lode of American coal, and the coal-mining industry has long been the economic backbone for families in a region hard-pressed for other job opportunities. But now, with the advent of radical strip mining, aka "mountaintop removal," it takes no more than ten men and some heavy machinery to blast off the top of a mountain, dump it in the valley below, and scoop out the coal. The economic and environmental consequences are devastating on an unprecedented scale." "Erik Reece chronicles the year he spent witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain, aptly named Lost Mountain. He makes evident that strip mining is not just a local concern or a radical issue, but a mainstream crisis that involves everything from corporate hubris and government neglect to species extinction and poisoned groundwater to class conflict and landscape destruction."--BOOK JACKET.

Erik Reece was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and teaches English and writing at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. His work appears in Harper's and the Oxford American, among other places.