Confronting Ecological Crisis in Appalachia and the South: University and Community Partnerships

Introduction

1 Introduction Forging Partnerships between Communities and Academic Activists Stephanie McSpirit, Lynne Faltraco, and Conner Bailey There are places in Appalachia and parts of the South that are characterized by widespread ecological degradation and community crises. These phenomena of environmental and community conflict are closely linked and have their origins in a history where the power to make decisions that affect people’s quality of life often is held by people living elsewhere. Recurring patterns of corporate control over local economies and absentee ownership of land and resources historically have made it difficult for communities in Appalachia and the South to protect the purity of their waterways, the sanctity and beauty of their mountains and forests, and the health and safety of their families and communities. Over the past several decades academic observers have documented the political and economic causes of the social and ecological problems that have afflicted Appalachia and the South, and these academic works as well as many others start to provide social and historical context for this book.1 However, this litany of woe may falsely portray Appalachian and southern residents as victims and invariable pawns in structures of production and resource extraction over which they seemingly have little control. The authors of the following chapters would definitely see this as a misreading of the Appalachian and southern experience. Shaunna Scott makes this point in chapter 2 by reviewing the Appalachian Land Ownership Study, which involved more than sixty activists, citizens, and academics between 1979 and 1980. Taskforce members were involved in collecting county data on landownership and property taxes across the states of Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina , and Alabama. Shaunna explores the recollections and reflections of 2 McSpirit, Faltraco, and Bailey some key taskforce members and makes clear that the study became a vehicle for discussion, organization, and political action throughout the Appalachian region. As Shaunna recounts, soon after the study’s release citizens throughout the region began meeting about tax and property laws that exempted coal owners and that allowed the strip-mining of another property owner’s land. Not just Shaunna but all of the authors of each of the chapters that follow write lucidly about emerging new partnerships and alliances that have formed between community residents , activists, and others, and how, through these alliances, people have begun working together to challenge powerful internal structures and outside global forces to protect local ecosystems and the human communities that are part of these living systems. The chapters in this book address a wide range of cases that have presented challenges to local environments, public health, and social justice faced by the people of Appalachia and the South. Readers will encounter political systems based on patronage and paternalism from the coalfields of eastern Kentucky (chapters 4, 5, and 10) to the chemical weapons demilitarization program of the U.S. Army (chapters 8 and 9). Yet standing in front of these looming and powerful structures are committed citizens who have organized themselves to confront both external power holders and, often, their own local, state, and federal representatives. Out of these alliances new environmental groups and organizations have emerged across Appalachia and the South over the past several decades.2 Citizen activists and organizations have demanded the end of the wholesale destruction of mountains, forests, and waterways and the contamination of their communities. Many of their valiant efforts have been documented by academic researchers and scholars. Two included here, Conner Bailey (chapter 6) and Robert Futrell (chapter 9), explore academic and community partnerships in combating environmental harms. Conner coauthors chapter 6 with Lynne Faltraco, a founding member of Concerned Citizens of Rutherford County (CCRC). Together they describe a struggle to protect native hardwood forests of Appalachia from being clear-cut, chipped, and made into paper products. Chip mills are highly automated facilities that grind whole trees into woodchips for making paper, particleboard, and other wood-based materials. Between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s more than 140 large-scale chipping operations were established in the region. In the mid-1990s Introduction 3 CCRC emerged to challenge one particular chip mill facility in Rutherford County. Citizens challenged the local ordinances that allowed for unconstrained clear-cutting of local woodlands to feed this mill. In chapter 9 Robert and his coauthor describe how the Kentucky Environmental Foundation (KEF) coordinated local activism, tied local activists into wider political networks, and built political strategies, work...