New “Olde Store” Brings Gathering Place to Floyd, VA...

In an earlier post on livable rural communities, we talked a bit about the importance of gathering places for people to come together. The community of Floyd, in southwest Virginia, has a new such place – or rather, an old one made new again. An old country store from the 1930s has been bought and renovated (but only a little) into an antique shop, consignment shop, and cafe. The Roanoke Times has the story: The store was like a rallying point for community members, she added. “Everybody who has been here said they’re so glad someone has opened the store again,” Hope Cleve said. “It just has a presence. It’s one of those places you walk in and say, ‘This is it.’ ”… If you visit The Olde Store and you don’t find anything you need, that’s OK with the Cleves. “It’s an easy atmosphere here,” Hope Cleve said. “Someone may just find that thing they need in the house, but if not, we can find some stories to tell.” “Come in and sit a spell.” Click here to read the whole article. Where are the great gathering places in your community?...

Appalachian Ohio Farmers Key to Local Food Economy

On the heels of the very successful 30 Mile Meal Month, Athens, Ohio is getting some more great press about its thriving local food economy. AthensOhioToday recently featured a story about the area's farmers and the risks and rewards of being part of the local food movement.  From small garden yard plots to large greenhouses full of vegetables, the land of Athens County and the hands of the farmers that tend the soil are the backbone of the local food economy.   Taking a major gamble with mother nature, farmers put their blood, sweat and tears into their livelihoods to grow the local produce that is so cherished by the Athens community. Many of those farmers sell their wares at the Athens Farmers Market, making it one of the top farmers markets in the state — if not the nation.   Dozens of farmers sell their products at the Athens Farmers Market, from city folks who recently found their calling in the Appalachian soil to those whose families have been growing vegetables for generations.   “Each farm does things a little differently and that’s OK,” said Becky Rondy, who owns Green Edge Organic Gardens with her husband Kip in Amesville. Be sure to read the whole article at AthensOhioToday.com....

Making Connections News on Coal Communities in Transition

Another high-quality report from the talented folks over at Making Connections News, about the impacts the decline in the coal industry has on communities in the region and what other opportunities exist. In the 1960s Anthropologist Helen Lewis established one of the first Appalachian Studies programs in the country, at what was then Clinch Valley College in Wise County, Virginia.  Here Helen joins one of her former undergraduate students, lawyer and community leader Frank Kilgore of St. Paul, Virginia, at the site of the new Dominion energy coal plant to discuss economic possibilities for the future. Click here to listen to the report.  ...

Carbon Offsets Earn Money for Two Virginia Landowners

Here's the news from MACED: Two forest landowners located in Bland County, Virginia, recently shared a total payout of $22,668 from the Appalachian Carbon Partnership (ACP). Through the ACP, landowners are paid for the amount of carbon dioxide that their trees remove from the atmosphere. Forest landowners must provide documentation to prove that the offsets are real and result from certified sustainable management of existing forests. The payout represents income derived from the sale of Appalachian Forest Offsets to individuals, businesses and nonprofits.   There are many co‐benefits that result from investing in Appalachian Forest Offsets. Nearly 90 percent of forestland in our region is privately owned, and less than five percent is under any sort of management plan. Improving forests simultaneously increases biodiversity, water quality and wildlife habitat – benefits not directly available from offsets created from methane capture or from renewable energy offsets. Forest offsets address the urgent need to protect and enhance Central Appalachia’s forests through sustainable management.   The ACP links individuals, businesses and nonprofits with the forest carbon offsets they seek as they work towards reducing their carbon footprint and offsetting what emissions they cannot avoid. Individuals, businesses and organizations interested in supporting the Appalachian Carbon Partnership can visit www.appalachiancarbonpartnership.org to calculate emissions and purchase offsets directly online. For bulk purchases and special pricing, contact us at or call .   The ACP, a project of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), aims to increase the number of acres of forest...

Report from the “Livable Regions and Communities in Appalachia” Workshop...

  For cities, “livable communities” often means densely developed downtowns with high-rises and rapid transit, a wide array of restaurants and live-music venues, musicians on every corner. Which is all well and good for the city, but what does a rural livable community look like?  Recently, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the EPA and USDA Rural Development hosted a day-long workshop in Kingsport, TN to explore how we create rural places “where people want to live and businesses want to locate.” It’s no secret that many of our Appalachian small towns are struggling, with empty storefronts, poor infrastructure, and isolated communities. Presenters from across Central and Southern Appalachia discussed their success stories, strategies and challenges. Each community has unique issues. Western North Carolina is faced with pressures from second home developments, while coalfield communities in Kentucky and West Virginia struggle with out-migration.  But there was one theme that permeated the workshop: communities must be involved in deciding what kind of community they want to be. Kathy Nothstine with the National Association of Development Organizations outlined five strategies for rural liveable communities (all links open PDFs): Building on Assets; Growing Economic Competitiveness; Enhancing Quality of Life; Creating Efficiencies and Empowering Communities to Decide Their Futures. Ed Fendley with the EPA described his agency’s “place-based strategy” for investing in Main Streets and traditional town centers. Creating a place for people to gather builds community and pride (and encourages folks to spend money at small businesses!). The ARC and EPA recently teamed up on...

Register Now for the STAY Summer Institute!

The STAY Project is committed to having all voices and identities supported within Appalachia, and we understand that youth are often left out of spaces of decision-making. For this reason, we are bringing together youth (14-30) from throughout the region for a four day workshop in order to empower young people through a sense of place, promote leadership development, uphold our Appalachian identity through cultural arts and storytelling, and build personal relationships to sustain each other through our efforts. The leadership trainings will focus on organizing, popular education, grant writing, small-business skills, financial/budget management, anti oppression workshops, etc. We aim to engage young Appalachians in creating the opportunities they need to be learners, activists, and leaders in the region. We consider central Appalachia to be West Virginia, southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky, east Tennessee, and western North Carolina. When: August 2nd to 5th, 2012 Where: Hillsboro, WV at High Rocks Campground Click Here to Register!...

Op-Ed: Severance tax fund critical for WV’s future

As more coal miners are laid off and coal companies go bankrupt, the question of what will become of Central Appalachia's economy becomes even more critical. We've posted commentaries and articles recently calling for diversification, new development strategies and thoughtful conversation about the region's future. One idea to help fund the long-term economic development of the region is coal severance tax permanent funds, which have been proposed in both Kentucky and West Virginia. Earlier this week, the Charleston Gazette featured an op-ed outlining the need for a "Future Fund" that would invest natural gas and coal severance taxes into an endowment for economic development.  One way that we can ensure that coal and other natural resources like natural gas will always play an important role in our state's economy is to create a permanent mineral trust fund or a Future Fund. Such a fund would help our state turn nonrenewable assets into a source of sustainable wealth. It will allow us to meet future challenges by investing in critical physical and human infrastructure that will diversify and expand our state's economy. It is a positive future for coal and natural gas, and one that we can all agree on and count on.   The op-ed rightly calls out politicians who are less interested in planning for the future and more interested in scoring political points: For far too long, the dialogue on coal's future and its impact in West Virginia has been an arena for simplistic and antagonistic politics....

Distributed Renewable Energy an Opportunity for Kentucky

From our good friends at Making Connections:  As the debate surrounding the continued operation of aging coal burning power plants continues, many are trying to figure out what our other options are for supplying all our energy needs. Downstream strategies, an environmental consulting organization based in West Virginia, just released a report addressing this very question, "The Opportunities for Distributed Renewable Energy in Kentucky."  The report finds that there is an abundance of renewable energy resources available within the state, and that "the development of these resources using existing technologies could provide the equivalent of approximately 34% of Kentucky’s projected electricity generation by 2025."  Making Connections interviewed report co-author Rory McIlmoil to learn more. Click here to listen to the interview!...