Abandoned Mine Lands funds should be reinvested in just economic transition...

Central Appalachia needs more than just good ideas to shepherd the region through a just economic transition; it needs investment – and lots of it – to make those ideas a reality. That may seem like a tall order, especially given that perhaps the region’s most reliable and consistent source of investment, coal severance tax revenue, is steadily falling as coal production in the region continues to decline.   However, there is another pool of money that investment into the region’s economic transition could be pulled from: the Abandoned Mine Lands Trust. Coal companies pay taxes every year to reclaim old and abandoned surface mined lands, and that money goes into the AML Trust. Currently, there is about $2.5 billion in this trust. That money could be “re-appropriated” in a way that would serve Central Appalachian communities that have been dependent on the coal industry for years, says Evan Smith, a Whitesburg attorney who works with the Appalachian Citizen Law Center. It is on the table, and it’s not impossible [to get AML funds re-appropriated]. But, it does take a lot of organizing, and a lot of visioning together to come to an agreement of what you do with the money. Visioning and organizing to reach that agreement could be a role for the Shaping Our Appalachian Regional initiative. Re-appropriating government dollars and reinvesting them into Central Appalachia is certainly on the minds of the SOAR Executive Committee members, who recently voted to support 2015 legislation that would create the Kentucky Appalachian Regional Development...

Beekeepers in Ky. and W.Va. want more hives on surface mined land...

Some people in West Virginia think bees and honey production could be a viable option for transitioning former mined land into usable space. In Hernshaw, W.V., the state’s Apiary Inspector, Wade Siltner, watches over seven small bee hives on a former mountaintop removal site. The hives produced 400 pounds of honey is their first year. … [F]or bees, which fly about 2 miles in any direction from their hives, the result sounds pretty good: expansive areas that coal companies restored, replanted and relined. They can grow young flowering plants and trees across hundreds of continuous square acres, all at once. The mine sites could be turned into ideal locations for Appalachian honey production, a tradition that dates back generations in the region. And West Virginia hopes to expand their honey production while training out-of-work coal mines and veterans to become beekeepers. West Virginia isn’t the only Appalachian state buzzing about honey bees on mine sites: “The Coal Country Beeworks program, which started in 2008 and uses various coal company partnerships and grants, includes 35 bee boxes at five mine sites and research with Eastern Kentucky University.” That project was started by Dr. Tammy Horn, who is not Kentucky’s State Apiarist. “We don’t have to teach an appreciation for bees,” Horn said. “Many people already have it.” There is no one way to transition Central Appalachia’s economy. We know it will take many different opportunities being capitalized upon in order for a strong economic foundation to be built. We also know much...