#2...

Erik Reece is very concerned about the wildlife that is being effected by Mountain Top Removal (Reece, Lost Mountain, 2007); Reece goes into great detail in his book, Lost Mountain, Reece talks about the Flying Squirrels around the mountains being effected by Mountain Top Removal, when Reece visits and meets a Naturalist, Jim Krupa, he watches and learns about how their habitat is being taken away from them and their numbers are dwindling, in fact, of the seventeen squirrels that were caught and tagged by Krupa, only two of the tagged squirrels were able to survive until the following summer; it is because of the human interaction, the coal companies interaction in this area that has caused the loss of habitat and safety for these animals, the coal company removes the trees and shelter in order to make it more accessible for their machines. This land is then left to be "reclaimed" by companies to build on; this land is often left the way the coal companies leave it and the wildlife around the mountain to fend for themselves, causing them to leave the area or die.

#1....

In Erik Reece's, Lost Mountain, (Erik Reece, Lost Mountain, 2007) he argues against Mountain Top Removal, the process of removing the tops of mountains to more easily access the coal seams and collect the coal; these arguments are very powerful and moving to the reader, and he uses both his memories of the mountain he visits disappearing and the accounts of those living around the mountain. In one account of the disappearing mountain he talks about the families of those that were severely effected on an emotional scale; in one account a mother, who was going to see her son graduate recalls how a dangerously overfilled truck plowed into her son’s car and got away with it through the coal companies tactics; they send two truckers at a time to transport their dangerously overfilled trucks to back up each others stories. This trucker later admitted to using drugs that day and hitting the graduating student; Erik Reece's book, Lost Mountain really shows the dramatic effects of the coal companies carelessness for those other then themselves.

Hm.

First post... >.>