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New SkyTruth Research Reveals Tarnished Legacy of Mountaintop Mining—and the Policy Implications

February 16, 2023 in /by

New SkyTruth Research Reveals Tarnished Legacy of Mountaintop Mining—and the Policy Implications

Explosives and heavy equipment: the perfect combination for mine owners to extract coal from a pristine Appalachian landscape. Too bad this process, known as mountaintop removal mining (MTM), is terrible if you live near the mined mountain, or in a watershed downstream, or on a planet faced with the imminent threat of ever-increasing temperatures brought about by greenhouse-gas emissions.

Will the forest ever return?

May 26, 2021 in , , , /by

Working with our partners, including Appalachian Voices, SkyTruth has developed a tool to help activists, scientists, officials and others estimate whether mined sites have fully recovered.

Today, with our partners at Appalachian Voices, Downstream Strategies, 4E Analytics, and Green Forest Works, we are publishing the results of our Central Appalachian Mine Reforestation Assessment. Together we have developed an approach and dataset that assesses reforestation progress on formerly mined lands in the region.

The Latest Data on Mountaintop Mining in Central Appalachia

December 8, 2020 in , , , , /by

SkyTruth data shows that area of actively mined land in the region continues to decline. But is it recovering?

As 2020 comes to a close, SkyTruth is releasing our annual update to our Central Appalachian Surface Mining dataset, providing detailed information about the extent of mining operations from 1985 through 2019. The new data shows that trends we identified last year continue: namely, new areas have been cleared for mining, yet the total amount of land in the region being mined is declining.

New Data Available on the Footprint of Surface Mining in Central Appalachia

November 6, 2019 in , , , , /by

The area of Central Appalachia impacted by surface mining has increased — by an amount equal to the size of Liechtenstein — despite a decline in coal production.

SkyTruth is releasing an update for our Central Appalachian Surface Mining data showing the extent of surface mining in Central Appalachia. New areas continue to be mined, adding to the cumulative impact of mining on Appalachian ecosystems, despite a decline in coal production.