Environment, Geology, Natural History, Rivers, Parks

Conservation, pollution, mountains, forests, streams, wild flowers, wildlife, state and national parks, guidebooks

Bandel, Jessica A.  2016.  So Great the Devastation: The 1916 Flood in Western North Carolina.  Raleigh: North Carolina Office of Archives and History.  45 pp.  “In mid-July 1916, the remnants of two hurricanes collided over western North Carolina .... When the water finally receded, at least fifty lay dead.”

Banks, Pat, Stephanie McSpirit, Jessica Pulliam, and Alan Banks.   2013.  “Building Alliances to Conserve and Protect the Kentucky River.”  Journal of Appalachian Studies 19, no. 1-2 (Spring-Fall): 133-150.  EKU Center for Appalachian Studies’ alliance with the Kentucky Riverkeeper; survey responses of community leaders.

Banzhaf, H. Spencer, Dallas Burtraw, Susie Chung Criscimagna, Bernard J. Cosby, David A. Evans, Alan J. Krupnick, and Juha V. Siikamäki.  2016.  “Policy Analysis: Valuation of Ecosystem Services in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.”  Environmental Science & Technology 50, no. 6: 2830-2836.  “...estimates the economic value of an increase in ecosystem services attributable to the reduced acidification expected from more stringent air pollution policy .... results indicate that these policies generate aggregate benefits of about $3.7 billion, or about $16 per year per household in the region.”

Bennett, Jonathan Howard, and David Biddix.  2015.  Mount Mitchell [N.C.].  Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia.  Vintage photos; local history.

Berry, Wendell.  2013.  “To Break the Silence.” Appalachian Heritage 41, no. 3 (Summer): 79-84.  “Publication of the rightly titled book, The Embattled Wilderness [by Erik Reece and James Krupa, 2013], about the uncertain life and fate of the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest, is the latest of many occasions that require us to consider and reconsider the failure of the institutions that supposedly serve the land and the people of Kentucky .... the parent failure, you might say—happened a century ago when the state’s public institutions tacitly consigned the land and people of the mountains to the use and abuse of extractive industries.”

Bridges, Anne, Russell Clement, and Ken Wise.  2014.  Terra Incognita: An Annotated Bibliography of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1544-1934.  Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.  440 pp.  “Starting with the de Soto map of 1544...and continuing through 1934.”  Twelve-hundred source entries with signed annotations; chronology; index; map.  Each of the thirteen topical chapters begins with an introductory essay.  Contents: Note on place names | Abbreviations | Great Smoky Mountains chronology | Reading list for the Great Smoky Mountains: sources published after 1934 | Early Great Smoky Mountains bibliographies | The Cherokee in the Great Smoky Mountains | Cherokee land and legal status to 1934 | Early travel and exploration in the Great Smoky Mountains | History of the Great Smoky Mountains | The national forest movement and the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park | Creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: a legislative history | Maps of the Great Smoky Mountains | Life in the Great Smoky Mountains | Horace Kephart | Literature of the Great Smoky Mountains | Music of the Great Smoky Mountains | Recreation and tourism in the Great Smoky Mountains | Natural history of the Great Smoky Mountains | Natural resources and development in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Brosi, George.  2013.  “Towards a Kentucky Land Use Policy.”  Appalachian Heritage 41, no. 3 (Summer): 11-12.  Brosi references Wendell Berry’s essay “To Break the Silence” (pp. 79-84) underscoring Kentucky’s need for a clearly stated land use policy to counter unregulated exploitation, and he lists other states’ successful efforts.

Burke, Brian J., Meredith Welch-Devine, and Seth Gustafson.  2015.  “Nature Talk in an Appalachian Newspaper: What Environmental Discourse Analysis Reveals about Efforts to Address Exurbanization and Climate Change.”  Human Organization 74, no. 2 (Summer): 185-196.  “...analysis of an influential small-town newspaper to understand how the environment is being represented publicly and...might affect local environmental politics.”

Cooper, Courtney, and Kristan Cockerill.  2016.  “Water Quantity Perceptions in Northwestern North Carolina: Comparing College Student and Public Survey Responses.”  Southeastern Geographer 55, no. 4 (2015): 386-399.  Appalachian State University students; Ashe and Watauga counties.  “Findings from research in other regions relating to environmental concerns help to highlight possible trends in water attitudes and perceptions of young people.”

Corio, Emily.  2013.  “Fish Return to a Mining County” [Preston Co., W. Va.].  All Things Considered, 22 July.  NPR radio.  Transcript, 805 words; Podcast, 4:34 min.  Cheat River’s recovery from 1994 acid mine drainage pollution through efforts of activists and state environmental agencies which have spent close to $29 million.  http://n.pr/12HKSqd.

Eisenfeld, Sue.  2014.  Shenandoah: A Story of Conservation and Betrayal.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 193 pp.  Shenandoah National Park, Va.; 1920s-30s eminent domain; displaced families.

Feather, Carl E.  2013.  “‘Almost Mushroom Heaven: Finding Fungi in the Mountain State.”  Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 39, no. 2 (Summer): 58-63.  Hunting for mushrooms in Blackwater Falls State Park with authority, Bill Roody.  Additional sidebar articles: “Pat Jordan: Mushroom Hunter,” by Gerald Milnes, 64-65; and “Italian Mushroom Magic,” by John Lilly, 66-67.

Fisher, Garrett.  2015.  Flying the Blue Ridge Parkway [80 aerial photos; maps].  Alpine, Wyo.: Tenmile Publishing.  104 pp.

Fisher, Garrett.  2015.  Appalachian Altitude: Flying the Highest Peaks of the South.  Alpine, Wyo.: Tenmile Publishing.  112 pp.  Aerial photos.  Contents: Black Mountain Range | Great Balsam Mountains | Plott Balsams | Great Smoky Mountains | Roan-Unaka Mountains.

Fitzgerald, Alexandra M., Bradly A. Trumbo, Chastine D. Kyger, and Mark Hudy.  2015.  “Dispersal and Reproduction of Relocated Blacknose Dace (Rhinichthys atratulus) in an Acid-Mitigated Southern Appalachian Headwater Stream” [Rockingham Co., Va.; 2008].  Journal of Appalachian Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring): 49-63.

Gaddy, L. L.  2014.  Alpine South: Plants and Plant Communities of the High Elevations of the Southern Appalachians.  [N.p.]: Terra Incognita Books.  123 pp.  133 color photos with index of places and people comprising a “pictorial guide to the plants and plant communities of the high elevations (over 4000 feet).”

Gamble, Mort.  2015.  “Dr. Jay Buckelew: The Bird Man of Bethany.”  Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 41, no. 1 (Spring): 56-61.  Profile of Bethany College ornithologist.  Attached article, “Building Houses for a Feathered Clientele” [roadside birdhouse vendor, Seneca Rocks, W. Va.], by Carl E. Feather, 62-63.

Garren, Laura Ann.  2013.  The Chattooga River: A Natural & Cultural History [N.C., Ga., S.C.].  Charleston, S.C.: Natural History Press.  126 pp.

Greenberg, Ben.  2014.  Natural Virginia: Panoramic Photographs.  Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.  239 pp.  Oversize volume. Contents: Tidewater | Piedmont | Western Region.

Hardy, Michael C.  2014.  Grandfather Mountain [N.C.; vintage photos].  Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia.  127 pp.

Harshman, Marc.  2016.  “A Breach.”  Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 31, no. 2 (Winter): 30-33.  Narrative poem about the disastrous 2014 chemical storage tank leak in Charleston, W. Va., and consequent water contamination; corporate avoidance of responsibility; and the posed question, “Is there anything that trumps profit?”  Harshman is Poet Laureate of West Virginia.

Hedeen, Stanley E.  2013.  “The Carolina Parakeet Vanishes: Extinction of the Ohio Valley’s Only Parrot.”  Ohio Valley History 13, no. 1 (Spring): 3-21.  Accounts and observations, including Audubon’s, from 1800 until 20th-century.

Hill, Brian H., Randall K. Kolka, Frank H. McCormick, and Matthew A. Starry.  2014.  “A Synoptic Survey of Ecosystem Services from Headwater Catchments in the United States.”  Ecosystem Services 7 (March): 106-115.  “Water supply per unit catchment area was highest in the Northern Appalachian Mountains ecoregion .... Ecological production functions paired with published economic values...revealed the importance of mountain catchments for water supply, climate regulation, and water purification.”

Howe, Barbara J.  2014.  “The Public’s Water and a Public Garden: A Case Study in Public History.”  West Virginia History, n.s. 8, no. 1 (Spring): 1-20.

Jenkins, Connie Ware.  2015.  Untold Stories of the West Virginia Flood of 1985: 30th Anniversary Commemorative Edition.  Terra Alta, W. Va.: Healdline Books.  48 pp.  Personal narratives.

Johnson, Christopher, and David Govatski.  2013.  Forests for the People: The Story of America’s Eastern National Forests.  Washington, D.C.: Island Press.  394 pp.  History of 19th and early 20th century timbering (clearcutting) plus eight case studies set in New England, the Great Lakes region, and the Southern Appalachians, including Monongahela National Forest and Allegheny National Forest.

Johnson, Randy.  2016.  Grandfather Mountain: The History and Guide to an Appalachian Icon.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.  290 pp.  Contents: Grandfather Mountain: naturally outstanding | The early explorers and scientists | Here come the hikers | Owners, settlers, sophisticated resorts | Grandfather gets a haircut | An attraction emerges | Carolina’s top scenic attraction | The battle of the Blue Ridge Parkway | The path to preservation | A practical guide to hiking and photography | The natural world of Grandfather Mountain | Hiking Grandfather Mountain | A photographer’s guide to Grandfather.

Johnson, Skip.  2014.  West Virginia Mountain Lions: Past, Present, and Future of the Long Tailed Cat.  Afterword by Edwin Daryl Michael.  Charleston, W. Va.: Quarrier Press.  200 pp.  Natural history, sightings, encounters.

Joslin, Michael.  2013.  “A French Connection.”  Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 28, no. 2 (Winter): 34-36.  Describes French botanist André Michaux and his son’s late eighteenth century discoveries in the Tenn. and N.C. mountains in their search for plant specimens to send back to France.

Law, Justine, and Kendra McSweeney.  2013.  “Looking Under the Canopy: Rural Smallholders and Forest Recovery in Appalachian Ohio.”  Geoforum 44 (January): 182-192.  “...our research demonstrates that local landowners, contrary to their depiction by many foresters and outside interest groups, are highly engaged, active, shrewd, and organized forest stewards.”

Lukacs, Heather A., and Nicole M. Ardoin.  2014.  “The Relationship of Place Re-Making
and Watershed Group Participation in Appalachia.”  Society & Natural Resources 27 no.1:
55-69.  Survey of more than 200 watershed group volunteers regarding places that encourage or discourage participation classified: places highly affected by human activity including coal extraction; natural places; and re-made/restored places.

Magoc, Chris J.  2015.  “In Search of a Useable--and Hopeful--Environmental Narrative in the Mid-Atlantic.”  Pennsylvania History 82, no. 3 (Summer): 314-328.  “The article suggests that a Mid-Atlantic environmental history marked by such stories as mountaintop removal coal mining, urbanization, industrial disaster, environmental injustice, and the despoliation and ongoing recovery of rivers and watersheds...is not only ‘typically’ but ‘exceptionally’ American.”  Mention is made of Mon Valley air pollution, MTR, Gauley Mountain, Kanawha “Chemical” Valley, Johnstown Flood, and Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster.

Manganiello, Christopher J.  2015.  Southern Water, Southern Power: How the Politics of Cheap Energy and Water Scarcity Shaped a Region.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.  306 pp.  Contents: Lowell of the South | Dam crazy for white coal in the new South | New Deal big dam consensus | A Keystone dam and Georgia’s new ocean | Big dam backlash rising in the Sun Belt | Countryside conservatism and conservation | Taken and delivered: the Chattooga River.

Mansfield, Becky, Christine Biermann, Kendra McSweeney, Justine Law, Caleb Gallemore, Leslie Horner, and Darla K. Munroe.  2015.  “Environmental Politics After Nature: Conflicting Socioecological Futures.”  Annals of the Association of American Geographers 105, no. 2: 284-293.  “We investigate the socioecological forests of the coalfields of Appalachian Ohio, where once decimated forests are again widespread.”

Matthews, Larry E.  2014.  Caves of Grassy Cove [Tenn.; Cumberland Co.].  Huntsville, Ala.: National Speleological Society.  285 pp.  Contents: Early visitors to the Grassy Cove caves | Devilstep Hollow Cave | Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave | The Nashville Extension | Saltpeter mining in Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave | Mill Cave | The Banshee Hole | The Gouffre | Jewett Cave | Jewett Two Cave | Run to the Mill Cave | Dorton Knob Smokehole | Hidden Well | The Caves of Dorton Knob, Hinch Mountain, and Bear Den Mountain | Accidents in the Grassy Cove caves | Geology of Grassy Cove and the Sequatchie Valley | Biology of the Grassy Cove Cave system | Cumberland Trail State Park and other scenic wonders | Epilogue | Appendices:  A. Do you want to be a caver? | B. Guide to place names | C. Glossary | D. Chronology | E. Dye tracing | F. Suggested additional reading.

McKnight, Karl B.  2013.  Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians.  Princeton Field Guides.  Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.  391 pp.  Identification guide:  200 species; 600 line drawings; 400 color photos.

Michael, Edwin Daryl.  2014.  The Last Appalachian Wolf  [historical fiction].  Charleston, W. Va.: Quarrier Press.  145 pp.  Cheat Mountain, W. Va., 1897: “the last know timber wolf killed in the central Appalachians.”

Mohlenbrock, Robert H.  2016.  “Old Kentucky Forest.”  Natural History 124, no. 3 (April): 42-44.  Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve, Pine Mountain, Harlan Co., Kentucky.

Mohlenbrock, Robert H.  2016.  “Serpentine Barrens.”  Natural History 124, no. 1 (February): 42-44.  Nantahala National Forest, N.C., flora and fauna.

Murray, Savannah Paige.  2015.  “‘United We Stand, Divided We May Be Damned’: Grassroots Environmentalism and the TVA in Western North Carolina.”  Journal of East Tennessee History 87: 47-63.  In the early 1970s the Upper French Broad Defense Association “effectively stopped” the TVA from building a series of dams in Western N.C.

Petruccelli, Christopher A., John Sakulich, Grant L. Harley, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer.  2014.  “Structure and Dynamics of an Old-Growth Pine-Oak Community in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Georgia, U.S.A.”  Southeastern Geographer 54, no. 2 (Summer): 161-182.  “This study quantifies stand structure in the Marshall Forest Preserve, an old-growth forest remnant located in northwest Georgia.”

Plant, Billy.  2014.  A Guide to Cedar Glades and Common Appalachian Wildflowers [Tenn.].  Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.  153 pp.  Field guide and documentary memoir.  “Cedar glades are naturally occurring landscapes of the Central South....[that] have captured the attention of ecologists due to the harsh environment to which cedar glade plants have adapted.”

Reece, Erik, and James J. Krupa.  2013.  The Embattled Wilderness: The Natural and Human History of Robinson Forest and the Fight for Its Future [Ky.; Breathitt, Knott, and Perry Co.].  Foreward by Wendell Berry.  Athens: University of Georgia Press.  144 pp.  “...it is a haven of biological richness within an ever-expanding desert created by mountaintop removal mining.”

Saladyga, Thomas, and R. Stockton Maxwell.  2015.  “Temporal Variability in Climate Response of Eastern Hemlock in the Central Appalachian Region” [W. Va.].  Southeastern Geographer 55, no. 2 (Summer): 143-163.  “A composite ring-width chronology was developed for the study area [Pipestem Resort State Park], spanning 145 years from 1868 to 2012 and climate-growth relationships were analyzed for the period 1896-2012.”

Scofield, David.  2014.  “We Will Never See the Like Again: The Passenger Pigeon in Western Pennsylvania.”  Western Pennsylvania History 97, no. 4 (Winter): 20-33.  Went extinct in 1914.  “The air was literally filled with pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse.”  -- John James Audubon.

Simmons, Nye.  2013.  Blue Ridge Parkway Celebration: Essays, Poetry, and Prose [oversize color photos].  By Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway; photography by Nye Simmons.  Silver Anniversary Edition.  Johnson City, Tenn.: Mountain Trail Press.  205 pp.

Simpson, Ann, and Rob Simpson.  2013.  Nature Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Guilford, Conn.: FalconGuides.  223 pp.  Pocket guide to more than 200 species of mammals, birds, insects, fish, wildflowers, and mushrooms.

Spencer, Marci.  2013.  Clingmans Dome: Highest Mountain in the Great Smokies.  Charleston, S.C.: Natural History Press.  190 pp.

Spencer, Marci.  2014.  Pisgah National Forest: A History [N.C.; establ. 1916].  Charleston, S.C.: History Press.  206 pp.  “The forest sits in the heart of the southern Appalachians and includes Linville Gorge, Catawba Falls, Wilson Creek Wild and Scenic River, Roan Mountain, Max Patch, Shining Rock Wilderness and Mount Pisgah.”

Stephenson, Steven L.  2013.  A Natural History of the Central Appalachians [Va., W. Va., Md., Pa.].  Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.  259 pp.  120 images.

Swank, Wayne T., and Jackson R. Webster, ed.  2014.  Long-Term Response of a Forest Watershed Ecosystem: Clearcutting in the Southern Appalachians.  New York: Oxford University Press.  253 pp.  Blue Ridge Mountains; seventeen technical papers.

Swick, Zachary D.  2014.  “Adaptive Policy and Governance: Natural Resources, Ownership, and Community Development in Appalachia.”  Appalachian Journal 42, no. 1-2 (Fall 2014-Winter 2015): 38-62.  An earlier version of this paper won the Carl A. Ross Student Paper Award at the 2014 Appalachian Studies Association conference.
Telander, Todd.  2013.  Birds of West Virginia.  Guilford, Conn.: Falcon.  95 pp.  Guidbook to 108 species, with details and illustrations.

Troutman, Timothy W.  2014.  “Re-analyzing the 1952 ‘Leap Day’ Tornado in Fayetteville and Chattanooga, Tennessee.”  Tennessee Historical Quarterly 73, no. 3 (Fall) 222-232.