Day 5- Seeing is believing

Today I was afforded the opportunity to tour mining areas that had been repurposed and mining areas that have been reclaimed.  The repurposed mines were transformed into a shopping center and an airport. Both of these businesses would most likely have been impossible due to topography or lack of flat land.  The repurposing of land that had been leveled as a result of the mining operations has  and will continue to benefit the economy of the community in many ways.
To visit the reclaimed areas we went onto property owned by the CoalMac coal mining company.  This company specializes in surface mining operations including mountaintop removal.  I had my own ideas about surface mining or I should say I had some ideas that I had half heartedly committed to as a result of media exposure. The first few minutes of the tour of the mining area did little to dispell  these ideas.  Mountain top removal was as ugly this day
as any other time I had seen it, but then we saw the bird and then we saw the meadow full of different types of plants that held all kinds of insects that scattered as we waled to the edge.  From the edge of this meadow and in several more places as the day progressed I would witness land teaming with biodiversity and successful succession. The same coal company which had removed all traces of life as they extracted coal had gone back with forethought and purpose to bring back life to the land.  Life that would draw more life and continue as if uninterrupted.  This was not what I had seen on the news, but this what I have seen with my own eyes.  What I have seen with my own eyes I will tell others including future students they must see for themselves.  Telling them will not be enough although I will tell.  My plan is to encourage and support their own explorations so that they may weigh the evidence and come to their own conclusions.