Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024 - 22

BOOK NOTE
Taylor Brown. Rednecks. St.
Martin's Press, 2024. 310 pp.
f you've read Denise Giardina's
1987 novel " Storming Heaven, "
or seen John Sayles' film " Matewan, "
then you're familiar with
the facts of the 1920 coal strike
in southern West Virginia,
the Matewan Massacre,
the murder of Sid Hatfield
and the subsequent
West Virginia Mine Wars
culminating in the Battle
of Blair Mountain.
In his new novel, Taylor
Brown tells these stories
again, with characters
both real (Smilin' Sid Hatfield,
Mother Jones and Sheriff Don
Chafin) and created (Doc Moo
and his son, Musa; valiant Big
Frank; his grandmother, Miss
Beulah).
COURTESY OF THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE
Better Plantings, Controlled Burns
Forest Service Seeks
Fire Protection
The problem gets less attention than in the West, but still occurs.
hile the dramatic forest
conflagrations out west grab
headlines every year, our woodlands
here in the Blue Ridge region are also
increasingly susceptible to wildfires
and resulting threats to expanding
communities nearby. Last fall, the U.S.
Forest Service (USFS) said its Southern
District (west to Texas and south to
Florida) was its top priority for fire
response, with at least 15,700 wildfires
burning more than half a million
acres since January 2023.
In western North Carolina, the
agency has initiated the Grandfather,
Appalachian and Pisgah Restoration
Project to reduce wildfire risk and
restore fire-adapted sections of the
Pisgah National Forest. Managers will
use controlled burns, timber harvesting
and other methods including
planting and improving stands of oak
and southern yellow pine, removing
invasive vines and creating small
W
canopy gaps to allow sunlight to
the forest floor so native plants can
thrive.
The USFS has worked with many
stakeholders throughout the planning
process, including private landholders,
The Nature Conservancy and
other nonprofits, state and federal
agencies and the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians. Josh Kelly, a
biologist with Mountain True, says
his organization generally supports
controlled burns, but is concerned
about the proposed level and location
of timber harvests, including
over 10,000 acres in cove forests and
about 1,500 acres in the Appalachian
Trail Corridor.
The USFS is finalizing its environmental
assessment for the restoration
project and expects to publish it
next year.
bit.ly/4fRCHUp
-CAT MCCUE
22 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
The facts of the Battle of Blair
Mountain are hard to forget.
It was the largest battle fought
in the U.S. since the Civil War,
with 10,000 miners seeking to
unionize against local and state
law enforcement and, finally,
the U.S. Army. A million rounds
were fired. Bombs were dropped
on the miners, who came from
many countries and worked long
hours in dangerous conditions
for the benefit of mine owners.
What's most notable in this
book is Brown's skill in making
credible heroes of quiet men and
women as they face the BaldwinFelts
guards and repeated
military assaults. And he makes
legendary figures like Mother
Jones human, as she remembers
the deaths of her four children
and husband from yellow fever,
and faces her own infirmities.
" Rednecks " is a book unafraid
of emotion, which springs both
from human kindness and unthinkable
violence. It's that balance
that makes Brown's novel
true and unforgettable.
With a central character based
on the author's Lebanese greatgrandfather,
who emigrated
at 14 to become a physician in
rural Kentucky, this novel will
leave you knowing that 100
years later, we're fighting the
same kinds of battles in the
most fundamental ways.
-JOAN VANNORSDALL
I
http://bit.ly/4fRCHUp http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024
