In order to get to a place that was once mined for coal, Michael French had to wade through a thicket of prickly bramble and swat away the branches that were blocking his path. It is now covered with goldenrods and long yellow-green grasses.
He acknowledged that the sight wouldn't impress most. It may be Mr. French's most important accomplishment. The young trees symbolize what could be a critical comeback for some of the country's vanishing forests.
He doesn't think most people see it that way. It will be in 80 to 100 years.
Mr. French thinks that the chestnut, a beloved tree that was nearly wiped out a century ago, will be part of an expansive forest of native trees.
Americans used to rely on their hardy trunks for log cabins, floor panels and telephone poles when they were younger. During the holiday season, families would keep the tree nuts in attics.
Mr. French and his colleagues at Green Forests Work hope to help revive the American chestnut by bringing it back onto the former coal mines. The dry, acidic and hardened earth left behind by decades of mining made it difficult to grow non-native plants.
Sign up for the Climate Forward newsletter Your must-read guide to the climate crisis.As coal continues to decline and many of the remaining mines shut down for good, foresters say that restoring mining sites is an opportunity to prove that something productive can be made of lands that have been degraded. It is possible for forests to capture planet-warming emissions, create a safe harbor for wildlife and make the environment more resistant to flooding.
Researchers say that the chestnut is a good fit for this effort because the tree's historical range overlaps "almost perfectly" with the terrain covered by former coal mines in eastern Kentucky and Ohio.
Carolyn Keiffer, a plant ecologist at Miami University in Ohio, said that chestnut trees prefer slightly acidic growth material, and they grow best in sandy and well-drained soil that isn't too wet.
More than five million native trees, including tens of thousands of chestnut, have been planted by Green Forests Work. The group has collected supporters, including the U.S. Forest Service, which is trying to bring back the red spruce onto national forests in West Virginia.
Relinquishing a large amount of money. The founder of the outdoor apparel maker, Yvon Chouinard, gave his company's ownership to a trust and an organization dedicated to fighting climate change. At a time when billionaires talk about making the world a better place, they often don't match reality.
The ice is melting The study found that the melting of the ice sheet could raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches. The study used a different measure to measure ice loss that takes into account the warming that has already happened.
The non-native fungus that killed the tree was brought in by humans.
She said that mining the land made it nearly impossible for it to return to its former state. We might be able to bring the trees back.
Even as a third graders in the 1940s, Thomas Brannon planted trees with his siblings on his family's land in eastern Ohio, motivated by his calling.
Mr. Brannon said that if he could make that 230 acres look better, that would be enough for him.
In 1952, his grandparents sold the mining rights to the rest of the property, which has been coal mining ever since.
The surface mining control and reclamation act was passed in 1977 and requires mining companies to return land to its pre-mining state.
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is the agency that enforces the mining law. Aggressive, mostly nonnative grasses would be planted to prevent erosion.
From the 1980s to the early 2000s, an estimated one million acres of previously forested area in the Appalachia were reclaimed.
Sara Fitzsimmons said that compacting land and greening it up quickly was a good idea to prevent erosion. It made it hard to reestablish forests.
The planting of trees in a parking lot was described by tree planters.
When Green Forests Work arrived on the Brannon property, they focused on undoing some of the damage done to the land, bringing in bulldozers with giant ripping shanks that dig three to four feet deep into the soil.
A mix of 20 native tree species, including the American chestnut, the Virginia pine and a variety of oaks, were planted in the spring.
Scientists at The American Chestnut Foundation crossbred American and Chinese chestnut trees and planted 625 of them in a one-acre space to evaluate their health.
The Chinese chestnuts were resistant to the disease. The scientists were able to pick out the ones that were still alive. They repeated that process many times.
The director of science at the foundation said that the chestnut looked more like an American chestnut than a Chinese one.
The approach to growing chestnut trees was more complicated than expected. A research team at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry has begun genetically engineering the American chestnut tree by taking a fungus-fighting gene from wheat and transferring it into American chestnut embryo.
Many of the chestnuts are above Mr. French. Mr. French said that when he inspected them in August, he noticed a few black Locust trees that had made their home next to the chestnuts on their own.
The black Locust tree can take nitrogen from the air and convert it to another type. The leaves fall off quickly and build up the soil. As a fast-growing but short-lived tree, it encourages other young trees to grow straight and tall.
Mr. French referred to it as nature's scab. It is there for a while and helps heal the wounds.
Efforts to bring back tree species have been hampered by climate change. The optimal range for the chestnut tree and a number of other tree species will shift northward as the temperature warms. Wildlife managers are experimenting with relocating tree species northward in a process called assisted migration.
Since the chestnut was wiped out, they have not had a chance to reproduce and adapt to climate change as other species have, Mr. He said that they are 50 to 100 years behind the rest of the world.
chestnuts have always been a good way to encourage the industry to change its practices.
People get really excited when you talk about the chestnut tree.
It's about more than one species. Christopher Barton is a professor at the University of Kentucky and president of Green Forests Work.
Tree planters also build wetlands at some places. The man-made wetlands at Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia's Allegheny Mountains look like a mosaic of small pools, with tangled branches of downed trees jutting out of the water at spots, left there deliberately to serve as a safe place for toads to attach their eggs,
There are 2,500 acres of land in Monongahela that were mined for coal and that have been restored by the nonprofit group.
Dr. Barton said that the area would have been wet enough in the past to create an important carbon sink.
The area lost its tree canopy after mining reclamation.
The main limiting factor to tree growth is the soil. He grabbed a fistful of dirt and wringing out a trickle of water as he tried to put the sponge back on the mountain.
There is a coal mine in Martin County that has had its top blown off. With its vast stretches of emerald grass dotted with hay bales and ringed with blue-tinged peaks, it looks more like an ad for organic milk than a shuttered strip mine.
The mountain is getting ready for a change. Many former miners are going to install solar panels on hundreds of acres in the next year. The $231 million project, which recently cleared its last regulatory hurdle, may be the biggest utility scale coal to solar project in the country.
In the aftermath of the coal industry's demise, poverty grinds on and renewable energy generated from a shuttered mine would be a desperately needed economic boost.
The project is a test case for the revival of a region that used to be dependent on fossil fuels. In part to ward off backlash against attempts to decarbonize, support for former coal communities is seen as vital, as the number of jobs nationwide fell to about 40,000 last year from 175,000 in the mid 1980's.
Even as coal miners elsewhere resist the prospect of work in solar and wind production, Martin County has opened many residents to investment of pretty much any sort. The county had just 26 coal miners left, down from a peak of thousands.
James Mollette, a 65-year-old former miner and owner of Miss Ida's Tea Room in downtown Inez, thinks the global warming issue is overblown. He was all for a new solar farm, even if it was only for a short time. He said that anything we can get will be a positive for the economy.
The home of the world famous coal miner's daughters is in Martin County, which is sandwiched between West Virginia and Johnson County, Ky. The cabin where they and their siblings grew up is a ramshackle one. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson went to Martin County to tout his war on poverty and posed for cameras on the porch of an unemployed saw mill operator.
It's been nearly six decades since suffering began. One third of the population lives in poverty due to the drop in coal production as well as the environmental damage caused by mining.
According to Colby Kirk, the deputy executive judge of Martin County, the coal severance tax revenue has fallen over the past 10 years. People moved as mining work fell. Those who stayed had to commute long distances to get to manufacturing, retail and service jobs. When a massive indoor tomato farm opened up earlier this year, some 7,000 applications flooded in for 350 spots.
In 2000 a containment lagoon burst into an abandoned mine below it, releasing more than 250 million gallons of toxic coal waste into local waterways. The spill, more than 20 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez oil disaster, polluted the county's drinking water and killed fish and turtles.
Relinquishing a large amount of money. The founder of the outdoor apparel maker, Yvon Chouinard, gave his company's ownership to a trust and an organization dedicated to fighting climate change. At a time when billionaires talk about making the world a better place, they often don't match reality.
The ice is melting The study found that the melting of the ice sheet could raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches. The study used a different measure to measure ice loss that takes into account the warming that has already happened.
Part of the legacy of the mine may have paved the way for a better future.
"Our bet is we can help make this community, and others like it in coal country, relevant to the opportunities in the green energy economy that everyone agrees is coming," said Adam Edelen, a Kentucky native and former Democratic state auditor who is the local developer for the project He said the fact that a promised return of coal had not materialized helped his cause. He said he would have been out of the coalfields had he tried it a decade ago.
The EPA recommends that renewable energy projects be built on properties that are less desirable for housing or other uses. The agency said that less than 500 have been developed for renewable energy projects. There is increasing interest in green energy. One third of the 18 solar projects planned by Mr. Edelen would be built on old mines.
The Nature Conservancy is in the early stages of looking at ways to address climate needs in ways that reduce environmental and social impacts. New life can be brought to these lands by using renewable energy.
To get to the old Martiki site, you have to travel through valleys and hollers, past bungalows, shacks, Kudzu-choked ditches, rusted-out cars, tiny Baptist churches and a community called Pigeon Roost.
The sky is large and wide at the summit. The mine's owners oversaw the restoration of the land after they shut down most operations. People have been racing all terrain vehicles on the grounds, and it has become home to a band of horses, many set free by residents who couldn't afford to care for them. There was a farmer who grazed cattle there. The solar project is expected to cause the animals to move.
300 workers will be needed to install the panels, which will stretch over 1200 acres. According to the United Mine Workers of America, union miners in the region average $32.40 an hour.
The majority of the solar jobs will be temporary. The developers of the Martin County solar project worked with administrators at Big Sandy Community College to create a certificate program so their workers could be hired elsewhere.
The skills of other developers in the region are going to be used by other developers. Over the next few years, there will be a lot of work.
With solar now the fastest growing source of new electricity in the United States, developers have been looking to central Appalachia, drawn by its energy infrastructure and position within the country's biggest electricity marketplace.
The Martin County project is trying to get a large regional power substation up on the mountain. The solar farm would be able to provide enough electricity to power 33,000 homes without the need to upgrade transmission lines.
There is some apprehension around Martin County. A local activist and retired biology teacher said she felt the public had been shut out of the planning process and lamented that the energy generated wouldn't help the county. She worried that it would be another industry.
Some people think the community will benefit more than others. Martin County will be paid up to $300,000 annually for 30 years in lieu of taxes. The project received federal tax credits, but not state or federal investment. Lisa Stayton, publisher of the local paper, the Mountain Citizen, said that considering inflation, it wasn't that much.
Ms Stayton wrote in a text message that people here are happy to see any kind of business. We are as desperate as ever.
Interviews with former coal miners in the village of Lovely yielded different opinions.
Two ex-miners who were working at a small shop were against solar and wanted the coal industry to come back. One suggestion was for a drag racing track on top of the old Martiki mine.
Gary Webb, a former miner, said he was for the solar farm at the intersection a few hundred feet away.
A retired miner and his cousins were tearing a wood porch off of a dilapidated mobile home. They bought the home and were going to rebuild the porch.
He said that all the coal had been mined out of the mountain, and that he welcomed any kind of development up there.
He said that coal mining isn't coming back and if it's just 15 to 20 full time jobs it's better than nothing.
He said that he was thinking about his kids. He said that cleaner energy was good for them.
It is good for the environment. It's good if anything that helps.
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