Hope in the Holler: Some Good News to Start the Year

2025 was, I think universally, an odd and hard to navigate year for all of us.  With a continuing divide between communities over whichever headlines were being run by big news media, or by trying to stretch a dollar as cost of living continued to increase, I saw a common thread running amidst all our lives - a compulsion towards the difficult or the enraging.  

It’s easy enough to do, and by this point I believe we’re all aware of it.  There is a lot of effort put into feeding our screens whatever it is we interact with, and we’re most likely to engage with the things that set us on fire, making all of us addicted to bad news.  On a trip to the arcade, my nephew had unlimited access to over 99% of the games in the room, but he lamented over the few games he didn’t get to play.  I told him, “you never have to look very far to find something to be upset about, but it’s the lazy thing to do.”

Well, damn, I think I’ve been doing a bit of that too.  In the spirit of unity and community-forwardness, here are a few talking points about the Southern Appalachian Region that can kickoff your 2026 season with a little hope.

Applying a Working Force Toward American Coal

Fossil fuels have become a hot button topic across the last decade and beyond, but what is undeniable is that a country that consumes as much as we do comes with great energy demands, and it makes sense for our energy to both stem from a variety of energy sources and to come from our own lands as often as is feasible.

It’s no secret that much of Appalachian’s modern settlements are the ghosts and echoes of the once-booming resource extraction industries.  Here in Transylvania and Jackson Counties this is timber country, but for much of the region above us the primary delicacy was coal.  We saw many mines dry up and cease production in the early 2000s and into the late 2010s, driving multi-generational settlements off the land, but that changed in 2021.  Quietly, it seemed, that after a decade of coal recession, the movement toward the fuel source was revitalized, and in this region alone saw over 5,000 jobs created in the coal industry (per ARC’s “Coal Production and Employment in the Appalachian Region” report) in the back half of the last administration – a trend which has continued in this administration as well.

Building upon generations of labor unions advocating for worker safety and advancements in mining technology, including safety equipment, means the industry can support these communities for a little bit longer, and at a much lower cost to one’s health as before.  

Not only are workers back in the field, but the production has seen quite the rise, and coal production outpaced coal consumption in the US in one estimate to the tune of tens of thousands of short tons (per the EIA’s “Quarterly Coal Report” for 2025) in the first quarter of last year alone.  Appalachian coal specifically has seen a greater rise in production than any other region in the country, wherein we have witnessed a 21 percent rise in production compared to the general US’ increase of 7 percent, and that leftover coal can be stored for future use.

I, like many, care about clean energy and the environmental effects of coal mining and consumption.  With the leaps and bounds I’ve seen USFS manage their lands and municipalities step up to speak for clean water and reparations, I am anticipating post-mining jobs that will both keep local families employed and facilitate cleanup operations that minimize the impact of mining on the land.

Helene Recovery

No one needs a primer on the unending list of needs that stemmed from this brutal storm in September of 2024.  What I saw during my two trips to assist in recovery efforts, and what I have continued to see since the storming ceased, was the communities of this region step up to help one another in unprecedented ways. 

Folks stuffed backpacks with medical-grade oxygen canisters and other relief modalities before hiking through storm debris in the backwoods to hand deliver necessities to populations in need.  Wealthier groups flew their private helicopters loaded with rations so they could drop cargo into unreachable communities.  In one of the two communities I was blessed to be able to help in, a line of locals formed to stock, analyze, and distribute an entire supply cache staged inside a community center.  

And the work continues today.

The NC Division of Energy Management has allocated $500,000 toward winterizing homes and community buildings still in need of repair and insulation for the Winter of ‘25-’26.  In some cases that means families across Western NC can, for the first time in over a year, sleep in completely sealed homes where the brutal nighttime mountain winds or cold Winter air cannot reach them.  

Additionally, the RENEW NC Single Family Housing program has extended their deadline to apply for relief money that seeks to repair damaged properties to January 31 of this year, granting a second chance to families who were denied by the federal program of a similar nature.

Public Land Expansion

As NC continues to shape itself as a travel and tourism giant within the country, the money to shape this growth with new infrastructure has been greatly needed.  Federal tracts of land like Pisgah National Forest released phenomenal forest management plans a few years back that focus less on expansion and more on improving the trails, facilities, and lands which they already occupy.  The NC Parks and Recreation Trust fund has selected a handful of municipal and land trust-operated sites across the state to receive funding for improvements, and one of these locations is as local as Sylva, NC.  

Pinnacle Park serves as a certified nature therapy space, an outdoor classroom, scene for the growing mountain race, the Assault on Blackrock, and a corridor by which folks can access the Plott Balsams without having to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The mountain chain contains roughly 10 percent of all the six-thousand foot mountains in the Eastern United States, and with this new grant money Pinnacle Park can shore-up degrading trail conditions while providing new infrastructure that supports tourism at all levels.  This includes a dedicated nature classroom walking path, a restructured trailbed for the park’s current trail system, benches along the steepest trails, and an observation tower in the Blackrock area that will serve as a new viewing destination for visitors.  All of this will begin construction in 2026 while still finding room for the addition of a few connector trails that will make the entire trail system more cohesive.