We went to Florida!

Last week my friend Leon and I went to Florida. We camped out on Little Talbot Island near Jacksonville.                                                                                                                        We found a lot of jellyfish that were washed up on the beach, we picked them up and put them back in the water. Leon found a jellyfish that had a live crab inside it!!

 

We rented sea kayaks and paddled down the inlet. It was really windy which made it hard to move.

When we were on a hike we found a tortoise siting in the middle of the path!

Hike to Swallow falls

We went on a hike to Swallow Falls State Park. While we were there we found a lot of cool icicle formations on the cliffs!!!                                    

                                            

One of the ice formations had crumbled and fallen down across the path!!!!

Mountaintop Removal

                    Mountaintop removal coal mining is a type of coal mining where they use explosives to blow off the tops of mountains so that they can get to the thin coal seams beneath the surface. The coal mining companies claim that this type of coal mining is cheaper to meet the energy demands of the US. However it has a very bad impact on the environment and destroys the mountaintop ecosystem. They burn down hundreds of trees, then they blow up the mountain peaks, causing landslides and giant clouds of dust that settle over the communities surrounding the mountains. They then start to excavate the coal with giant cranes and trucks. They take all the rubble and dirt from the excavation and put it in what is called a valley fill. A valley fill is a spot between two mountains where there is a big pile of rocks and dirt. All the gunk and sediment can fill up rivers and streams and greatly damage the native ecosystem. A slurry pond is a big pool of water full of mud, toxic chemicals, and coal ash. These slurry ponds sometimes leak causing massive floods that destroy houses and have even killed people.

                     People from throughout appalachia protest and picket against mountaintop removal. People setup committees and foundations to educate people about the effects of this type of coal mining, such as Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, and the Coal River Mountain Watch.

  My father and I designed a diorama of a mountaintop removal excavation site.

It includes an endangered stream, a leaking slurry pond that is threatening a small community, and a devastated mountaintop.