This story sums up the truth of the matter in a way I never thought someone in this position would ever admit to. There is a difference in the way the nation views the Malibu or Allegany  Mountains as opposed to the Appalachian mountains or East Kentucky or West Virginia. The Malibu fires spurred on by the Santa Anna winds make for spectacular viewing on the evening news but in time the brush will grow back. The mountains that are blown up and pushed over into valleys will never recover. The subsequent flooding from strip mining and MTR has destroyed many homes here also but we don't make the news cycle. The people from the Allegany Mountains in New York would never stand for MTR no matter what the nation at large thought. The isolated backwater area called Appalachia is owned by the coal corporations and most of what they do is either hidden and the rest of the nation just does not care what happens to this part of the country.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.