Mountaintop Removal Mining causes irreversible damage

Well, duh I should think that would be obvious. According to an article in Science Daily, a recent study in the journal Science confirms this little nugget of common sense. I'm not sure if this is the first time that MRM has been covered in Science, but hopefully it helps make the case that this destructive practice needs to end asap.

Interestingly, in the book that I recently read about the American Chestnut, it was suggested that GMO and/or backcross chestnuts (chestnuts hybridized with Chinese or Japanese chestnuts to confer resistance to the blight, and then crossed with pure American trees for several generations to dilute Asian genes-with the exception of the blight resistance genes, which provide a significant selective advantage) would make excellent candidates for reforesting old minefields. It's hitting two birds with one stone; the minefields get re-forested and the American Chestnut becomes re-established in Appalachia. There is concern, of course, that this could give coal mining corporations the false notion that the damage can be fixed. Yes, it's important to re-forest these sites and the chestnut would be a great candidate for that, but it doesn't change the fact that there's no longer a mountain there, and it certainly doesn't remove the fill or toxic chemicals from the surrounding valleys and streams.