New River Rendezvous presentation with Maria Gunnoe

This year I had the opportunity to educate attendees about looming surface mining operations at the New River Rendezvous climbing festival. I was very fortunate and honored to present along with Maria Gunnoe, long time MTR activist and Goldman Prize winner. I briefly spoke about the surface mining operations encroaching closer to Fayetteville, showed aerial photography of the mining operations, and introduced an extended trailer of the film Last Mountain. Below are some of the photos taken on 5/7/11, the last two photos give some perspective on how close the mining operations are to the New River Gorge and surrounding communities.