The Appalachians and Evolving Human Geographies
The Appalachians is a mountain range system located within the great highland system of North America which extends from the Eastern part of North America (Rocky Mountains and extends 2,570km South West from the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec province, Canada to the Gulf coastal Plains of Alabama (AllRefer, 2005; Britannica, 2005).
Politically, Appalachia is designated as the area starting in the north with two counties of the Allegheny Plateau in western New York, and stretching southward through the central and southern physiographic regions on into surrounding lowlands of Mississippi in the southwest and the Piedmont along the southeast flank (Raitz and Ulack, 1984). The name Appalachia is applied to these regions as characterised by marginal economy and isolation from the U.S. Mainstream (Porter, 1970). The mountain range system forms a natural barrier spanning 2500km between the eastern coastal plain and the interior lowlands of North America.
Physical Features
The Appalachian mountain system is divided into three distinct physiographic regions in order to clarify their physical and cultural diversity;
The Northern Appalachia, which lies in Northern New York State, New England and along the St Lawrence River in Canada.
The Central Appalachia, which Lies from Southern New York State to South Of Washington DC (latitude N 38 degrees)
The Southern Appalachia, which lies within Georgia and Alabama where the mountains meet the coastal plains of south eastern N. America.
The physiographic regions outlined above have been determined primarily by the geologic history of the region. This also determined the climate and shaped the socio-economic base of the region. The Appalachian mountain range system give rise to enormous climatic variation not only because of it’s topography but also as a result of its northeast-southwest orientation. Geographically the Appalachian Mountains are the principal determinant of the ecology of eastern North America. These mountains are central to shaping weather patterns, generating large areas of heavy precipitation on the west and rain shadows on the east. Annual temperature ranges varies from 18ºC in the highlands to 4ºC in the Katahdin and 2ºC in the Notre Dame Mountains whilst average annual precipitation ranges from about 70 to 170cm per year. The climatic, geographic and geologic factors present in the Appalachians created a mosaic of habitats which is very complex and only associated with the region. There are five plant community types as identified by Daubenmire, (1978); Sutton and Sutton, (1988). This comprises mainly of deciduous broadleaved woodlands which accounts for the extensive logging or timbering as it is commonly known in the region.
Evolving Human Geographies & The Appalachians
The Appalachians till today still remains a region of the United States with relatively high levels of poverty, even though it has made significant achieve during the past 25 years. Various literatures by prominent authors and documentaries have emphasized the problem of the Appalachian environment, the inhabitants and their economy over the years (Caudill, 1963; Couto, 1994; Harrington, 1962; Lyson & Falk, 1993; Weller, 1965). In this mountainous, geographically remote, and inequitable rural region, the inhabitants have traditionally vied with a cyclical economy, lower than U.S.-average earnings, and higher than average poverty levels (ARC, 1972, 1979, 1981).
In addition to the rural and geographically isolated nature of the region, the socioeconomic differences between the Appalachians and other parts of North America have been shaped by a number of factors. The topographic terrain was a determinant in the socio-economies of the region. For example the Northern part of the Appalachians was easier to access due to the presence of the coast on each side of the mountain range and effective interior access through the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers (Mountain Portal Undated) that accounts for the early resource exploitation mainly coal, oil, gas and timber exploitation in this region (Mountain Portal Undated).
This lead to the Northern part of the Appalachians to experience industrialisation before the Central and Southern Appalachian regions even though the economic value of the resources in the Central and Southern regions far exceeded that of the Northern region. Resource extraction by outside influence gave little or no interest to the impact of these activities on the environmental or socio-economic impact on the region (Mountain Portal Undated). The devastating impact still goes on as coal mining also remain a prevalent industry, utilizing strip-mining technology which disrupts large areas and degrades the ecosystem dramatically and more deplorably, requires a smaller workforce than before. This is related to other factors which also plays a vital role in the development of the region. These factors includes the area’s relative lack of high-skill and high-wage manufacturing, limited industrial diversity, sensitivity to recession, dependence on extractive industries, export of capital, and lack of investment in human capital (Duncan, 1985, 1992; Ergood & Kuhre, 1983; Goodstein, 1989; Haynes, 1997; Raitz & Ulack, 1984.
Meanwhile, due to the increase in tourism and trade in the region, land values in many areas have increased, The inhabitants of the Appalachian mountain communities can no longer afford to purchase land for farming even for housing. This slow dissection of land from the cultural equation invites further dissolution of the traditional relationship. Cultural resilience becomes minimal in a way that is equivalent to a low level of environmental resilience in the advent of atmospheric pollution.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in spite of all the changes now affecting the Appalachian Mountains, perhaps their dominant feature is their resilience. Environmentally, the Appalachians have been assailed by bad agricultural practices, logging (leading to massive deforestation), and by mining. Despite major soil erosion in some regions, typically less than one hundred years after this assault the mountains recover with remarkable vigor. In a continent that has absorbed a large number of migrants from diverse cultural backgrounds into an American culture, the Appalachian culture still remains remarkably distinctive, an integrated culture surrounded by the vast population and economic pressures of the East Coast of the USA. How long the environment, the people and cultures of this Mountain range can continue to be stable is a key most important question given the current and perhaps more pervasive impacts of influences now infiltrating this unique region.
