Can this tiny Appalachian town be a blueprint for the region’s rebirth?

June 16, 2025 Guest User

All-terrain-vehicle trail enthusiasts line up outside a popular restaurant and a renovated boutique hotel St. Paul on an afternoon in late February. Turning trails and the once-neglected Clinch River into centerpieces has allowed this small town near the Wise-Russell County border to shine as a hub for eco-tourism.

St. Paul , Virginia– a hamlet of 830 people in coal country - remade itself into a bustling spot for ecotourism and off-road trails.

Big bet: Can a $130M conservation deal in Virginia’s coal country curb climate change and lift Appalachia?

June 12, 2025 Guest User

Contracted workers from Williams Forestry & Associates plant tiny hardwood trees in late March atop a former coal mine in Russell County, part of The Nature Conservancy’s Cumberland Forest Project. It marked the TNC’s first forest restoration effort in Virginia, part of a tri-state conservation initiative that began more than five years ago.

Big bet: Can a $130M conservation deal in Virginia’s coal country curb climate change and lift Appalachia?

The Nature Conservancy is halfway through its ambitious 10-year plan to preserve 253,000 acres and boost local economies across three Appalachian states. Backed by a loan from Virginia and private investors, it’s faced challenges and critics. The experiment could be the future of large-scale conservation – or not.

Norfolk leaders, losing patience, consider new options for stalled casino project

July 10, 2023 Chris Tyree

Original proposal for the Pamunkey casino on the left and the revised first phase version on the right. Renderings of the HeadWaters Resort & Casino. (Courtesy of HeadWaters Resort & Casino provided to the City of Norfolk)

A scaled-down Norfolk waterfront casino proposal is facing choppy waters from city leaders who have lost patience with the much-delayed project.

Norfolk City Council members in a recent closed session discussed options for scuttling the city’s agreement with the Pamunkey tribe, which submitted an application for a phased development with a $150 million initial investment, far shy of the upscale $500 million resort hotel, marina, entertainment space, and casino showcased to voters during a 2020 referendum.

Forever chemicals a perpetual threat to Virginia drinking water

March 22, 2023 Chris Tyree

Wallops Flight Facility public affairs chief Jeremy Eggers, left, and NASA restoration program manager David Liu examine the granular activated carbon filtration system designed to filter toxic PFAS chemicals from the town of Chincoteague’s drinking water on November 16, 2022.

Toxic chemicals used to fight fires and found in a wide range of household and industrial goods for decades have ended up in drinking water across the state. Virginia health and environmental agencies have only begun to measure the scope of the problem. How worried should we be?

Virginia’s nuclear disaster plan is extensive, but key online resources 404

January 9, 2020 Chris Tyree

Color photograph of the Three Mile Island nuclear generating station, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979. The reactors are in the smaller domes with rounded tops (the large smokestacks are just cooling towers).

A detailed web of PDFs released in response to a request for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s nuclear disaster response plans contains hundreds of pages of information about how the Commonwealth will handle a nuclear emergency, ranging from meltdown to dirty bomb to accidental weapon explosion.

Virginia's Toxic Military Legacy

September 9, 2019 Chris Tyree

A_Sailor_collects_an_AFFF_sample._(8243541919)-2.jpg

Over 100 wells on and near military bases in Virginia exceeded federal safety guidelines for contamination by toxic, firefighting chemicals used widely in Navy and Air Force training, according to military documents.

The chemicals are found in a foam used by military and civilian firefighters to train and douse high-octane fires for more than 50 years. The foam is still being used, even as the military says it is phasing it out.