May 18, 1998

The Student Environmental Action Coalition (OSU-SEAC) is helping facilitate a march from Athens, Ohio to Columbus. The march is a way of raising awareness that people don't want Dysart Woods damaged by potential mining operations.

Dysart woods (in Belmont County) is a 50-acre virgin forest, and the only such stand left in Appalachian Ohio. Dysart woods is threatened by longwall mining that compromises its watershed buffer zone. The Ohio Valley Coal Company is trying to acquire a permit from the Ohio Deptartment of Mines and Reclamation to mine within the watershed. (permit 7)

The march will start on the Ohio University College Green in Athens at 10 am, Saturday, May 23. The walk will pass Lancaster on Sunday and arrive in south Columbus on Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day). The walk ends with a rally on the Statehouse Lawn at noon on Tuesday.

For more information, contact the OU Campus Greens at 614.594.7287, email, or PO Box 31, Athens OH 45701; or OSU SEAC - Abhishek Lal - email.