In The Midst of Change, Preservation And Endurance In Appalachia

How can we hold onto traditions in a world that’s always changing? This week on Inside Appalachia, we explore stories about how our history and culture can help us find answers, and ask questions, about the types of future we want to build. Whether it’s learning the recipes of our ancestors, trying to bring back a heritage tree that was nearly wiped out, or rooting for the home team, our future won’t look exactly like the past. But some things can be preserved. We’ll meet people who are finding ways to adapt, and hold onto their roots, amidst challenges. We’ll meet a young man from West Virginia’s Lebanese community, who says he’s determined to preserve its cultural traditions, including the smells and tastes of homemade Lebanese cooking, including making signature homemade dishes like kibbeh and tabbouleh. Roosevelt’s ‘Tree Army’ And we’ll look back at the legacy of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. Known as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” it employed more than 3 million men and created thousands of parks across the country. Now, some are calling for a modern version of the CCC. American Chestnut American Chestnut trees provided food to early settlers and Native Americans, and was also used as livestock feed and by woodworkers. In the early 1900s, American Chestnuts were devastated by a blight that took down some 4 billion of these giants. Now researchers are moving forward with a genetically engineered tree that allows chestnuts to survive the blight. The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant explains why the science is considered controversial, and why others say it’s necessary if we want to restore the American Chestnut. And WUNC reporter Will Michaels takes us to the Black River in North Carolina, where scientists have discovered one of the oldest living trees in the world-- a cypress tree that is over 2,600 years old. At The Ballpark? The love of baseball attracts fans of all ages, including Rod Blackstone, aka “The Toastman,” who’s attended almost every minor league game in Charleston, West Virginia over the last 30 years. But Minor League Baseball is contracting, and some Appalachian towns are losing their teams. MLB threw the West Virginia Power a curveball when it announced it was not one of the teams that would be part of the 120-team minor league lineup next season. Three other squads from West Virginia were also thrown out. Of the 42 teams that will lose MLB affiliation, 18 are in the Appalachian region. Timeless Ballads Preserved In New Book Across Appalachia, there are countless ballads, stories in music and verse, that have been passed down from person to person. Katherine Jackson French was a folklorist who worked to document many of the ballads across Kentucky that were disappearing. Her attempt to publish her work failed, in part because she was a woman. Stephanie Wolf, of WFPL, reports that Jackson French's story is finally being told.