Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail

In the tradition of A Civil Action this true story of a North Carolina outdoorsman who teams up with his Appalachian neighbors to save treasured land from being destroyed will make you want to head for the mountains (Raleigh News & Observer).

LIVING ALONE IN HIS WOODED MOUNTAIN RETREAT, Jay Leutze gets a call from a whip-smart fourteen-year-old, Ashley Cook, and her aunt, Ollie Cox, who say a local mining company is intent on tearing down Belview Mountain, the towering peak above their house. Ashley and her family, who live in a little spot known locally as Dog Town, are mountain people, with a way of life and speech unique to their home high in the Appalachians. They suspect the mining company is violating North Carolina s mining law, and they want Jay, a nonpracticing attorney, to stop the destruction of the mountain. Jay, a devoted naturalist and fisherman, quickly decides to join their cause.

So begins the epic quest of the Dog Town Bunch, a battle that involves fiery public hearings, clandestine surveillance of the mine operator s highly questionable activities, ferocious pressure on public officials, and high-stakes legal brinksmanship in the North Carolina court system. Jay helps assemble a talented group of environmental lawyers to contend with the well-funded attorneys protecting the mining company s plan to dynamite Belview Mountain, which happens to sit next to the famous Appalachian Trail, the 2,184- mile national park that stretches from Maine to Georgia. As the mining company continues to level the forest and erect the gigantic crushing plant on the site, Jay s group searches frantically for a way to stop an act of environmental desecration that will destroy a fragile wild place and mar the Appalachian Trail forever.