It has been 25 years since the initial study of land ownership in the Appalachian region. Since the initial survey, there have been continued efforts to revitalize this project to see if any of the initiatives and community efforts from the original survey supported lasting change. After 25 years, it is crucial to revisit and see what statistics have changed in the region, particularly whether or not the rate of absentee and corporate ownership has decreased.
With many mining companies leaving the region, significant funding has left the communities with a declining tax base. Additionally, due to the rapidly declining coal industry, many areas throughout the original survey regions are now faced with new economic and environmental issues. Economically, the region now sits in the wake of a rapidly declining coal industry. An industry which they have long relied on as a stable tax base. Environmentally, strip mining and mountaintop removal have destroyed much of the region's landscapes and left lasting negative impacts on the region that have yet to be extensively understood., Now more than ever it is important to make people aware of the struggles that the Appalachian region still face today.
