GEORGES FORK -- Mountaintop coal mining is changing Virginia's terrain in some places, and residents worry about the effects - on their land and their lives.

On a humid Wednesday morning two weeks ago, Ronal Fleming hiked through trees and scrubs up the side of a mountain with two visitors in tow.

As the steep incline gave way to a ridge, Fleming stopped and pointed to the reason he brought the visitors to that spot.

Just across the hollow, on the land that adjoins Fleming's property, a large portion of a mountaintop and ridge were gone.

It was not the result of a natural disaster; this was man-made.

All day, trucks and other machinery that belong to Paramont Coal Corp. go back and forward moving tons of earth.

Using a form of strip mining, the company is blasting away the top, ridges and slopes of the mountain to get at the rich coal seams buried deep inside.

In a few months, a mountain that has taken nature millions of years to create will be gone.

Ronal Fleming said he used to play in those hills as a child. He hunted in the hollows below the mountain with friends. He laments that his children will never have that experience.

By the time they grow up, there won't be any mountains, and the hollows will be filled, he said.

"We'd like to leave the land the way we found it, but it doesn't look like that's going to be possible the way they are closing in on us."

Mountaintop mining is used in several coal-producing Appalachian states - West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Seams of coal running underneath mountaintops, ridges or hills are mined by first removing topsoil and rock. Then the exposed seam of coal is blasted and removed. Under state and federal mining laws, the area is supposed to be restored to its original shape, but some companies are granted variances to leave the land flat. The land is planted with trees and grass. The excess dirt and rock are dumped into valleys and hollows, filling them in some cases.

Mountaintop mining differs from mountaintop removal, where an entire seam of coal inside a top or hill is mined and a company is given a variance to leave the land as a level plateau or in a gently rolling contour. Mountaintop mining refers to mountaintop removals and all other types of strip mining on steep slopes, ridges and hills.

In West Virginia, where mountaintop removal is the dominant form of coal mining, press coverage and citizen protests have prompted a federal review of all mountaintop operations across the region. A report is due in May.

In Virginia, mountaintop removal occurs on a much smaller scale, and state officials say it is less damaging. According to data for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, there are 21 mountaintop mining sites, about a fourth of the state's surface mines. Only six of the 21 sites in Virginia are true mountaintop removal mines, state officials said.

A Roanoke Times analysis of state mining data shows that since 1983, mining permits have been granted for more than 9,300 acres of mountaintops, ridges, slopes and hills. Nearly half of that acreage has been in Wise County, even though Buchanan County has a greater number of mountaintop mines.

The coal industry and some local economic development officials said the mining provides jobs and developable land in an area with little of either. The industry said mining the mountains is necessary because most of the land in the coalfields is so steep. Many residents say the mountaintop mining is destroying streams, scenic views and homes.

Because state and federal officials are just beginning to review mountaintop mining in Virginia, its environmental impact remains largely unknown. A 1998 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report found the operations are having an impact on mountain streams and wildlife. Since 1977, the report said, 61 miles of streams in Virginia have been lost because of debris from mountaintop and other types of surface mining. Fish and Wildlife officials worry that some of these fills have occurred in streams that are home to 22 rare species of mussels and fish. The loss of wildlife habitat on land also has accelerated, the report found.

Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the Department of Mines, Mineral and Energy, said the report may be a bit misleading about the impact of mining activities on steams and wildlife.

"If they [mining companies] impact a stream or wildlife habitat, they have to make up for that activity by providing another habitat or restoring a stream," he said.

Abbott also said the agency encourages coal companies to use the excess dirt and rock to reclaim older mines instead of filling in valleys.

Still, Fish and Wildlife officials say they aren't sure if that is enough to offset the damage done to fish and wildlife. No state is tracking the cumulative loss of these species because of mining, they note.

Mountaintop mining is hard to miss in the most mountainous region of Virginia. Most of the ridges, slopes and hills along the main road into Dickenson and Wise counties show signs of strip mining. Residents say that flying rocks and dust from blasting at these mines damage their homes and cars.

Ronal Fleming, who owns a small recording studio in his home, points to cracks in the walls. He blames blasting at nearby mines for them.

He said he's had to get dogs to protect his family from the animals the blasting has run out of woods. Dust covers and coats everything, he said. His well, like those of many other residents in the area, has dried up. He believes the cause is coal mining.

Fleming said he believes electrical fires in his home were caused by mine blasts shaking wires loose.

"When you call the coal company or state officials, they deny that mining is the cause," he said.

Other residents say they also have had problems with mountaintop mining operations.

Gerry Scardo, who lives miles from the nearest strip mine, says her home is often covered by dust from mining operations miles away.

Gerald Gray, a Clintwood attorney who has represented residents against coal companies, said he worries about the drinking water supply. Aquifers that serve the area run between coal seams, he noted.

Despite citizen outrage, mountaintop mining has not attracted the same kind of attention here in Virginia that it has in West Virginia.

"Most people don't even know that what's going on is called mountaintop mining," said Barney Reilly, of the Dickenson County Citizens Committee, a local environmental group. "I didn't know until I started talking to people in West Virginia."

Reilly said most people are afraid to speak out because the coal companies wield so much power.

"Most people either know someone working for the companies or they want to be working for the companies," he said.

Some people worry that mountaintop mining is changing the Appalachian culture as well.

Fed up with the constant blasting and noise from coal equipment, many residents have accepted buyouts from the coal companies and moved away.

Sam Cook, an anthropologist who teaches Appalachian studies at Virginia Tech, said the mining has an effect even on the people who choose to stay.

"You hear a lot of people in Appalachia talk about the security they feel being surrounded by the mountains." Cook said. The flattening of mountains, hills and ridges changes that.

"To many people, it's like watching someone strip the flesh off a relative."

Not everyone in Southwest Virginia thinks mountaintop mining is a bad idea.

Like many opponents of mountaintop mining, Dink Shackleford is a native of the coalfields. He knows the hills and hollows of Wise County as well as anyone. Now the executive director of the Virginia Mining Association, he thinks complaints about the coal industry are overblown.

"I shoveled coal as a youth," he said. "I saw it and touched it every day, so I know the importance of it."

Coal companies once did the slash-and-burn kind of mining, he said, but now it's different.

He sees the coal industry and mountaintop mining as being a positive thing in the counties.

"One thing that has slowed economic development in coalfields is few places with flat land," he said. "This type of mining by companies has given counties economic development tools. They are able to recruit business and build things because of flat land."

Shackleford said the local strip malls in Wise and Norton, a local hospital and a Wal-Mart were all built on land that was once strip-mined on ridges and mountains.

"With strip mining, we get a chance to move some dirt and get some flat land. That has done far more good than harm," he said.

Shackleford also said the flat land has helped the environment by providing a place for wildlife such as turkey.

Ron Flannery, executive director of the Lenwisco Planning District in Norton, confirms Shackleford's assessment of mountaintop and ridge mining's economic impact.

"You can't make the assumption that every site is going to yield some development," he said. "But this type of mining has given us property that is valued much higher and put to a better use."

Flannery said his agency works with coal companies and state mining officials to come up with appropriate post-mining uses of former strip mines.

A lumber company in the town of Blackwood was built on a mountaintop mining site, he said. And an industrial park is being developed in another area.

Still, most mountaintop mining sites are not developed.

A review of data from state mining officials shows that pastures and unmanaged forest account for most of the post-mining uses of old mountaintop mines. Only one listed commercial development as a post-mining use.

Several coal companies that use mountaintop mining did not return telephone calls. Officials at one coal company, ANR Coal, declined comment.

A joint state and federal report on the effects of mountaintop mining will be released in the next few weeks. The findings will help state and local officials develop a comprehensive plan to regulate mountaintop coal mining and valley fills more effectively, said Michael McCabe, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency's mid-Atlantic region.

Ronal Fleming said he doesn't need to see the report to know what's going to happen.