When you look at the fantastic scale of this operation, you can only question what might it take to just layer on a tree preservation effort on top of all the o

When you look at the fantastic scale of this operation, you can only question what might it take to just layer on a tree preservation effort on top of all the other activities? What's it take to use an excavator of such magnitude, to mobilize an entire stand of trees and lift it out of the way, instead of performing a clear-cut? Or, maybe a system of trenches, moats and barges, to float segmented blocks of land our of the way, while the coal is extracted? I get that it eats into profits to think like that, but then again, this isn't the 1970's anymore, and just look at the technology they throw at eradicating a county's worth of trees. New technology should make it possible to subvert the layer of living soil, undisturbed, and hopefully, leave forests like this untouched, no?