Mergoat Magazine is a publication that provides a collective, interdisciplinary record of the ecological situation throughout Southern Appalachia and the broader Southeast.

Ecological situation is an intentional, yet ambiguous phrase. While ecology is a specific scientific discipline, we believe that human culture itself signifies our inclusion as an ecologically embedded species; therefore, we understand human society to be inextricably linked to matters of ecology.

In this spirit, we seek to explore: the complex and changing ecologies of our region; how these ecologies relate to one another and the rest of the earth; and how these ecological matters materialize in our daily lives on the planes of culture, politics and identity. In order to achieve this, one of our primary goals is to work towards deconstructing artificial binaries such as "nature" and "technology," or "wilderness" and "society."

There will always be science-oriented writing in Mergoat Magazine and ecological questions will always guide our work. Nevertheless, we reject the notion that ecological practice ends with observations or descriptions of natural phenomena from a detached, scientific spectator.

Ecology is impermanent, always becoming. Ecology is relational, and observing ecological relations provides pathological information for assessing a community's health. Ecology is political, and the political process affects ecologies. Ecology is a negotiation—a reciprocal exchange, for good or ill. We do not exist as objective observers outside of our ecology. Rather, we are enfleshed participants that emerge within material ecological networks. Mergoat Magazine explores this network of relationships on the horizon of history and futurity in Southern Appalachia.