FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Ashley Judd is calling for an end to the mining practice known as mountaintop removal.

The Kentucky native was among some 500 people who gathered outside the Kentucky state Capitol on Tuesday for a rally in support of legislation that would essentially end the practice of blasting away mountaintops to unearth coal.

The 40-year-old actress, a two-time Golden Globe nominee whose screen credits include "De-Lovely" and "Kiss The Girls," says she visited mountaintop removal sites last September and was unprepared for the destruction she saw. She described "barren moonscapes" and "nothingness" where Appalachian peaks once rose skyward.

Kathy Stein, a Democratic state senator from Lexington, is sponsoring legislation that would bar coal companies from filling valleys with the soil and rock from the mountaintops.

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