BLACKSBURG, Virginia, Oct. 25 -- Virginia Tech issued the following news: * * * Can the red spruce thrive in Appalachia again? Efforts to expand the range of the red spruce focus on acclimatizing the species to warmer climates. By Chris Moody For those who haven't spent time on an Appalachian sky island, the red spruce is a rare site. Sky islands are not a domicile of George Jetson or something out of "Star Wars," they are high elevation mountaintops in the Appalachians cut off by topogra  more