Ash Trees—a Celebration and a Lament (JMU 2023)
Ash trees are disappearing from the American landscape. All three of the aforementioned ash tree species are critically endangered because of the nonnative Emerald Ash Borer.
Endangered Species, Please “Save All the Parts” (JMU 2023)
A bumblebee, a bat, a mussel, and a half-inch, blind crustacean are in the proposed path of the 42-inch, fracked-gas pipeline. All four species are on the brink of extinction—the death of the last individual of the species.
Ash Trees—a Celebration and a Lament
The Ash tree is one of the most important riparian plants in North America. In Eastern North America there are, or were, three common species in the Fraxinus genus, the White, Green, and Black Ash. In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Green Ash is one of the most prolific trees...
Five Dollars a Ton for Carbon
Five Dollars For a Ton of Carbon Stored in the Soil Humans have released more carbon from the depths of the earth and released it into the atmosphere than any event or epoch in history. More carbon dioxide is in the air now than at any time in the past...
Livestock Exclusion: Is It Time for the Big R?
Breaking the barrier: Ideas for increasing participation in voluntary livestock stream exclusion Livestock exclusion from streams? Is it time for the big R—regulation? Livestock, especially cattle, are the number one polluter of streams in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. They destroy the aquatic ecosystem by dislodging soil, trampling the streambed,...
May Miracles—Swoope Almanac May 2019
May miracles in Swoope Lush, green pastures fill the landscape, here at the beginning of the Chesapeake Bay in the Shenandoah Valley along Middle River. Baby calves form up in groups and run fast with their tails high in the air. The smell of lilacs fills the air. A new...
Walk Along Middle River—A Chesapeake Bay Awareness Event
Walk Along Middle River in Swoope—June 4, 10 ’till noon Come walk along the Middle River with Virginia Senator Emmett Hanger and ninth-generation farmer Jeanne Trimble Hoffman on her farm in Swoope, Virginia. Middle River is a tributary of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River—headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay....
Earth Day 2019—Book Release Day!
Happy Earth Day! Today the pastures of Swoope are a brilliant, emerald-green. I can see forever north with the Allegheny Mountains to the west and white puffy clouds with flat bottoms overhead. The sight fills me with wonder. We have so much to be thankful for, in the stewardship of...
Swoope Almanac, the Book
This is the place . . . Swoope. I wrote a book about it . . . Swoope Almanac, Stories of love, land, and water in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
Chuck Bubbas, Corruption and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (JMU 2023)
FERC held a “scoping” meeting at Stuarts Draft High School on March 19th, 2015. This was an opportunity for members of our community to voice concerns and participate in the democratic process about the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). If it’s built it will bisect Augusta County, Virginia, the place where we live.
