Chesapeake Lessons for the Great Lakes
Fueling Stations for Monarchs – Swoope Almanac September 2016
I had to stop and smell the Marigolds, the native ones in our riparian buffers called Bur Marigolds. As I was putting up a new solar fence charger for one of our livestock exclusion areas, I had to just stop to watch. What froze me in my tracks was the...
2XT: US Farm Bill Allows Twice the Soil Erosion That is Sustainable
Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Mayhem of Construction (JMU 2022)
Note: The News Leader of Staunton, Virginia published an op-ed version of this piece on 8/15/2017. It can be found here. Mayhem of Construction Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), if allowed to be built, will be the largest disturbance of land and water in the Commonwealth of Virginia since the...
Ash Trees, Shrikes, the Roanoke Logperch, and the Endangered Species Act at 50 (JMU 2024)
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the most comprehensive law protecting imperiled plants and animals in the world. Because of the ESA, hundreds of plants and animals have been saved, including some of our most iconic birds: the American Bald Eagle, the California Condor, the Peregrine Falcon, and the Whooping...
Four Compelling Reasons Cats Need to be Indoors (JMU 2026)
Contour Farming: One of the Simplest and Most Effective BMPs
In our quest to profit from the land and feed a hungry planet with annual crops such as corn and soybeans, we have abandoned one of the most powerful conservation practices known to science – contour farming. Used since ancient times to slow the flow of water across the land...
Biosecurity and Stream Exclusion
Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week in the Middle River Watershed – 2016
Two events were held in the Shenandoah Valley for Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week. One on David Surratt’s farm in Fishersville, VA and another on Jeanne Hoffman’s farm in Swoope. Both venues are in the Middle River watershed.
