Monsoon Hits Middle River Watershed – Flood Plains and Soil Regulate the Water Cycle
Here in Swoope, it’s been raining for three days – we’ve had 10.5 inches of rain.
“Oh Shenandoah!”
A watershed moment for the Shenandoah River and the Chesapeake Bay occurred on Tuesday the 23rd of April. Ownership of the former Virginia National Golf Course located on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Clark County was handed over to Shenandoah University . Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons, President of the...
In The Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Agriculture is Half Way in Doing Their Part to Restore the Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation asked me to write several articles about farmers doing their part to improve the soil and water resources on their farms. These articles are designed to showcase how and why, these farmers installed Best Management Practices such as “stream-side fencing” to exclude livestock from streams.
Swoope Almanac March 2013: Snowquester, Special Spots and Short Eared Owls
This past week Swoope bore the brunt of the Snowquester, a.k.a. winter storm Saturn. It gave us almost two feet of snow – unwelcome weather for cattle farmers during calving season. A calf born in this weather can perish quickly. We were lucky. The storm left no casualties among our...
Tree Shelters, Are They Worth It And If So When Should They Be Removed?
Author preparing to plant a “bare-root” hardwood seedling into tall fescue sod. When converting grasslands to forest it has been a common practice to plant bare-root, hardwood tree seedlings directly into the sod. Most recently tree shelters have been used to increase the growth rate and survival of hardwood (not...
How We Live With The River On Our Cattle Farm
This week’s flood prompted this post on how we deal with floodwater from our river with our cattle. It was an out-of-bank flood event but it didn’t wash our cattle crossing out because we’ve learned to work with the river not against it.
Polluters Sue EPA For Doing Their Job
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), the Bay states, the District of Columbia, federal agencies and thousands of volunteers including teachers and farmers have
Soils For Kids
This blog post is for those students with a desire to help our Planet Earth. There is a link to a special website with games and information to help you become a trained crewmember on our special space ship. Our space ship is called Earth. We are all in this...
Are You a “Home Rule” Public Servant or a “Dillon’s Rule” Bureaucrat?
Note: This post is expressly written for public servants. I spent 31 years in public service. Yes, I was a bureaucrat. Just the mention of the “B” word makes a lot of people cringe – included myself. Many people and most politicians think of bureaucrats as lazy government employees on...
“I read every one of Bobby’s blog posts. They keep me informed on everything from their cattle farm operation to their best management practices in action. His blog always features relevant information on keeping our waters clean, our soil out of the runoff, and other environmental issues of our time.”
