I am grateful. The Virginia Outdoor Writers Association (VOWA) selected Swoope Almanac, Stories of Love, Land, and Water in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley as First Place, Outstanding Book 2019. My sincere thanks for their support and to my team that helped edit, design, publish, release, and market the book. It has […]
Earth Day 50 This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, which officially occurs on April 22. In a normal world, this would be a really big deal and we’d be gearing up for a big celebration—Earth Day helped elevate the importance of protecting our environment in a whole […]
Winter in Swoope The grasslands in Swoope are brown and dormant. Late in the afternoon I stand on our deck with my binoculars and search the wide-open pastures for Short-eared Owls. I can see for several miles north and sweep slowly 180 degrees to the south. First, I spot a […]
Note: The text from this post was published in the News-Leader on 2/27/20. I Was In Line All Night, Here’s What Really Happened It was an event of a lifetime—sitting in the courtroom of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) hearing arguments in the U.S. Forest Service v. […]
Virginia legislators and its governor are proposing a cattle exclusion mandate from all perennial streams by July 1, 2026. This is a bold move by the Virginia democrats who now control both houses of the general assembly and the governor’s mansion. Virginia Senate bill SB704 and House bill HB1422 have […]
“If you save your own backyard, then you start to save the world,” wrote the late Winston Nanon, the man who saved the Caroni Swamp and the bird that became the national bird of Trinidad—the Scarlet Ibis. Virginia Paved Over the Nesting Site of 25,000 Migratory Seabirds We have something […]
I take a lot of photos. These are the few that are either really good photos or have lots of meaning—the best photos of 2019. All photos by R. Whitescarver and copyrighted except as noted. The Really Good Swoope Hope Photos Pictures […]
Shepherdstown, WV: It used to be part of Virginia before our war against slavery. I’m here, standing on the southern bank of the Potomac River looking at the large windows and columns of the mansion of Ferry Hill Plantation on the northern, Maryland side of the river. I’m mesmerized, staring […]
Environmental Racism: Actions and decisions that result in the disproportionate exposure of people of color to environmental hazards and environmental health burdens. A textbook example of environmental racism has unfolded in Union Hill, Virginia. When Dominion Energy was looking for a site for its Buckingham compressor station the Federal Energy […]
The Osage Orange tree is native west of the Mississippi and is named after the Osage Indian tribe. The fruits look like little green brains and are about the size of an orange. People use the fruits to repel insects in their homes, but there is no scientific evidence to […]
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