forests

06/01/1989
The Case for Eastern Old-Growth
An unusually old and large chestnut oak in the George Washington National Forest.
An unusually old and large chestnut oak in the George Washington National Forest.

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“The Case for Eastern Old-Growth” was published in American Forests, May/June 1989.

This is the first article to raise the issue of new old-growth in the formerly deforested East.

“Long …

03/01/1994
The Great Forest
Creek in the Monongahela National Forest, WV
Creek in the Monongahela National Forest, WV

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“The Great Forest” was published in the Wilderness Magazine, spring 1994.

“Rage is not the politically correct emo­tion to feel in an old growth forest. Awe, veneration, respect, humility­, these are expected. But I want to …

02/01/2014
In the Fatherland of Forestry: Time Travels through the German Wild
Featured Image: Uwe Galonska, supervising a timber operation, is Holger’s twin brother and also a forester.
Featured Image: Uwe Galonska, supervising a timber operation, is Holger’s twin brother and also a forester.

Original essay written in 2014 describing changes in former East Germany since I first visited there in 1991.

“Don’t worry about the land mines,” said Holger Galonska, district forester for the former East German

03/14/2020
Forests of the Southern Appalachians: Repairing the Past, Defending the Future

The theme for the 2020 annual conference of the Appalachian Studies Association was “Appalachian Understories.” Conference announcements cited, somewhat vaguely, the “Mother Forest.”  This was nice to see because the globally unique Southern Appalachian forests don’t receive much recognition, especially the world-class national forest commons.  Yet these nearly contiguous six million acres …

05/02/2021
A Sedimental Journey: How Historic Deforestation Degrades Waterways Today
home welded wench
Not a modern art sculpture but a home-welded winch in my woods left over from the 1880-1930 era of massive deforestation.

 I was invited to give this presentation by my watershed group, Friends of the North Fork Shenandoah River.  In “A Sedimental Journey: How Historic Deforestation Degrades Waterways Today,” I …

07/17/2023
Seeing the Forest for the Carbon
Smaller Gallery Image: Preparing to hug a large, old white oak near home in 2020.
Chris Bolgiano and her husband Ralph live on 112 wooded acres in Fulks Run. They are studying a 16-page contract from Forest Carbon Works and considering legal advice.

Published in the Chimney Rock Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 6, July 2023.

Everybody knows that money doesn’t grow on trees, but …