Freelancing is a hard hike in a tough terrain of competition. This is by way of saying don’t expect a lot here. One advantage of freelancing is following your passion – writing about what moves you, not just what’s assigned by an editor (the disadvantage is lack of a steady paycheck). It’s said a good writer writes about what s/he knows, but I’ve always written about what I want to know. Like, life, the universe, and everything -- but especially forests, because forests should rule the world if the world was sane.
Published in the Chimney Rock Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 6, July 2023.
Everybody knows that money doesn’t grow on trees, but did you know money can grow inside them? In a sign of the times, forest landowners have a new revenue source: trees left to grow ever bigger and older. Trees are the best technology yet discovered for pulling carbon dioxide (CO2), the major greenhouse gas, out of the air. Leaves break it down during photosynthesis […]
Using archival photos and my forest forensics photos of clues to the history of my own beloved woods – and far beyond – I presented a webinar for the Forest History Society (Duke University), “A Sedimental Journey: Tracking Historic Dirt Downstream.” This presentation greatly expands the one I gave in 2021 for the Friends of the North Fork. If you think forest history hasn’t had consequences that continue today, take a look at your local creek after […]
Participated in an “Author’s Chat,” (not recorded) with Paul Bugas, at Barren Ridge Vineyard, cohosted by Stone Soup Books of Waynesboro. A major topic was the increasing interest in developing habitat corridors to save wildlife – and people.
I read my essay, “Grateful Dead-Heading, A Gardener’s Revelation,” from the book Better With Age, to students in a Lifelong Learning Institute course taught by book editors Bob Bersson and Jack Greer.
Presented “Forests for Life” to the American Association of University Women, at Bridgewater Retirement Community (not recorded).