“Our Million-Plus Acre Backyard Commons:  Triumphs and Tragedies” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, February 2016.

“There’s no grill in my big back yard, no swing set, and no swimming pool, unless you count the rock-bottomed bowls along Reedy Run as it cascades to the Shenandoah River. They’re mainly trees here in the George Washington National Forest (GWNF) along the Virginia-West Virginia line. Just trees, creeks and 100,000 species of wildlife.

My home borders the forest, […]

“Citizen Voices Protected George Washington National Forest” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, November 2014. Won second prize in 2015 Virginia Outdoor Writers Association Excellence in Craft Contest, Column Category (see related link above for 1st place).

“Living next door to the 1.1-million acre George Washington National Forest, along the mountainous Virginia/West Virginia border, has both pros and cons.

Pros are clean air and water, many more tree neighbors than people, and the right of every […]

“Of Wilderness and Water:  The Fate of the George Washington National Forest” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, April 2014.

“‘This is the heart of why I work for Wilderness,’ said Lynn Cameron, a retired university librarian and volunteer for the grass-roots conservation group, Virginia Wilderness Committee. We were on top of the world, or close to it, at the historic High Knob Fire Tower on 4,100-foot-high Shenandoah Mountain, along the Virginia/West Virginia border.

Rolling […]

“Hidden in the Hollows:  My Frack-finding Weekend in West Virginia” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, May 2013.

“A shiny new drill rises like a monument to risk-taking in the view from Diane Pitcock’s porch; its low rumble, like a perpetually busy superhighway, rolling across the half-mile of fields between them.

“’West Virginia is the heart of the Marcellus shale gas formation, but nobody had heard of that when we retired here seven years ago,’ Pitcock […]

“Snug and Smug with Solar Power:  Keeping on the Sunny Side of Storms” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, March 2013.

“Snug and Smug with Solar Power: Keeping on the Sunny Side of Storms” was published in Bay Journal News Service, March 2013.

“So hate me.

All around, millions of people are losing electric power as trees and other inappropriate objects crash down on power lines. It doesn’t matter anymore what storm […]

“Exurban Cowboys Pen in Biodiversity” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, November 2012.

“When the husband and I bought wooded acreage in the Virginia mountains 30 years ago, we thought we were part of the Back to the Land movement. Turns out we were also part of an exorbitant growth in exurban land use. Defined as low-density rural development, exurban growth has reversed the previous long-term demographic trend of rural residents moving into cities.

By […]

“Clean may not always be green where Wind Power is concerned” was distributed by Bay Journal News Service, March 2011.

“Hundreds of people recently gathered at an Annapolis rally to promote offshore wind power, energized for change. A wind “superhero” in a blue and silver costume roamed the crowd with a flowing cape, while a grungy coal-costumed man symbolized the dismal alternative.

The crowd’s mood was upbeat and the message was clear: Wind power can transform […]