“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, so my back yard grows to 1.1 million acres of forested mountainsides. It is mine, but also yours. It belongs to the people in a way that no other property does.”