On a warm day early in spring, a group of volunteers led by the National Park Service is surveying Sugar Hollow Reservoir, hoping to find a new resident living on hemlocks in the forest. They hold broad, white sheets under a tree and knock the needles with a long stick. What they’re looking for is […]
On a warm day early in spring, a group of volunteers led by the National Park Service is surveying Sugar Hollow Reservoir, hoping to find a new resident living on hemlocks in the forest. They hold broad, white sheets under a tree and knock the needles with a long stick. What they’re looking for is […]
By Laura Vogel The Southern Environmental Law Center has fought—and won—some mighty environmental battles in its 35 years of existence. Right now, though, it’s in the midst of one of its biggest legal challenges: Pulling Virginia away from the brink of leaving the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative for good, after Governor Glenn Youngkin encouraged the […]
Members of central Virginia’s FrogWatch are putting their ears to the ground and leaping into action. The FrogWatch program—started by the Akron Zoo—monitors trends in frog and toad populations by training volunteers on the calls of local species. The central Virginia chapter of FrogWatch is run collaboratively by the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation […]
In the fall of 2010, Alexis Zeigler and Debbie Piesen set out to see if they could live independent of fossil fuels. On land just north of Louisa, they started building Living Energy Farm, their vision of a self-sufficient, off-grid community with zero carbon footprint. Last March, the off-grid systems and technology they developed won […]
A late-February 82-degree day followed by a stretch of mornings in the frosty 30s? Yep, we’re talking about winter 2023 in central Virginia. After a mild several months (except for that low of 6 degrees in December), it seems like any weather event or temperature is possible. Does this mean we’ll have a scorching summer? […]
Why isn’t more public green space used to grow food? Highway medians, the small lawns between sidewalks and apartments, public parks, all have the potential, and Richard Morris thinks about this more than most. The co-executive director of the food justice organization Cultivate Charlottesville knows the challenges and rewards of choosing a good garden location. […]
Environmental activists celebrated last summer when Dominion Energy announced it was canceling the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have brought natural gas 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina, crossing right through central Virginia and disrupting a historically Black community in rural Buckingham County. Activists have since turned their focus to the many other […]
Building a bluebird box is a good project for a hobbyist woodworker, but most people don’t tackle quite as many boxes at once as Clark Walter. At certain times of the year, Walter’s woodworking shop in Ivy is packed nearly to the rafters with the parts and pieces that make up his bluebird box assembly […]
In the words of Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green. Though the Muppet references the color of his amphibian skin, the famous line is a sentiment that also rings true for Charlottesville, where carbon emissions per household are more than a ton above the national average. With 10 tons of carbon emissions per […]
In 1986, a young lawyer and UVA grad named Rick Middleton left his job at a national environmental nonprofit in D.C. and moved to Charlottesville. With two other lawyers, a three-year grant, and a small office on the Downtown Mall, he established the first environmental advocacy organization focused on the South, determined to use the […]