Lightning Updates
Preserving More than the Beach
Elktonia (Photo Credit: Jody Couser, Chesapeake Conservancy)By Warren BrownJazz legends Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Lionel Hampton. Soul artists Ray Charles, James Brown and Jackie Wilson. Rock ‘n’ Roll pioneers...
The Rappahannock Tribe’s Return to the River: Conserving Fones Cliffs
Pissacoack (Photo Credit: Jeffrey Allenby, Chesapeake Conservancy)On April 1, 2022, joined by Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the Rappahannock Tribe of Virginia celebrated a milestone in their centuries-long quest to return to their homeland along...
A Clearer Understanding of the Chesapeake Watershed
Susquehanna River, Asylum Township, Bradford County, as seen from Marie Antoinette Overlook along US Route 6 (Photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli). For thousands of years human survival depended on the ability to look over the landscape and identify where to hunt, gather,...
Making Carbon Markets Accessible to Small Landowners
Image: Marking Milestones, CCP, (Nicholas A. Tonelli)Voluntary carbon offset programs are growing dramatically, driven by corporate net-zero pledges and increasing interest in carbon offsets to achieve Paris climate goals.1 Conservation, restoration and management of...
Celebrating the Natural and Cultural Diversity on the Chesapeake Bay
A group of African Americans pose aboard the bugeye Thomas Blades in the harbor of St. Michaels, Maryland, c. 1910. Image courtesy gift of Mary V. Thomas to the collection of Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Our sense of belonging is often tied as much to a physical...
Smithsonian Grassroots Approach helps Biodiversity Bloom
Image courtesy of Virginia Working LandscapeLand use and biodiversity – can we have our cake and eat it too? Yes, these can indeed be compatible. Smithsonian scientists are collaborating with multiple partners, including landowners, to embrace grassroots approaches to...
Legislative Outlook in PA, MD, and VA
John Griffin & Warren Brown2022 is likely to be an unpredictable year during the General Assembly Sessions in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia for similar and distinct reasons. This is an election year in PA and MD. The Governors of both of these states are term...
Making Connections for Wildlife
Warren BrownCrossing the Road Imagine motoring down the road and being confronted by a very large animal with formidable antlers. This might seem like the opening scene for a story about nature’s revenge for all the little creatures that have been flattened by...
Beach Week: A Quest for Sandy Toes that Was So Much More
At Beach Week 2021, Beach #20, Gloucester Point Beach Park on the York River, Gloucester Point, Virginia, I met Louis, another avid fisherman. It was his first time at the park. This landscape, once known as Tsenacomoco, was home to some of the tribes in the...
The Rosenwald Schools
One philanthropist built thousands of schools for African-Americans in the era of Jim Crow. (Photos: EHT Traceries) As our nation struggles to address a record of racial conflicts and challenges, we may gain encouragement by reflecting on positive stories of the past....
