Lightning Updates
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....
Pushing Boundaries
Written by Jonathan L. DohertyAfter writing weekly Lightning Updates for almost three years, I’m about to enter a new post-full-time-job phase of life. Perhaps you will pardon my using this and next week’s updates for some personal observations. Here’s part I. I’ve...
A Poem on Earth Day
On Earth Day 2021, we offer these words from the poet Julie Cadwallader-Staub. Praying In the garden early, I'mtransplanting echinacea while robins and flycatchers confirm that our winter--complicated and compoundedby COVID--has succumbed to spring at last. I'm...
A Vivid Illustration
How many birds are killed by vehicles along a single stretch of rural highway? (Photos: above -- Janet Griffin/Shutterstock; below -- Jay Falstad)From time to time, these updates share information that may not be the best of news, but does shed light on the importance...
Public Access & Democracy
News and images of this week’s closures of the National Mall and its memorials, the U.S. Capitol, and public streets in Washington are arresting. And yet, there have been so many dramatic images from public open space in the past year. Park closures from the...
The Capitol. American Democracy. And Our Responsibility.
Under the U.S. Capitol dome. (All photos: J. Doherty; drawing: Architect of the Capitol)By Wendy O'Sullivan & Jonathan DohertyMany are still processing what happened to our nation last week and trying to understand what comes next. We are also. What is clear is the...
Conservation Resolutions for the New Year
As we start a new year -- following one that was so many things, but above all eye opening -- it seems like a good time to think about how we make 2021 an improvement. Yes, new year resolutions can get tiresome, but they’re really just setting out some goals. Things...
One Simple Act
Senator Paul Sarbanes, second from left, launching the first Chesapeake Gateways in 2000.By Jonathan DohertyPaul S. Sarbanes, United States Senator from Maryland from 1977 to 2007, died on December 6. Much is already being written about this effective, kind, and...
A Remembrance
John Maounis, with his beloved wife Margaret Bursaw, early this year at Tomales Bay in California.By Jonathan DohertyJohn Maounis, former superintendent of the National Park Service Chesapeake Office, and original co-convener of the Chesapeake Conservation...
