Time for a Nor'easter

This is a blog without a photograph, and thus for me it is an internal blog. The kind you wake up with after a fitful night of sleep and you have been tossing a bit wondering about this and that. You see today was a cold day, with drizzle. The comet's trail so to speak of the Nor'easter off the coast that has matured in the Appalachians and either married the system coming up from the southeast or spawned something altogether new. And behind her, we bundle up and look to the sky and shiver a bit. But you know a day like today makes you feel good to be alive. And I guess it tends to make me contemplate. We were riding to my son's soccer game. I happened to interrupt a great conversation about many things to comment that in an odd way the United States is at a crossroads. We are like a child that hasn't quite grown up yet is poised to make choice(s). One can glance across the globe and acknowledge challenges across the board that in one way or another the United States has some connection to, and hint at decision-making to go with it. That's when I returned home and read Bono's opinion piece in the New York Times today. He talked about America and the need, "...the world needs to believe in America again." I think Bono has it right, to a point. You see America is much more than simply the United States of America. A problem with this America, and what my friend and I talked about, is that our educational system (and maybe the rest of us too) still hasn't quite recognized it yet. The yet is that there is a Canada, a Central America and a South America in this America. That there are other languages rather than simply English and other cultures besides our own. It is a very rich world, diverse at that, for which we still tend to hunker down upon in a bit of a fetal way. Don't get me wrong there is a place and time for a Teddy Roosevelt response with a hammer too. But it is the "ideas" part of Bono's take that I feel an affinity for. We need ideas now - strong ones that equally arise from a strong-value driven system. Our connections flow from our country, and return again. Curiously enough I made it to another year today on my day. My eve of today and today were, gratefully so, connections to my past with individuals that I have encountered over a span of life. Those connections simply convey to me that we as a country owe it to ourselves and to others to promote those connections in our homes, in our schools and through our mosaiced heritage in a relatively new country that can make a difference - and that must.

Roaring Plains West Wilderness Area

One of the Monongahela National Forest's newly designated wilderness areas, over 6,000 acres of high elevation (3,000 feet+) Appalachian forest set in northeastern West Virginia. A beautiful landscape especially photogenic in the fall (photographs courtesy of David Ede)...

The Station Fire



A Sharp Edge

The week has been beautiful, but alas today’s clouds foretell a bit of a change (see photo). I did hear and see a red tail hawk, listen to the crows on chase, and momentarily watch a flicker feed. I was working on the road this morning patching holes here and there. I miss the feel of being outside and it felt so good to be outside. My daily work regimen is normally on the computer exploring geographic data bits and images using Environmental System Research Institute’s ArcGIS software. I do like and follow technology closely albeit at times I wonder how our biological heritage will mix with mechanical makings. Speaking of mechanical makings though, yesterday a friend called and we somehow got on the subject of American-made products and specifically talked of two products from Bradford, Pennsylvania – Zippo lighters and Case knives. I’ve never really owned a Zippo lighter per se, but like a lot of people I’m sure I’ve used them many a time when in need of fire. They were always dependable. As for Case knives that is a different story. I have owned many a Case pocket knife and still do. The story behind the story is that my Father schooled me in the use of knives at a young age starting with Mumblety-peg ( and no I never stuck my foot with a knife although I came close). I’m not real certain of why my Father loved knives, but I’m sure it related to hunting. Interestingly he made sure that I knew how to use (and sharpen) a pocket knife, a two-bladed Case knife, that I would use to field-dress a deer (and other four-legged critters). He always said that you did not need a bowie knife to do the job just a small pocket knife with a blade that could shave the hair on your hand. Although I could handle a knife I never really was the ultimate outdoorsman, but let’s just say I never was at odds with the woods either. And I suppose that why I’ve made it back around to the reason for writing this post. You see we have more than a few deer out our front door now. They are a pretty species that I never tire of watching, but just as humans are impacting the planet, so too are the whitetail deer populations. Therein lays one chapter in a long story about our natural systems being just a bit out of sync – they’ve lost their natural integrity. Now I do not really believe that we can return to the old days, old ways, and old landscapes. But I do feel that there are ecologists and geographers and other natural resource professionals out there that have valid and critical views on the state of the world.
My parochial view for this relatively minor part of the world is that ideally we may need at some point to delineate relatively naturally occurring ecosystems that we can target for insisting that natural populations, to the extent possible, be safeguarded and even re-introduced if necessary, to return to some semblance of a functioning ecosystem. Hunting and fishing, albeit at times their own worst enemy, still remain as viable tools in a toolbox of land management options within that ecological matrix.


Land Ethic
The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.

This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.

Leopold, Aldo: A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, 1948, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, pg. 204.

For the Glory

Mountaineer Trails

A Weather Glance

The tropics are becoming active as the summer winds down and early fall approaches. Bill, Ana, and Claudette are in the news. From my own front porch I photograph a distant thundercloud to the east and include both my photo and a later NWS radar image of the area in this post.
Fortunately, in terms of severe storms I have never experienced direct hits by either tornadoes or hurricanes. I have come close though. I was in Vickburg, Mississippi helping out in the aftermath of Katrina in 2005 when, for short period of time, a Category 5 Rita was taking aim at Louisiana. I was wondering what I would do as it was taking aim. For a brief instant I considered standing my ground and seeking providential help but only for an instant... Rita turned a bit toward the west and weakened (although there was till major damage). For those who have not seen the destruction from a storm surge, or the path of a severe tornado, suffice to say that it is a very humbling experience. I have quite a few photographs and maps from my work there, but I will save that for another day. I consider global change, including climate change, to be a critical challenge for humanity. The long and short of it is that we must be as a willow, not breaking, bending in the wind and understanding that there is an ecological language that we must speak, and fluently, to evolve for the future.