July has brought more than scorching temperatures and humidity to Charlottesville. There has also been a sharp increase in spotted lanternfly sightings. First found in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2014, the spotted lanternfly is an invasive species from Asia. How the insect arrived in the country is unknown, but it likely entered on […]
July has brought more than scorching temperatures and humidity to Charlottesville. There has also been a sharp increase in spotted lanternfly sightings. First found in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2014, the spotted lanternfly is an invasive species from Asia. How the insect arrived in the country is unknown, but it likely entered on […]
Albemarle property owners who want to install solar-energy facilities or battery-storage systems now have an easier pathway to do so. At its July 16 meeting, the Board of Supervisors adopted a new ordinance regulating solar facilities as well as battery-energy storage systems. Under the new regulations, “accessory” energy facilities are allowed in any zoning district […]
Flash flooding has been in the headlines for nearly two weeks, following the catastrophic Guadalupe River flood in Texas earlier this month. The Texas tragedy, while thousands of miles and decades apart, is a stark reminder of the 1969 Hurricane Camille floods—with the overnight arrival of flood waters, high death tolls, and failures of emergency […]
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22 includes provisions that could jeopardize billions of dollars in Virginia green energy projects. Charlottesville-headquartered Southern Environmental Law Center reports federal agencies have put more than $5 billion into 350 clean energy projects in the commonwealth since the passage […]
One of the areas Albemarle Board of Supervisors has identified for industrial development is along Broadway Street in a land-locked section of the county only accessible via roads through Charlottesville. The future happens one application at a time and the Board will soon consider whether it wants to allow the owners of a project called […]
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? […]