There were no bugles, hounds, or riders in red coats, but the fox hunt that took place at the Southwood Mobile Home Park on Friday, January 31, was high stakes nonetheless for three people who now require rabies prevention treatment, and it didn’t end well for a fox, who was killed in cinematic fashion later […]
Winters in Virginia sure can be fickle. Last winter it was so warm that the ground barely froze, and I had clients harvesting tomatoes well into December. And then March hit, with sleety, slushy snow and cold temps, and my spring gardens couldn’t be planted until April—compare that with planting spinach on February 22 several […]
Albemarle County threw out a plan to privatize trash and recycling disposal last week in the wake of fierce opposition from residents, revving up the argument over who should handle solid waste in the region—the county or private contractors. A proposal agreed upon by the previous Board of Supervisors to quit funneling money to the […]
A week after a chemical spill in West Virginia left 300,000 people without running water, a group of Charlottesvillians are holding a water drive and plan to truck it over the state line starting on Thursday, January 16. “It’s a crisis,” said Ian Babcock, founder of the new nonprofit Catalyst [...]
Charlottesville’s second Better Business Challenge, a year-long sustainability competition for local companies, wraps up in May, but founder Teri Kent wants business owners to know there’s still plenty of time to get onboard—and save a lot. Kent, creator of local environmental blog Better World [...]
Starting in February, two dozen locals will give their Tuesday nights over to the study of rocks, plants, and birds—and together will pledge to devote nearly 1,000 hours annually to environmental study and education. They’ll be 2014’s class of Rivanna Master Naturalists, the newest members of a [...]
Gardeners can be a fussy and opinionated lot, which makes them hard to shop for. As Christmas approaches, here are some gift ideas for the gardener in your life. Fruit trees. Winter is the best time to plant fruit trees. Because the trees are dormant, their chances of survival and getting well [...]
Teri Kent runs Charlottesville’s Better World Betty, a non-profit organization and online resource for locals looking to shrink their impact on the environment. Every month, Betty—Kent’s ’50s-housewife-meets-earth-goddess alter ego—answers the most burning eco- questions from our readers about [...]
It’s just after 6am Eastern Standard Time on a Wednesday in early December, and about a dozen journalists, environmental scientists, and educators from four time zones are popping in and out of an AOL chat room. There’s some small talk about the weather in Bozeman, Montana and Montevideo, [...]
Got holiday lights? It’s that time of year, and, according to Dominion Virginia Power, simply lighting a Christmas tree can tack as much as $10 onto a power bill for the holiday season. Jeff Norford’s holiday season power bill jumps a bit more than that. Indeed, perhaps no one in [...]
Charlottesville is giving a shot in the arm to its nascent electric car scene, something officials believe will be good for the local environment—and the local economy. The city is now accepting applications for a new mini-grant program that will steer $50,000 from an existing public green [...]
Each week, C-VILLE’s Green Scene page takes a look at local environmental news. The section’s bulletin board has information on local green events and keeps you up to date on statewide happenings. Got an event or a tip you’d like to see here and in the paper? Write us at news@c-ville.com. Fall [...]
Cale Jaffe is the Director of the Virginia Office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit leveraging the power of the law to protect the environment of the Southeast. www.southernenvironment.org. Both President Obama and Governor McDonnell have highlighted “all-of-the-above” [...]
The battle over a protected plot of county land continues. Last week, international business mogul Donald Trump’s 29-year-old son Eric visited Charlottesville to address a roomful of curious and concerned county residents. Against the backdrop of the Trump Winery tasting room, the younger Trump [...]
On his 78th birthday last week, Montgomery “Bird” Woods led a four-wheeler tour of some of the 410-acre Red Hill property he explored as a boy and is spending his retirement enjoying with his partner, Jose Lambert. “This was a loading dock for apples,” Woods said, pointing out a tumble of rocks [...]
They’re the city’s oldest citizens. Within their thick bark and internal rings that map the years, the city’s heritage trees carry a record of history. Now a city board is leading the charge to have special trees in the community protected forever to allow future generations to enjoy them as [...]
The Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards have a message for you: Plant trees in the fall. They also have everything you need to get that done. The volunteer group, known as CATS, is launching its first-ever autumn tree sales, offering hundreds of hardwoods at rock-bottom prices at the October 12 [...]
Each week, C-VILLE’s Green Scene page takes a look at local environmental news. The section’s bulletin board has information on local green events and keeps you up to date on statewide happenings. Got an event or a tip you’d like to see here and in the paper? Write us at news@c-ville.com. Nuts [...]
At a forum sponsored last week by 15 local environmental organizations, the eight candidates vying for four empty seats on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors fielded questions about their environmental priorities. While candidates’ party affiliations were evident as they talked about [...]
It’s a warm, early fall day, and Lonnie Murray and I are preparing for a scramble. We’re in a remote hollow in far southwest Albemarle County at the invitation of the landowner to explore a granite outcrop that nearly a decade ago was listed as one of the county’s top biodiversity hotspots. [...]
It’s been three years since the Charlottesville City Council and Albemarle County Service Authority agreed on a plan to build the Ragged Mountain Dam and dredge the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. Construction of the dam is well underway, but a scrapped contract has stalled the dredging project, [...]
Teri Kent runs Charlottesville’s Better World Betty, a non-profit organization and online resource for locals looking to shrink their impact on the environment. Every month, Betty —Kent’s ’50s-housewife-meets-earth-goddess alter ego—answers the most burning eco-questions from our readers about [...]
The symptoms of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer read like something out of a horror movie: emaciation, a lolling head, an odor of rotting meat, and—invisible until autopsy—a spongy degeneration of the brain. CWD is a prion disease affecting cervids—elk, moose, and our own white-tailed deer. [...]