Re-Gain

Living in Shenandoah County over 36 years, I understand how folks hate change and feel marginalized. However, our recent school board ruling to change our school names again is hurtful. Let’s teach more about history and less regarding hysteria. Good Christians would not offend those who had enslaved ancestors. Also, true citizens want to heal rather than wound their fellow neighbors. There used to be a sign on Route 11 outside New Market. It read, No one's free while others are oppressed . So will changing our school names back to Confederate heroes result in us praying together or preying on each other? May we kindly unite and not divide as the greatest form of education.

On my birthday, a week ago I planted 3 trees. As I was planting my last one I heard a great crash. A beloved 100-year-old twisted white oak fell near my driveway. For the last month, I've been celebrating this renewed canopy of leaves. Old open-grown trees will sequester far more carbon than a cluster of younger and smaller plantation trees. Open-grown trees also bring huge biodiversity benefits, temperature regulation, and other benefits. Did you know that a mature oak produces about two thousand acorns each year but only one in ten thousand acorns reaches maturity? Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officials announced plans to conserve and steward old-growth forests. USDA’s Forest Service manages nearly 25 million acres of old growth and more than 68 million acres of mature forests on national lands. There are combined benefits for the climate, water, air, and land protection I live next to thousands and thousands of USDA woods. Old-growth forests are a v