Rappahannock County’s recycling options will be expanding shortly, as the board of supervisors approved a decision to continue and grow the county’s partnership with Updike Industries at its meeting Monday afternoon (June 3).
Read More »
Rappahannock Forecast
| Today | Friday | Saturday |
|---|---|---|
 Partly Cloudy 81°/55° | Partly Cloudy 82°/59° | Partly Cloudy 82°/59° |
Advertisements
This Week’s Paper
All the news, none of the paper
For the current week's full Rappahannock News — usually available by 9 p.m. Wednesdays — check out our eEdition, where you can sign up for your free four-week, no-strings-attached trial subscription!
Environment/Conservation
Recycling options to expand
From sky to farm to table
Around Rappahannock County High School, rainy days will take on a whole new meaning. Earlier this month, RCHS’ Farm-to-Table program was awarded the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Grant – $5,000 to put towards the construction of a rainwater catchment system
Read More »
The Rapp for May 9
"Caveboy" takes center stage at RAAC's Friday at the Library series, TRG offers an all-day Mother's Day menu, SVFD plans its next July 4 celebration, RDA hosts a studio stroll, pianist Audrey Andrist returns to the Theatre, Narmada hosts a fundraiser and wine-making class and the NPCF gets accredited in this week's Rapp.
Read More »
Nuclear authority generates controversy
Virginia is creating a new agency to support development of nuclear power – a move that has upset environmentalists and open-government advocates, because the entity won’t have to comply with the state’s Freedom of Information Act and other laws.
Read More »
NRCS solicits conservation innovation proposals
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced about $400,000 is available in 2013 for the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies in Virginia.
Read More »
SBCI announces 2013 lecture series
The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) has announced its lecture series for 2013. The lectures are held at 7 p.m. Wednesday nights beginning April 3 (and lasting through May 1) at the new SCBI campus (1500 Remount Rd., Front Royal).
Read More »
SCBI announces 2013 lecture series
New discoveries in the mountains of Laos, the effects of habitat and climate change on mammals, and the interrelationship of climate and forests are among the topics covered in this spring's free lecture series just announced by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal.
Read More »
In town: People Inc. out, plantings move forward
The Washington Town Council votes to officially accept community-action organization People Inc.’s offer to withdraw a special-use permit application at its monthly meeting, and hears a report on independent projects to keep the properties around Avon Hall green.
Read More »
2013 a good year to conserve farmland
Thanks to financial incentives made possible by Congress, the commonwealth and local conservation groups, farmers have great opportunities to conserve farmland in 2013.
Read More »
Editorial: Forward on climate!
All politics are local, in the oft-repeated phrasing of a late Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. But when it comes to environmental issues, everything is global. For we all live downstream, even here in Rappahannock County.
Read More »
Congregations going green
On a brisk day a few weeks ago, by the meandering banks of Langford Creek on the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore, a group of about 50 environmentalists and people of faith gathered to learn, be inspired by and support one another.
Read More »
Is uranium mine scaring people from Southside?
Delegate Don Merricks, a Republican from Pittsylvania County, said real estate agents are having trouble selling homes in Southside Virginia because prospective buyers are worried about legislative proposals to allow uranium mining there.
Read More »
County landowners protect 1,100-plus acres
In 2012, six properties within the borders of Rappahannock County totaling more than 1,127 acres were protected by conservation easements, about double the acreage conserved the year before
Read More »
The Rapp for Jan. 10
Volunteers needed for a benefit chili cook-off, plus CCLC's recent open house, the Benevolent Fund Celebrity Waiters dinner, jumping into the Atlantic for charity, bluegrass at the Theatre, replacing the bridge of Jericho Road, Envirothon teachers needed and the opening of 'Rappahannock Creates' in this week's Rapp.
Read More »
It’s 2013: Time to grow up?
"In all your official acts, self interest shall be cast into oblivion . . . return to the way of the Great Law which is just and right." Columnist Liza Field takes her cue from the circa-1450 Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy to look for ways to make a better 2013.
Read More »
Data says sources of water fairly stable here
The Rappahannock County Planning Commission heard a presentation from hydrogeologist Brad White at its monthly meeting Wednesday night (Dec. 19). The bottom line? The county’s water supply is in no danger of running dry.
Read More »
Campaign year spurs a pro-lifer’s lament
What’s it been like as a pro-lifer, during this year's big-money campaign? It’s been an experience of split-personality, I would say as a pro-life conservationist.
Read More »
Groves’ Belle Ridge is Bay-Friendly Award-winner
Last week, the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District (CSWCD) presented its annual awards to area residents, including Belle Ridge farmers Larry and Kathy Grove.
Read More »
Letter: Remembering our rivers
Thank you for your editorial reminder of our important Rappahannock River watershed . More than 700 miles of streams crisscross our rural landscape; there are about 576 ponds, totaling around 540 acres, and about 712 acres of wetlands. Segments of some of our major streams are designated “303d impaired” by...
Read More »
Opinion: Putting the uranium cart before the horse
In 2007, Virginia Uranium LLC (VUI) began lobbying hard for the General Assembly’s standing moratorium on uranium mining and milling to be lifted. Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and their allies have fought them every step of the way.
Read More »
Town renews ESS contract
The Washington Town Council voted Monday night (Oct. 8) to renew its service contract with Environmental Systems Services (ESS), the company that has managed the town’s wastewater treatment facility for several years.
Read More »
Watershed wonders
The rains came Tuesday and the skies cleared Wednesday, creating a perfect setting for Watershed Field Day, sponsored by Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of Our Watershed (RappFLOW) on the Sperryville Schoolhouse grounds Sept. 19. From a gurgling Thornton River rich in microinvertebrates to a marshy rain garden effectively slowing run-off, the big outdoor classroom offered...
Read More »
Farm, table meet at . . . school
A few weeks ago Rappahannock County school division’s director of nutrition services, Trista Grigsby, found herself discussing school nutrition issues for the fewer-than-1,000 public school students of little Rappahannock County with . . . ABC News.
Read More »
Sperryville column for Sept. 20
The bridge is open! After many weeks of anticipation, the crew on the bridge finally received the long-awaited guardrail bolts, replaced the last broken drill bit and finished the job. We can all rejoice that the U.S. 522 bridge opened about 1:20 p.m. last Saturday (Sept. 15). Project supervisor Tommy Quarles called photographer Ray...
Read More »
Teaching the watershed
I always worry, as I dust off the syllabus and prepare my fall course at Salisbury University – will the final exam show up? Storms along their 4,000-mile migration corridor, conditions on their sub-Arctic nesting grounds might delay the wild swans. They seldom arrive where I take my students until just before the semester...
Read More »
Letter: Yes, let’s cooperate; the evidence says we have to
Just because we all peacefully decide to drive our car over a cliff doesn’t mean the force we call gravity won’t pull us to our death.
Read More »
Opinion: If you want cooperation, don’t throw your weight around
A hundred or more miles from its sparkling, reedy inlets, the Chesapeake Bay is still very much in the psyche of people throughout its watershed. Many groups in the Appalachian foothills enthusiastically plant trees along local waterways – doing what they can to stem harmful runoff.
Read More »
Seeing the forest and the trees
The Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) has shifted from a county-based focus under an agency reorganization plan that went into effect last week.
Read More »
Driving out (or holding off) the invaders
The enemy goes by deceptively pleasing names: Tree of heaven, autumn olive, mile-a-minute, multiflora rose, wineberry . . . but in the war on invasive species, harsher terms describe what it takes: Hack and squirt. Kill it first. Go after the females. Manage the big thugs. Burn the field.
Read More »
Editorial: Bit parts in a disaster movie
The dirty little secret among Florida retirees used to be that their favorite television viewing was the Weather Channel. Seeing how cold and miserable the places were where they had migrated from (1) reconfirmed their decision to move and (2) gave them joy in the discomfort of those they had left behind.
Read More »
Septic system financial assistance available
Residents and businesses in most of Rappahannock County continue to be eligible for reimbursement of 50 percent of the expense of maintaining, repairing or replacing on-lot septic systems.
Read More »
Wild Ideas: Bunnies everywhere
Lately I’ve been observing numerous eastern cottontails, large and small, in the yard at dawn and dusk. It’s that time of year when our native rabbits are reproducing like, well, rabbits – big bunnies, little bunnies, bunnies everywhere in open spaces and along forest edges.
Read More »
Editorial: Remembering Agnes
Rappahannock County derives its name, of course, from the eponymous river, whose headwaters arise within our jurisdictional borders. So we should take some stakeholder interest in what happens downstream, particularly to the Chesapeake Bay, into which the Rappahannock’s waters ultimately empty.
Read More »
Letter: More than baby steps
In his editorial last week, the publisher said: “We have two choices in the face of environmental degradation. The first is to feel like we humans are all hospice patients just waiting for the inevitable, apocalyptic end. The other is to take action – countermeasures, albeit small but still meaningful to try to combat...
Read More »
Editorial: Birds, bees and baby steps
We have two choices in the face of the earth’s environmental degradation. The first is to feel like we humans are all hospice patients just waiting for the inevitable, apocalyptic end. The other is to take action – countermeasures, albeit small but still meaningful.
Read More »
Photos: RCCA takes the long ‘View’
Last Saturday (June 16), the eighth annual Rappahannock Evening View was hosted by longtime Rappahannock County residents Martin and Cheri Woodard at their appropriately named Longview Farm. Photos and a report.
Read More »
Editorial: Farmland forever?
The cause is noble but, given human nature, perhaps inevitably doomed: preserving farmland and other open spaces. A lost cause, really? The question is timely and worthy of discussion, since the eighth annual Rappahannock Evening View, put on by the Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance (RCCA), is scheduled for Saturday evening (June 16). RCCA, made...
Read More »
On June 16, it’s a tuneful ‘Evening View’
Dawn Landes, the singer-songwriter who has recently graced the stage at Wolf Trap and Lincoln Center, is coming to Rappahannock to perform at the Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance’s (RCCA) eighth annual Rappahannock Evening View on Saturday evening, June 16.
Read More »
Test-driving the future of farming
Farming isn’t just a job. For most farmers, it's a way of life, a family enterprise, a connection with the land and a means of making a living Five local farmers spent last year analyzing those motivating forces, and in many cases altering their farming operations to improve profitability, sustainability and the quality...
Read More »
Town’s 9-acre deal seen as a potential conservation model
The town of Washington plans to purchase one of the county's most develop-able commercial real estate tracts and, if all goes right, never develop it — except as a showcase of conservation.
Read More »
Follow Us
Photo/Video/Audio
© 2009-2013 Rappahannock Media 
Follow Us