Entries by Guest Author

Wayne National Forest Could Be Deforested – Again

Guest article by Becca Pollard Eighty years ago, Southeastern Ohio was a wasteland of barren, eroding hills. During the 18th and 19th centuries this once heavily forested area in the Appalachian foothills had been clear cut and mined beyond recognition. When the Great Depression struck, lowering crop prices made farming unprofitable in the area, and […]

Put on Your Earth Shoes

The biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. That’s one way to describe climate change. It proceeds ahead of schedule, threatening to wreak havoc on the world we know. No longer merely flirting with disaster, we’re tangled in a frenetic dance to save ourselves. Our friends at Years of Living Dangerously have vividly captured the scale […]

Wanted: More Places to Burn Natural Gas

By Alison Grass, Senior Researcher at Food & Water Watch Over the past decade, the natural gas industry has experienced a renaissance that has been a boon to energy company profits. But it has altered the quality of life for the rural communities where most new gas wells have been drilled. Now, fracking is fueling […]

Fracking in Dairy Country

A dairy farmer in Wisconsin reflects upon a new industry in town: frac sand mining, how it is perceived, and where the industry is headed. By Paul Jereczek Jereczek Homestead Dairy, Dodge, Wisconsin In 4th grade, every Wisconsin student learns about their state. Topics pertaining to Wisconsin’s economy, geography, and history along with ethnicity and traditions […]

Radium Watersheds a Risk

By Greg Pace – Columbus Community Bill of Rights, and Julie Weatherington-Rice – Environmental Consultant Most Ohio residents are unaware of the frack fluid deep underground injection occurring north of Columbus, underneath the region’s source water protection watersheds (Figure 1). Materials injected are liquids that have as much as ten times the salt concentration of sea-water. Mixed […]

World Class Dunes and Great Lakes Barrens at Risk at Ludington

By Dave Dister, Consulting Ecologist, Ludington, MI One of the prime reasons I moved to the Ludington, Michigan area in 2008 was the aesthetic and biological diversity evident at Ludington State Park (LSP). As a field biologist nearing the end of his formal career, I was eager to conduct a study of the vascular plants […]

On a Dark Road to Nowhere

Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave. The progressive conservationist and one-time republican knew that healthy air, clean water, and stewardship of natural resources are tantamount to a high quality of life. Fifty years before Donald Trump drew his first infantile breath, Roosevelt was championing national parks and cities beautiful. America gained stature in the […]

“Polluting Pruitt:” A Wolf to Guard the Hen House?

Guest article by Dakota Raynes, Co-Organizer of Stop Fracking Payne County (OK) President Trump recently tapped Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), even though Pruitt is a self-proclaimed “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” Pruitt is currently opposing investigation of Exxon Mobile’s handling of climate-change science based on […]