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N E W  Y O R K    New York is not all about its namesake city.  Yes, New York City is America’s most populous and densely inhabited metropolis, but New York State , in contrast, is full of natural wonders.  It’s America’s 10th most forested state, has the 6th most lakes of any state, and contains numerous marvels like Niagara Falls, Mt Marcy, and the Thousand Islands.  It also has Adirondack Park – the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous USA and greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon combined. Regarding my old friend The Nature Conservancy (TNC), New York is a landmark state with 160 preserves.  That’s right, 160 totaling 81,000 acres including Mianus Gorge, TNC’s first-ever preserve established in 1955.  As part of a trip to Quebec for business, my wife and I are visiting two of these 160 preserves, each located on shorelines of iconic lakes.  This quest I’m on to visit 100 preserves has taken m...

D I S M A L   S W A M P,   V A  In the 1700’s, at the southeast corner of Virginia’s border with North Carolina, the land was dismal – a million acres of swampy, thickly-vegetated, and useless wetland forest. An early survey by William Byrd declared the land “ a miserable morass where nothing can inhabit ”.   But a young entrepreneur named George Washington thought he could drain the swamp. He saw its lucrative real estate flip potential. His new company constructed drainage ditches and roads, hoping to dry out large swaths of sellable land in the young country’s most populated state. But ultimately, mother nature resisted, and the plan failed.   George was persistent though. His company changed focus and was able to squeeze out a little lumber income as well as successfully complete the Dismal Swamp Canal connecting the Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound which today is the oldest continually operating man-made canal in the U.S.  ...

  W I N K L E M A N,  A Z Awareness of Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness emerged years ago.   Amazing imagery of a fertile desert oasis burrowed deep into my imagination.   And that to hike the canyon requires a permit, and a willingness to tramp right through its ankle-deep perennial stream, dug even deeper into my imagination.   In 2016 on sabbatical in Arizona, I visited 7B Ranch – a Nature Conservancy (TNC) property acquired in conservation credit swap with a copper mining company.   Property Manager Celeste Andresen led me on a private tour of 7B, but also questioned my judgment.   7B is a mere 45 minutes from Aravaipa.   If coming to this part of Arizona, why not include Aravaipa?   (Apparently, she and her husband were super-hikers, aware of all the best places, so their recommendations should have been heeded.) At the time, I didn’t realize how smart that question was.   Yes, I had considered Aravaipa, but as a solo hiker, I was hes...

S M I T H   R O A C H   G A P,  V A   Over the past thirty-five years, I’ve driven 15,400 times up and over one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.  The Blue Ridge are an eastern-most front range of the Appalachians which extend from Pennsylvania to Georgia.   The range formed four hundred million years ago when Europe and North America collided pushing these mountains up as high as the Alps.  Millions of years later, they’ve been worn down by erosion to their current height which makes crossing them now only a mild hurdle along my daily commute.  To say the Blue Ridge are a familiar range is an understatement.  They’re my home team, mountain-wise. The Blue Ridge are renowned for their isoprene-triggered bluish tint.  If viewed with the glow of a sunrise or sunset mixed in, the imagery of this ancient mountain ridge becomes iconic.  Of my 15,400 crossings, many have occurred amid brilliant imagery. The name is...

T E X A S The jolly pilot announces we’re currently flying over Paris, Texas and should be landing in Dallas soon.   Looking north, I spot the Red River – a dividing line between Texas and Oklahoma.   Now oriented, I search for the two main destinations of this Texas trip – Clymer Meadow and Lennox Woods.   But from high above, I can’t differentiate features within the homogenous flatness, and it makes me question why I chose to add two Nature Conservancy (TNC) properties in east Texas to my collection.   Usually, TNC sites look very dynamic from the air.   But Clymer and Lennox apparently lie hidden in the flatness.   Though I can’t identify specifics, what is apparent is a change in the landscape occurring near Paris.   Ever since leaving Washington, DC, our flight has crossed mostly a forested landscape, but at Paris, trees give way to prairies.   And it’s these adjoining landscapes I’ll be visiting, both of which reveal Texas as it was befo...