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Murky Waters

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By Amy Mathews Amos

The waters of the United States are looking mighty murky right now because a seemingly simple question has become one of the most contentious policy debates in America today: Just what are the waters of the United States?

According to Bev McKay, Clarke County dairy farmer and member of the County Board of Supervisors, the answer to that question remains “brutally unclear.”

But Jeff Kelble of Boyce, who runs the Shenandoah Riverkeeper program, says any uncertainty is a ruse. “The Farm Bureau has manufactured a lot of fear on this,” he said.

At issue is what areas are protected under the federal Clean Water Act, first passed in 1972 to clean up rivers and streams throughout the country polluted by sewage, factories and more. For years the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers, the other federal agency charged with administering the Act, applied its protections to any surface water connected to navigable streams and rivers in some way, including tributaries and adjacent wetlands.

But lawsuits in 2001 and 2006 challenged the agencies’ interpretation, and the Supreme Court’s decisions in those cases muddied the waters. In the first, the Court ruled that migratory waterfowl like geese and ducks flying from one waterway to the next weren’t a sufficient connection on their own. In the second, Justice Antonin Scalia limited the Act’s scope to relatively permanent bodies of water and wetlands with a continuous surface connection to them. But Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote his own – somewhat more expansive – opinion that any waters with a “significant nexus” to navigable waters could be regulated. Just what that meant though, remained unclear.

Interest groups from all sides – including agricultural and environmental organizations – clamored for clarification. And so EPA set out to fill in the blanks.

The result is a 330 page scientific report aggregating more than a thousand peer-reviewed scientific studies showing how wetlands, headwaters, and even ephemeral waters that appear only seasonally or after rainstorms, are connected in intricate ways with larger waterways downstream. Biologically, these waters support fish, plants, amphibians, and other creatures that often move among different aquatic habitats at different stages in their lives. Chemically, these waters carry and absorb nutrients, pesticides, and other pollutants released from sewage systems, farms, and lawns. Collectively, headwater streams supply most of the water in major rivers. One-third of Americans rely on intermittent, ephemeral, or headwater streams for some or all of their drinking water, as do 2.3 million Virginians.

This spring, EPA and the Corps translated those scientific conclusions into proposed regulations for implementing the Clean Water Act. Since then, environmentalists and the American Farm Bureau Federation, a national agricultural trade group with chapters in every state, have been waging a war of words as the agencies seek public comments before finalizing the rule: When is a ditch a tributary? And when is a stock pond a wetland?

The seven-month public comment period ends November 14. The rule would apply across the United States and is separate from the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint and Chesapeake Watershed Agreement, two federal-state agreements that set goals for improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The Farm Bureau is campaigning aggressively against the proposed rule, calling it government overreach and predicting that ditches, farm ponds and puddles would come under EPA control. Farmers such as McKay and his colleague on the Board of Supervisors, beef farmer David Weiss, say they don’t know what to expect. They worry about EPA being overly aggressive, inspecting farmers’ land, and requiring permits for activities that previously were unregulated.

“The Farm Bureau is doing everything they can to drive a bus through tiny cracks,” says Kelble. The Congressional Research Service says it might be three percent of the waters on ag land. To squabble over three percent is just sad.”

Kelbe wonders whether the Farm Bureau is worried that if they don’t take a hard line things would be worse. “The Farm Bureau says its going to be every pond and ditch, but no one has been able to point out anything specific that would threaten farm operations in the rule,” said Kelble. I’ve asked a lot of people, and I haven’t had anyone been able to point it out to me. I’ve gone deep into the research, and as of this moment, is I don’t see it.”

The National Association of Counties also opposes the rule, saying it could inadvertently regulate roadside ditches and stormwater drains. Both groups supported a recently-passed House bill that would block the rule. (Congressman Frank Wolf voted for the bill, which President Obama has threatened to veto.)

But many businesses have rallied in support, including dozens of small breweries across the country under the banner “Brewers for Clean Water.” Old Bust Head Brewing Company in Fauquier County’s Vint Hill is one of them. Co-owner Ike Broaddus boasts that his company has “some of the best water around,” from wells that tap deep into an underground aquifer. “But we don’t take it for granted,” he says. “Clean water is a critical part of making beer.” Broaddus and his partners have installed a state of the art geothermal system and other energy saving features to heat and cool the brewery. Supporting clean water fits right into their company’s mission and culture. “It’s a no-brainer,” says Broaddus.

The American Sustainable Business Council, a nonprofit association of businesses dedicated to promoting a sustainable economy, also actively supports the rule, arguing that all businesses rely on clean water. Jeff Kelble learned this the hard way. A decade ago, he ran his own business as a fishing guide on the Shenandoah, Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, with a bed-and-breakfast in Boyce. But devastating fish kills on the Shenandoah left him struggling to find good experiences for his clients. Eventually, he closed his business and began working instead to clean up the river for the non-profit Riverkeeper network. “I could have just left the area,” says Kelble. “But I decided to stay and fight.”

It turns out he would have had plenty to fight elsewhere as well. The original Clean Water Act sought to make all U.S. waters swimmable and fishable by 1985. But almost 30 years later, roughly 40 percent of the nation’s waterways still fail to meet that standard.

EPA and its supporters – which include major environmental and sportsmen’s groups — maintain that the proposed rule won’t expand jurisdiction beyond its historic reach. Instead, it will clarify requirements that have been on the books for decades and ensure better consistency. And they stress that, as in the past, all normal farming operations and prior converted croplands will remain exempt from permit requirements.

But cattleman and County Supervisor Weiss says farmers remain skeptical. “I don’t think the farmers of Clarke County think the EPA is a bad institution,” says Weiss. “But we’re wary of its power,” which he calls unchecked. “Farmers are afraid that this [proposed rule] is a way to come further into our property, and further restrict our movements. It’s almost impossible to convince us otherwise.”

Kelble says he’s sensitive to those concerns, but he has confidence the rule is a reasonable step toward cleaner water. “My position as a waterkeeper is always to protect public water ways and drinking water. So I’ve done my own research on this,” he said. “But I have not talked with anyone else who has done their own research. Most of them are quoting taking points of Farm Bureau.

The real question, says Kelble, is this: “Are people saying we want less protection for their waterways.”

Amy Mathews Amos writes about environment, health and history from Shepherdstown, WV Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, Earth Touch News and elsewhere. She serves on the boards of the American Conservation Film Festival and Marine Conservation Institute and blogs for The Downstream Project at thedownstreamproject.org. Follow her @AmyMatAm.

Measure for Measure Among Blue And Gray

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By Stephen Willingham

While Americans celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the recent gruesome images of Western hostages being murdered by the so-called “Islamic State” only serve as a reminder that these kinds of atrocities are nothing new. In an effort to understand the senseless murder of the defenseless, we only need look to the brutal killings conducted by a detachment of Confederate Col. John S. Mosby’s forces near where Clarke County High School stands today.

These killings, in the foggy, pre-dawn hours of November 7, 1864, were committed in retaliation for the summary execution of six of Mosby’s troops in Front Royal, Va. earlier in the fall. However, it was not a random incident. This murder of innocent hostages, actually prisoners of war on both sides of the Gray and Blue divide, involved a series of larger events.

Soon after Mosby’s daring wagon-train raid at Berryville, on August 13, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant drafted a letter to the new commander of the Army of the Shenandoah, General Phillip Sheridan, “The families of most of Mosby’s men are known and can be collected. I think they should be taken and kept at Fort McHenry, or some other secure place, as hostages for the good conduct of Mosby’s men. When any of Mosby’s men are caught, hang them without trial.” Why had Mosby, and a command that probably never exceeded 500 operatives at any given time, become such a potent threat to the supreme commander of U.S. armed forces?

Unbeknownst to Grant, this order would ignite a grisly duel that would develop over several months and only end with these killings in Beemer’s Woods. The principal antagonists in this hideous affair would end up pitting Mosby against an equally determined nemesis, Union Brigadier-General, George Armstrong Custer.

Origins of the Fight

“Mosby’s Rangers,” as they were commonly known, was an independent, guerrilla unit of General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry division, and at least on paper, members of the Army of Northern Virginia, officially known as the 43rd Battalion of the 1st Virginia Cavalry. According to Grant’s order, why were bona fide members of an enemy force not to be accorded the same respect and civilized treatment as other prisoners-of-war?

In February 1864, U.S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant-general by President Lincoln and placed in charge of all Union forces. Lincoln, who faced re-election in November, wanted to bring the ruinous Civil War to an end by the time political campaigning rolled around.

During the spring of 1864, one of the few weapons remaining for General Robert E. Lee was to prolong the war and inflict as much damage on Grant as possible.

By July, Grant had Lee locked under siege at Petersburg, Va. In an effort to relieve pressure on his embattled forces, Lee sent General Jubal Early, with a small army, to operate in the Shenandoah Valley with the intended purpose of making a demonstration against Washington. Early’s efforts succeeded when Confederates eventually skirmished with Federal forces at Fort Stevens at Silver Spring, Md., in the suburbs of the capital city. Once again, the wily Confederates had used the Valley to threaten Washington and invade the North. As they had throughout the war, Confederate generals continued to enjoy the luxury of being on the offensive in the Shenandoah Valley.

Grant realized that the Valley could only be swept clean of Confederates by using a massive concentration of cavalry. As a result, he replaced the feckless General David Hunter with Sheridan on August 6, 1864.

August 13: The Berryville Wagon-Train Raid

Sheridan didn’t have long for a honeymoon. Every day after he assumed command there were new reports of partisan rangers causing mayhem and threatening his supply lines and outposts.

Quickly moving his army south to Harpers Ferry, Sheridan prepared to advance against Early, who had positioned his army on the west bank of the Opequon Creek in an effort to defend Winchester. With Sheridan busily securing the fords on the Opequon, Early, uncomfortable with his position, retreated further up the Valley to a fortified location near Strasburg. Early’s withdrawal greatly increased the length of Sheridan’s supply and communication lines, thus making them more vulnerable to sniping guerrilla attacks.

On August 12, a giant Union supply train, numbering 525 wagons, left Harpers Ferry, guarded by nearly 3,000 troops, with orders to reach Winchester as speedily as possible. A herd of cattle plodding along at the rear of the column slowed its progress. The ever-watchful Mosby, meanwhile, gathered a small force to pounce on this succulent prize.

According to Virgil Carrington Jones, in his biography, Ranger Mosby: “Noise made by this great shipment of military supplies echoed for miles. It came as a throaty roar of thudding hoofs, squeaking leather and clattering metal. Mules brayed up and down the line . . . Officers and teamsters, threatening penalties, swore violently in a futile effort to make their charges move faster.”

At a place known as Buckmarsh, about a mile north of Berryville, each section paused to water the mules and give the guards and drivers a respite before continuing west toward Winchester.

As Mosby recalls in his memoirs, during the night of August 12, he crossed the Blue Ridge through Snicker’s Gap with 250 men and two mountain howitzers. (One howitzer broke down and had to be abandoned.) Mosby forded the Shenandoah River near Castleman’s Ferry and the command rested while John Russell, leading several scouts, went out to reconnoiter.

Knowing that he couldn’t take on the whole train, Mosby intended to attack the tail end. Before long the scouts returned, interrupting a well-deserved nap by men who had been in the saddle all night. Mosby’s account continues:

 

 

“The men sprang to their saddles. With Russell and some others I went on in advance to choose the best place for attack, directing Captain William Chapman to bring on the command. About sunrise we were on a knoll from which we could get a good view of a great train of wagons moving along the road and a large drove of cattle with the train. The train was within a hundred yards of us, strongly guarded, but with flankers out. We were obscured by the mist, and, if noticed at all, were doubtless thought to be friends . . . The howitzer was made ready. Richards with his squadron, was sent to attack the front; William Chapman and Glasscock were to attack them in the rear, while Sam Chapman was kept near me and the howitzer.”

 

According to Mosby, the signal shot, “knocked the head off of one of the mules.” Surprise and confusion reigned. With the guard temporarily routed, Mosby began directing the destruction of the 75 wagons his men had captured. As the sun rose on a new day, so did the smoke from wagons, supplies and anything else that Mosby’s command could not carry away. Mosby captured more than 200 prisoners, including seven officers, 500–600 horses and mules, nearly 200 beef cattle, and a cache of sundry valuable stores. However, an even grander prize eluded Mosby and his men. Unknown to them, a box containing $112,000 payroll was later recovered from the side of the road by returning Federals.

August 19: The Morgan’s Lane Fight

Following the Berryville Wagon-Train Raid, Mosby divided his command so that the Rangers could simultaneously strike Sheridan in more places. Keeping Companies A and B, Mosby rode off toward Charles Town, while Companies C, D, E were placed under Captain William Chapman who was ordered to continue operations around Berryville and Winchester.

Later, while crossing the Blue Ridge through Snicker’s Gap, a portion of Chapman’s men surprised a picket outpost of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, part of Custer’s command. A brief exchange resulted in one Union cavalryman killed and several wounded and captured.

When informed early the next morning of the attack, Custer decided to teach the Rangers a lesson in an effort to protect his own men from what he considered to be uncivilized conduct. The flamboyant young general ordered two companies of the Fifth Michigan to burn several homes of prominent secessionists and suspected partisan supporters. The companies split into squads and spread out to perform their assignment. On the evening of August 19, a company of Rangers led by William Chapman approached the Valley from the east. The sight of burning houses and barns chilled their blood.

Chapman and his men soon arrived at the home of Colonel Morgan, now Hill and Dale Farm. The barns and outbuildings were already reduced to flames. The house had recently been torched by a party of Federals, who now stood back to admire their handiwork. Suddenly, they were viciously attacked by Chapman’s company. With a cry of “take no prisoners,” the Rangers began the systematic annihilation of their enemy, by the light of the recently set inferno.

A reporter from the New York Times wrote in dispatch sent from Berryville, on August 21: “Captain Drake, leaving the main part of the command under Lt. Allen in line near one house which had been fired, took a few men and proceeded to fire another house about 100 rods distant. While thus engaged 200 rebels suddenly emerged from a ravine and made a furious charge upon the force under Lt. Allen before due preparation could be made to receive them.”

The Federals broke and ran, but an unusual configuration of stone fences prevented the escape of many. Though badly outnumbered, a few tried to mount resistance before they were overwhelmed. Upon seeing the hopelessness of their situation, others tried to surrender. The Rangers made good on their promise to take no prisoners. In his book, Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders, Jones describes their last moments: “They hid behind the burning ruins, they crouched in the corners of fences, they begged for life, but their day of grace was past.”

On September 11, Mosby mentioned the Morgan’s Lane fight in a report to General Lee. According to James J. Williamson in his memoir, Mosby’s Rangers, “About 25 were shot for their villainy. About 30 horses were brought off, but no prisoners.”

September 23: Custer Executes Six Rangers At Front Royal

After being defeated at Winchester, Jubal Early retreated south of Strasburg to a somewhat fortified position on Fisher’s Hill. Sheridan, in an attempt to get behind the Confederate army, sent General Alfred T. A. Torbert with two brigades of cavalry up the Luray Valley. By evening of September 20, Early was again forced to retreat. The Union cavalry, however, did not fare so well, encountering stiff resistance from Confederate Fitz Lee’s horsemen. Following several unsuccessful charges, Torbert pulled back. During the course of the Union withdrawal, Sam Chapman, leading a detachment of Rangers, lurked in the mountains. Dividing his command, the Rangers struck at an ambulance train rolling through Chester Gap, near Front Royal.

Sam Chapman had approximately 120 men under his command at that time. While preparing for his part of the attack, Chapman realized that the train was guarded by a brigade of Union cavalry. Frantically, he tried to reach Captain Frankland, who commanded the other wing of the assault, to call off the attack. The warning arrived too late.

Chapman retreated through Chester Gap, hard pressed by Union cavalry. In a valiant effort to escape, the Rangers turned and counter-attacked, riding head-long into the enemy, hoping to cause as much confusion as possible to cover their escape. During the fight, a Union lieutenant named Charles McMaster was cut to pieces by bullets from the revolvers of frantic partisans. Rumor had it that Lieutenant McMaster had surrendered and that the rebels showed no mercy and gunned him down.

More hearsay swirled about. Union soldiers with their throats cut were supposedly lying beside the road; McMaster’s pockets were presumably robbed, while another Federal was found stripped to his underwear, hiding in a barn. As Jones reports in Gray Ghosts, “All implications involving feats that would seem scarcely possible in the heat and pressure of the moment.”

In reality, it appears that McMaster, whose horse had been shot out from under him, had been on the ground attempting to lead his men to cut off the partisans’ retreat. In the milieu, the Union officer had been trampled in the heat of the moment.

Upon viewing the body, Custer proved to be inconsolable. From Ranger Mosby, Jones reveals: “Derision hurt and ridicule disparaged. It was not within his power to lose gracefully in open battle, let alone in the small skirmishes of independent warfare. The repulse that morning at Milford had injured his pride; the sight of McMaster infuriated him, and in the back of his mind was the haunting memory of the house-burners he had sent to their death.”

Most of Chapman’s men got away from the debacle that could have gotten them all captured. However, six were captured and taken into Front Royal. Four of the rebel prisoners were shot and two were hanged on the main road entering Front Royal. On the chest of one man, the executioners fixed a sign, which read, “Such is the fate of all of Mosby’s gang.”

November 7: Mosby Executes Some of Custer’s Men at Berryville

While his men were being murdered in Front Royal, Mosby had been recuperating from a wound sustained in a separate action. By the time he returned to his command on September 29, Mosby had little time to contemplate revenge against Custer. Early had been routed. The remnants of his army awaited those few reinforcements coming his way in the area of New Market. Meanwhile, Mosby had his hands full sniping at Sheridan’s supply and communications lines.

In an effort to shorten his supply lines and make them less vulnerable to partisan attack, Sheridan made an attempt to reopen the Manassas Gap Railroad east of Front Royal. Mosby was equally determined to thwart the effort. Eventually, Sheridan gave up on the railroad since the partisans constantly harassed the construction crews, who required considerable guard, and ripped up track nearly as fast as it got laid.

For his part, Mosby never forgot the indignity and uncivilized treatment of his men at Front Royal. With winter fast approaching, and Early recently defeated at Cedar Creek, the partisan leader found a respite for retaliation.

At the end of October, while fighting over the Manassas Gap Railroad, Mosby had written to General Lee complaining about the barbarous Federal treatment of citizens within his theater of operation.

“I desire to bring, through you, to the notice of the Government the brutal conduct of the enemy manifested toward citizens of this district since the occupation of the Manassas road. When they first advanced up the road we smashed up one of their trains, killing and wounding a large number. In retaliation they arrested a large number of citizens living along the line . . . During the absence from my command, the enemy captured 6 of my men near Front Royal; these were immediately hung by order and in the presence of General Custer. They also hung another in Rappahannock. It is my purpose to hang an equal number of Custer’s men whenever I capture them.”

On November 2, General Lee endorsed Mosby’s proposed action with a letter to Mosby’s adjutant. A copy went to the Confederate Inspector’s General office: “I do not know how we can prevent the cruel conduct of the enemy toward our citizens. I have directed Colonel Mosby, through his adjutant, to hang an equal number of Custer’s men in retaliation for those executed by him.”

This letter proceeded up the chain of command through Adjutant General, H. L.Clay to Confederate Secretary of War, J. A. Seddon. On November 14, Seddon belatedly approved Mosby’s plan.

Meanwhile, at Rectortown, in Fauquier County, on November 6, Mosby’s command found themselves with 27 prisoners, some of whom belonged to Custer. Williamson recalls: “The 27 prisoners were drawn up in single line. Twenty-seven epics of paper, seven of which were numbered and the remainder blanks, being put into a hat and the hat shaken up, each prisoner was required to draw. The numbered pieces meant death by hanging, and the blanks Richmond and Libby Prison.”

A newsboy and a drummer boy were among the captured. The newsboy was summarily released. When informed that a drummer boy was among the condemned, Mosby ordered another drawing to find a replacement.

Then, with a squad under the direction of Lieutenant E. F. Thomson, the hostages were taken across the Blue Ridge through Ashby Gap where the group stopped in the town of Paris. Thomson had been ordered by Mosby to execute the men as close to Sheridan’s headquarters as possible.

Captain Montjoy, heading back to Fauquier from the Valley, also stopped at Paris for the night. Upon discovering that two of the condemned Union hostages were fellow Freemasons, Montjoy, being the ranking officer, immediately replaced them with two men from the prisoners he had taken in an earlier raid. The hostages were roped together to prevent their escape, but one, Private George Soule of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, slipped his hands free and faded into the night.

Originally, Mosby had wanted the prisoners hanged on the Valley Pike near Winchester. But with dawn approaching and the party running behind time, Thomson decided to conduct the executions on the Winchester Pike outside of Berryville. According to Williamson, this was Beemer’s Woods, about 100 yards from what is now the Clarke County Ruritan Fairgrounds.

Three of the Federals were hanged before Thomson discovered that the Rebs hadn’t brought enough rope to finish the job. The other prisoners were allowed to kneel and pray before being shot. One prisoner apparently untied his hands and struck Thomson, knocking him to the ground, and disappeared into the darkness and mist of early morning. The remaining hostages were immediately shot. According to Williamson, the escapee climbed a tree where he remained until the Ranger party departed. Eventually, he made his way back to the Union army.

Pinned to the breast of one of the hanged men was a note from Mosby. “These men have been hung in retaliation for an equal number of Colonel Mosby’s men hung by order of General Custer at Front Royal. Measure for measure.”

Reconciliation, of a kind

On November 11, Mosby dispatched John Russell to Sheridan’s headquarters with a letter of reconciliation. In this missive, Mosby delineated numerous incidents of his humane treatment of hundreds of Federal prisoners processed by his command. He explained that the killings of Union prisoners was intended to avenge not only the six Rangers killed at Front Royal, but also one summarily executed in Rappahannock during actions centered around the Manassas Gap Railroad fight. Mosby closed by offering to cease atrocities.

“Hereafter any prisoners falling into my hands will be treated with the kindness due to their condition, unless some new act of barbarity shall compel me reluctantly to adopt a line of policy repugnant to humanity.”

Any further retribution, by Mosby, Sheridan, or Custer, ceased. Early’s army had been shattered at Cedar Creek, and with the onset of winter, retreated to a position below Waynesboro, never again to pose a threat to Union occupation. The wanton murder of hostages by both sides ultimately accomplished nothing.

To Play A Summer of Softball

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By Victoria Kidd

 

Some teenagers pass their summertime afternoons and weekends lounging about every open chair and bench at the mall. Others congregate in the basement of a particular friend’s house to log vast amounts of time on Xbox and PlayStation game consoles. It may seem that youth could very well be wasted on the young, as picture-perfect days are, arguably, squandered without any perceivable gain. Opposing that tired axiom about youth are the young athletes who spend their summers as members of travel fastpitch softball teams.

Fastpitch softball is widely considered the most competitive form of softball—a game that is similar to, but not the same as, baseball. For many years, it was even an Olympic event. The rules of the game vary slightly from baseball, but with pitching speeds reaching up to 60 or 80 miles per hour, it is equally as intense for many players, spectators, and coaches.

Coaches, in particular, have a unique perspective into the intensity of the game, as they are centrally involved in training players season after season. Team manager and coach, Chuck Siburt, of Inwood, W.Va., manages the Eastern Panhandle Scorchers, a nonprofit area travel team.

The team’s name is new, but the coach has been involved with its previous incarnations for six years, with different players coming and going. This year’s team includes players from Virginia and West Virginia representing Clarke, Warren, and Frederick counties in Virginia, as well as West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. Thirteen girls in total have come together and committed to a summer of playing softball, a sport that Siburt believes is equally as compelling as baseball, its more popular “big brother.”

“I feel that softball is much more intense, and even harder, than baseball,” he says. “A softball is definitely harder to hit than a baseball. A batter for baseball is 60 feet, 6 inches from the pitcher. In softball, the batter is 43 feet from the pitcher, and by the time the pitcher strides out and releases the ball, the batter is about 40 feet away.” This difference may seem unimportant until you factor in reaction time. With less distance between batter and pitcher, the batter has less time to evaluate the pitch, make adjustments in stance, swing, and (hopefully) connect with ball.

The thrilling and intense nature of softball play is even more complex for travel teams because the commitment to “travel ball” (as it is sometimes called) requires a player to give up almost every weekend of their summer for in-season play, while also pledging additional off-season Sunday afternoons from the middle of November to the middle of March to practice. The Scorchers compete in nearly 50 games during the tournament season, with three to four games played each Saturday and one to two played each Sunday. “We play more games in a single day than most high school teams play in a week,” Siburt observes.

The potential payoff for that commitment is great. The college softball season overlaps the high school season, creating a challenge for college coaches, according to Siburt. College coaches who are scouting for players to join their teams often frequent travel tournaments where they can watch many players from around the area at once.

He explains, “The travel team experience is becoming a must-have in order to compete at the college level—especially for those hoping to obtain an athletic scholarship.” Essentially, when it comes to competing for the few softball scholarships that exist, travel ball has made high school game play a less desirable means for college coaches to find talent, and the presence of college scouts makes travel ball more competitive.

That level of pressure, coupled with the required commitment of time, may seem daunting, but the coach’s players will tell you that they cannot imagine their summers without travel ball. “Fastpitch softball runs in my blood,” says Robin Blowers of Winchester. Blowers, a rising sophomore at John Handley High School, has three years of softball behind her, but this is her first year playing for a travel team.

In addition to loving the “thrill of running bases, or the excitement of waiting for the pitch,” Blowers believes participation teaches valuable life lessons. She says, “I think that being involved in any sports team helps you learn how to deal with problems that come up within a group. It helps you to understand the value of working together and of cooperation . . . it helps you learn how to encourage others and pick them up when needed.” The belief that participation in travel team play provides valuable experience beyond the athletic variety is not exclusive to Blowers.

“The whole team is pretty much like family,” says team member Katherine “Kat” Ramey of Winchester. Ramey, a recent graduate of John Handley High School, has played softball for 10 years, but has been a member of a travel team for the past three years. She asserts that travel ball has complemented her education with lessons in teamwork and leadership. “I’ve been able to learn how to cooperate with others, and I’ve been able to learn how to adjust for people’s personalities and how others react to situations.”

Morgan Mills of Jefferson County, West Virginia, agrees. “Travel ball is a lot more competitive than school ball, but you get a chance to get really close to your team members.” Mills, a rising senior at Washington High School in Charles Town, has played travel ball for three years. She agrees that participation teaches leadership and cooperation, but she perceives there to be another benefit to travel team involvement.

“A lot of girls my age are staying out late and getting into trouble, but I have to get up early to be ready to go to our games,” she explains. The temptation and pressure to make bad choices tapers when one has committed the summer to team play. “The game has kept me focused. It’s taught me that if you love something, you have to make good decisions and you have to make sacrifices . . . it has been good for me.”

These life lessons, according to Coach Siburt, are an integral part of the program’s philosophy. “The Eastern Panhandle Scorchers was developed for athletes to engage in quality, competitive experiences,” he says. “A competitive athletic experience can produce a good work ethic, enhance social development, and contribute to mental and physical health, while teaching the value of personal responsibility, self-discipline, self-motivation, and teamwork.”

While these leadership experiences are undeniably priceless, they do not come without costs. Tournament fees can range between $490 and $1,400 for a single weekend of play. Players are charged $400 a season to play, but that fee barely covers uniforms, batting helmets, and other expenses. Fundraising efforts, including the solicitation of team sponsorships and outright tax-deductible donations, are essential to the team’s success.

Siburt says, “We have a very young team with three rising seniors this year. We would love to give them the opportunity to play in a college showcase tournament . . . but these are the most expensive tournaments.” The community’s financial support provides the team members with a chance to be noticed by college scouts that attend college showcases, so the team is always fundraising just to gain the opportunity to play.

But the work is worth it, according to Clarke County resident and Scorchers player Destiny Pierce. She has been involved with travel ball for three years, but playing softball for seven years. Her lengthy involvement with softball provides her with a unique perspective and adequate experience from which to describe a travel team player’s life.

“To me, softball is both a team sport and an individual sport,” she says. “I have to work on my own and practice to better myself and to be a better player, but I also have to work within the team. It’s hard work, but it’s also a valuable life experience and learning experience. It’s helped me grow a lot.”

The life of a travel team player is hectic, but youth is fleeting, and these players are steadfast in their belief that every early morning, grueling bus trip, sweat-filled afternoon, and exhausting practice is worth it. To follow the team’s play or to find out how you can help them compete in more tournaments, visit www.facebook.com/EPScorchers18u, or better yet, take a weekend to attend a travel tournament to see firsthand what these young athletes can do with a summer of softball.

The Unflappable Blacksnake

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By Doug Pifer

 

My wife called from the yard, “Come see the big beautiful blacksnake.”

She wouldn’t call me down just to see a snake unless there was something unusual, so I came and met a brief standoff scene. In the yard our two setters stood intently on point on either side of my wife on one side of the fence, and our donkey stood on the other. In the midst of us all, cornered against the fence, was a blacksnake.

If ever a legless creature could stand, this magnificent snake stood, coiled in a defensive spiral. Facing off two bird dogs, two humans and a donkey, any of which could have killed it, the reptile seemed alert but calm. Only its fork-tipped tongue moved, in and out of the closed mouth, even when one of the dogs would warily approach and then retreat.

I snapped a few pictures on my phone and we quickly moved the dogs away so they wouldn’t harass the snake. The snake slowly uncoiled and glided through the grass toward the wooded fence line.

Drama is routine for a predatory animal like a blacksnake. I’ve heard the commotion a tree-climbing snake causes among the resident birds. I’ve watched a barrage of parent birds attack a snake with its jaws clamped around a nestling. One morning a series of loud shrieks led me to a blacksnake holding a baby rabbit in its coils, just as our cat and a wild red fox, coming from different directions, arrived on the scene. And when they aren’t hunting, snakes are continually heckled and mobbed.

In all of these instances, the snakes seem to maintain a zen-like composure while being attacked. Perhaps their reptilian brain instinctively delays a response, or maybe they’ve learned to accept persecution as part of life. A snake’s first reaction upon being seen seems to be to remain motionless. This helps it blend into its surroundings and disappear. Unfortunately, this pause has resulted in too many blacksnakes being killed by humans.

When I was growing up, I seemed to be surrounded by people who, through superstition, fear, or ignorance, killed every snake they met. As I’ve grown older, I’m heartened to encounter more people who respect snakes as useful predators or as fellow creatures who prefer to retreat from humans and bite only in self-defense when surprised or cornered.

Snakes face more dangers now than ever before. Species once common in city backyards are now hard to find, as vacant lots are developed or transformed into buildings or parking lots. Snakes’ nesting and hibernating places are being destroyed by industrial and residential development. Our ever-increasing free roaming dogs and cats kill and eat snakes. Modern farming methods increase the chances of snakes being destroyed by harvesting and mowing equipment. And those that survive all this face a daily threat from getting run down on a highway.

Stop and look when you encounter a snake. Show some respect and let it pass. It may be the last one you’ll ever see. 

Southern Discomfort: A Local Species Faces Global Challenges

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By Amy Mathews Amos

“It’s a rattlesnakey kind of day,” says Tom Akre as he guides his pickup truck along a dusty gravel road in George Washington National Forest near the Virginia–West Virginia border. That’s not a good thing. It’s late May—quite late for nesting wood turtles. They usually start nesting by the middle of the month. But the cold and snow of multiple polar vortexes delayed spring this year. So far, none of the 55 female turtles in Tom’s study area has dug a hole and deposited her clutch of eggs.

On this day, the weather is finally glorious—sunny, low humidity with temperatures in the low 70s. Good for rattlesnakes and people, but not for turtles. Too much sun, and they overheat. Too dry, and they desiccate. At this point in the year most females are heavy with eggs. But unless the conditions are just right they’ll stay put, hiding under leaves in forest glades or retreating to the cool streams.

Tom is a wildlife ecologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., who has agreed to let me shadow him for a day in the field. He’s an easy-going guy with cheerful blue eyes and a ready smile under his light brown beard, and he guides his six field assistants—all young interns and graduate students—with a friendly firmness that keeps them on track. But his research subjects are finicky.

We spent the morning searching for turtles along the Forest Service road, the hillsides rising up from it, and the creeks flowing beside it. Tom and his crew have placed radio transmitters on many of the females to track them as they migrate from the streams where they hibernate to the spots they ultimately choose to lay their eggs. Their radio transmitters can send signals up to a mile away, but those signals often bounce off the walls of the steep hillsides. Today, the clicks on the radio receiver have lured us repeatedly up steep slopes only to send us bushwacking back down again when the signal shifts to the valley below. So far, we’ve found four turtles. Some by following those confusing radio signals until they finally zero in on a female. Others—such as the big guy nicknamed “Ultra-male”—by simply searching the ground around moist seeps where turtles feed. Despite the bright orange coloring on their legs and necks, wood turtles are surprisingly hard to spot.

But it’s now mid-afternoon, and we haven’t seen any nesting females. And although I’ve been relishing the sunny weather as I traipse through the forest with Tom and his crew, everyone else has been hoping for rain. Just the right amount of rain at the right temperature should break the nesting bottleneck, prompting a slew of ready females to move out of the seeps where they feed and onto the sandy banks where they nest. The right amount of rain will moisten the soil making it easy to dig. The right temperature will keep the cold-blooded turtles active. We need, literally, the perfect storm.

Southern Limits

Eastern West Virginia and Rockingham and Augusta counties in Virginia mark the southern extent of the wood turtle’s range. In a world that’s growing warmer, that’s bad news if you’re a turtle. A recent study in the scientific journal PLoS One found that many North American turtles are at risk from climate change. Evidence from past ice ages suggest that the rate of change today is too fast for turtles to shift their geographic ranges and find new suitable habitat. Wood turtles live throughout the northeastern United States from Maine to Virginia, but they’re at risk everywhere. Their far-ranging and finicky habits—searching for just the right locations to hibernate, feed and nest—make them vulnerable to development throughout the region. And their pretty orange legs and neck make them attractive as pets. Poachers illegally catch wood turtles and sell them to collectors for hundreds of dollars each. In fact, when I first arrived at the forest that morning, Tom made me promise not to reveal the study site’s location. “The last thing we want to do is tell dealers where they can find turtles,” he said.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which monitors the status of wildlife globally, considers wood turtles endangered. The states of Virginia and West Virginia both have officially listed wood turtles as a species of greatest conservation concern. And biologists from state wildlife agencies, universities and conservation groups throughout the Northeast are now coordinating their research efforts to keep wood turtles off the federal endangered species list. As part of that, Tom and his crew are trying to understand why wood turtles choose some locations over others, and whether those choices are actually good in a world that is vastly different from the one in which they evolved.

Eons ago, wood turtles in the Shenandoah and Potomac valleys probably could have met all their needs within a pretty small area. They could nest each spring in the soft sandy banks that form along bends in the river and nearby tributaries. They could feed in the adjacent forest, which had just enough shade to prevent overheating and—thanks to occasional flooding that culled some of the trees—just enough sunlight for tasty plants to grow along the ground. Because their nests were so close to the water, their tiny offspring wouldn’t have far to go before reaching the relative safety of the stream. In winter, they could avoid the worst of the flooding by hibernating in smaller side streams, less likely to wash them away in severe storms. If some populations did get washed out, there were plenty of others elsewhere to recolonize the site the next year.

Today it’s different. Houses, farms, and roads hug rivers and creeks, not sandy beaches. The surrounding landscape isn’t a turtle-perfect blend of patchy forest, either. Instead, it’s suburban lawns, cow pastures, and farm fields. After spending the winter hibernating in a small stream, wood turtles head out each spring in search of food and nest sites, sometimes covering miles in their search when they don’t find the right conditions nearby. Graduate student Jeff Dragon spelled out the reality bluntly for me that morning. “If you apply that to Clarke County or even Fairfax where they used to live—you take a turtle from a creek and draw a line two miles around from the point where they’re nesting—you’ll see that they’re going to have to cross six roads. And then they have to come right back and cross those six roads again [on their return]. They might make it this year, they might make it next year, but they normally would live 60 or 70 years, and they only replace themselves a few times in that life span. So when a turtle like that gets hit, it’s going to cause extinction really fast.”

At the ripe old age of 27, Dragon feels like he’s already seen this happen in South Jersey where he grew up. He was a turtle fanatic as a kid, spending his summers catching box turtles and transplanting them around his neighborhood for fun. But at some point the turtles disappeared. He blamed the development boom of the 1990s and decided to study turtle conservation in college. He’s been tracking the survival rate of wood turtle hatchlings for his Master’s Degree at George Mason University and working closely with Akre to understand how turtle choices and human activities affect that survival.

Looking for Answers

Traffic is minimal in the National Forest where the team works, but the Forest Service’s gravel roads affect turtles in other ways. We’re in the mountains, and the small forest streams here generate few, if any, sandy banks. Instead, the most obvious open banks occur along the twisty dirt road. After tracking females in his 12 square-mile study area for years now, Akre has a good idea of which banks attract nesting wood turtles. “That’s Queen’s Bank,” he says as we bump along the road in the hot sunshine, so named for an assertive female nicknamed Queen who frequently nests there. But we see no sign of her. Presumably, she’s waiting for this afternoon’s predicted rain shower.

Tom points out other roadside banks where wood turtles often nest as well. But his research is revealing that, despite their superficial similarity to idyllic riverside beaches, these nest sites often don’t turn out well. For one thing, they’re not alongside the water. So once hatched, baby turtles no bigger than an Oreo cookie might have to travel overland hundreds of yards or more to get to the stream’s safety. Along the way, they’re an easy target for raccoons and other predators. But many nests don’t even last long enough for the hatchlings to attempt their maiden trek to the stream. Predators find the eggs and eat them before they hatch. Or the soil along the banks prevents adequate drainage, and the eggs get waterlogged. Akre wonders if these forest roads inadvertently create ecological traps, luring females with their open beach-like exposure, but poorly mimicking the conditions their offspring need to survive.

So he’s gathering data to find out. His research is funded by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries with in-kind support from the U.S. Forest Service and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Once focused almost exclusively on captive breeding of endangered, often foreign, wildlife as an arm of the National Zoo, the Institute has expanded its work in recent years to address wildlife conservation in Virginia as well. That includes working with private landowners through the Virginia Working Landscapes Program, and partnering with George Mason University to provide students with hands-on internships and graduate fellowships. That partnership has provided Akre with all six of his crew members here today.

Together, they’ll find about 40 wood turtle nests in this section of the forest. They’ll protect half the nests from predators and measure just about everything they can think of that might make these sites attractive to a nesting wood turtle or affect the survival of her offspring: The type of soil and its temperature over the summer, nearby vegetation, the direction and angle of the slope, and the distance of the nest from the closest water. When the eggs hatch in August, the team will attach mini transmitters to the hatchlings’ tiny shells, and track them for at least 80 days to see how they fare.

They’ll leave the remaining nests unprotected and set up cameras that automatically snap photos of any warm-blooded creature that moves nearby. Predation is high for turtles just about everywhere. But Akre cites scientific studies showing that predators are more successful when they hunt along straight lines—such as trails or dirt roads—than they are by simply searching around in the mosaic of natural landscape. Dragon goes even further. “They learn,” he told me that morning. “They know to run these roads during this time of year. They think ‘oh May and June, it’s time to get those eggs.’”

Here at the southern end of the wood turtle’s range, a warming climate could soon become another problem. Akre’s not yet sure why wood turtles don’t extend any farther south, but he thinks it might be related to high summer temperatures drying out nests. Those temperatures are expected to get even higher in coming decades. At a recent conference on climate change in West Virginia, state climatologist Kevin Law predicted that the number of days exceeding 95 degrees in a typical year could increase from 0 to 10 days now, to 5 to 30 days by mid-century. He also expects extreme rainfall events to increase. Today, about 7 to 11 days experience more than an inch of rain each year. In 50 years, that could be 8 to 12 days. Flooding from extreme weather can wash away turtles and wipe out nests: Just two weeks previously, flooding from a heavy mid-May rainstorm killed one of the team’s turtles.

Rainy Release

The team has split up this afternoon—I’ve joined Akre and his project manager Ellery Ruthie, while Dragon led two interns in another section of the forest. It’s now time to check in and compare notes. Akre slides the pickup in front of a compact car with New Jersey plates parked alongside the road and we find Dragon’s group in the nearby forest. They tell us they’ve found several turtles in the area, but none nesting. Above us, the sky starts to darken and thunder rumbles in the distance. But the crew is too jaded to pin much hope on it. The turtles should have been nesting for days now; the crew scrambling to keep up. Every day they’ve expected this to be the day, only to be disappointed. Suddenly the clouds let loose and large cool drops splatter on all of us. We’re quickly getting drenched and rush back to the cars for rain gear and temporary cover.

No one expects the turtles to respond immediately—it could take a half hour or more for the rainfall to actually loosen up the dry soil. Tom drives down the road on the lookout anyway. He doesn’t get very far: There in the middle of the road, mere minutes after the cloudburst, is the turtle known simply as number 403 heading steadily towards the sandy bank on the other side.

We spot three more nesting females that afternoon, all of them in the exposed banks sloping uphill along the Forest Service road, plus one more in the forest still waiting for just the right time. Number 403 isn’t quite ready to dig, and Ellery places a radio transmitter on her so the team can track her in coming days. Number 705 is testing out the soil when we spot her, trying to determine if she found a good spot. Number 708, nicknamed Cracky for the obvious crack on her shell, is digging her nest. And number 96 is finishing up, packing in the dirt to protect her just-laid clutch.

I decide to pack it in myself. It’s six o’clock  in the evening and I’m wet and chilled from wading through creeks, hiking through seeps, and searching for turtles in the rain. Now that the action has started, the crew has a long night ahead of it. I flick yet another tick off my arm and head out, hoping that the site is secure, the turtles choose wisely, and the weather—now and in the future—cooperates.

 

Amy Mathews Amos has worked at the interface of environmental science and public policy for 25 years as an analyst, advocate, consultant and now writer. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, Earth Touch News Network and elsewhere. She serves on the boards of the American Conservation Film Festival and Marine Conservation Institute, and blogs for The Downstream Project at thedownstreamproject.org. Follow her on Twitter
@AmyMatAm.

What is your most treasured material possession and why?

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Interviews and photos by Jennifer Lee

 

“The door to my garage. My husband Jay designed the glass panel that’s in it, and it’s why I married him! It was on his front door when I met him.” —Peggy Duvall, 56, White Post

 

 

 

 

“My down sleeping bag that I got for Christmas when I was 17. I walked into the orchard late that night and slept in that bag. Almost 40 years later, and I still carry it with me and use it when I need to!”  —Glassell Smalley, 56, Berryville

 

 

“All of them! As a hoarder in training, how could I choose?” —Hilary Dunn, 22, Berryville

 

 

 

“The snake bracelet from the Holy Land that my stepdad’s mother gave me. It wraps around my arm and has little red eyes and is about 70 years old. It was one of her favorite things that she bought for herself and she gave it to me. Unfortunately, I don’t wear it. It sits in a box because I’m afraid it will break.” —Jordan deButts, 28, of Boyce and New York City

 

 

“My copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, that he personally shot with his pistol and signed to me. I received it as a gift from a dear friend who got to interview him for the Atlantic Monthly online magazine.” —Allen Kitselman, 54, Berryville

 

 

“My violin. I got it when I was 16, when I was finally big enough to hold a full-size violin, and I’ve been playing it for 31 years. I played it at Carnegie Hall when I was 16, and now I play it with The Bitter Liberals band.” —Gary McGraw, 47, Berryville

Don’t Miss the 60th Annual Clarke County Fair

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Story by Victoria Kidd, photo by Jennifer Lee

There’s a time of the year when the summer solstice has passed and the days start to get shorter. Each August promises one more month of summer indulgences before September bridges the season’s retreat with the advance of autumn. Essentially, it’s a perfect time to enjoy the Clarke County Fair at the Clarke County Ruritan Fairgrounds in Berryville, Virginia, August 10-16.

This year marks the 60th annual Clarke County Fair, and the Ruritan Club has been hard at work to make this a year to remember. The club is a service organization that participates in a number of community service projects each year. They are most widely recognized as the presenters of the annual fair, a weeklong celebration of the county’s rich heritage.

The club spends significant effort planning and preparing for fair week. Their event webpage expresses their desire to “give back” by presenting this event year after year for the enjoyment of county residents and neighboring friends. This year’s event, scheduled August 10–16, includes some long-standing favorites and exciting entertainment.

The opening ceremony takes place Sunday the 10th—a busy and lively day at the fairgrounds, as livestock owners ready their cows, sheep, goats, and hogs for exhibition. The day concludes with the Junior Miss Clarke County Fair Contest and the Miss Clarke County Fair Scholarship Pageant.

Monday brings an opportunity to enjoy the legendary beef and chicken barbecue (complete with sauce prepared by the Ruritan Club) that locals wait for all year. Once attendees have satisfied their cravings, they can head over to the area where R.C. Cole Shows operates carnival rides to excite the thrill seekers among the crowd.

For some, Tuesday may bring a cotton candy hangover. For others, the day will be filled with livestock judging, more barbecue, the King BMX Sports Stunt Show, and a night of rock & roll, as the HTH Kiss Tribute Band fills the evening with music.

 

Wednesday is special to both senior citizens and children, as it’s the day when individuals falling within certain age ranges enjoy free admission. Those attending will have the opportunity to enjoy a puppet show at the fairground’s grandstand or the SAWJAC show—an event that is equal parts chainsaw and artistic expression. The Dragon MotorSports Truck and Tractor Pull rounds out evening activities, offering attendees a chance to enjoy an event that could be considered “quintessentially Clarke County.”

All active-duty armed forces personnel and military veterans are invited to enjoy Thursday without admission fees. While the day brings another chance to enjoy the truck and tractor pull, it also affords the opportunity to witness the sheep and goat Olympics and the bunny carrot-eating contest for those who seek the softer side of the fair.

Friday rounds out the weekday happenings with more livestock-related activities, a tractor-driving contest, and a children’s fair day camp. Attendance swells on Friday, with fairgoers flooding in to enjoy the professional bull riding and rodeo event. This beloved event is one of the most exciting of the entire week.

All good things must come to an end, and Saturday, August 16 marks the last day of the fair. The day is truly the crescendo of the weeklong celebration of Clarke County life, as fairgoers get their last taste of carnival treats and excitements before settling in to watch the demolition derbies. Some attendees will spend the day purchasing the animals that were shown throughout the week. Others will take in the sights and sounds before presenting their tickets to see Tyler Farr—a country music singer who has signed with Columbia Records. His debut album includes the popular “Whiskey in My Water” and “Redneck Crazy” songs, which he will assuredly share with the audience.

The close of the fair is always bittersweet. After all, an entire year will pass before fairgoers will have another chance to experience all the week has to offer. Yet, there is something special about the event’s infrequency. Essentially, it is a week that many look forward to every year, even if it marks one of the last chapters of the summer’s tale.

Be sure to include the fair among your August plans, and mark your calendars to enjoy all that the Ruritan Club’s 60th Annual Clarke County Fair has to offer. For information (or to obtain tickets), visit www.clarkecountyfair.org or call 540-955-1947.

Bringing New Meaning To End Of Life

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Blue Ridge Hospice serves the souls of its patients, families, communities, and caregivers


By Jennifer Lee

“Turning to hospice is not about giving up. It’s about living your best possible life as well as you can and as long as you can with expert management of symptoms,” says Lisa Eiland, a registered nurse who has worked with Blue Ridge Hospice for almost 20 years. She and all her colleagues interviewed for this article speak with devotion and passion about their mission of providing care, counsel, and comfort to people in their last stage of life and their loved ones.

Walking into the offices of Blue Ridge Hospice (BRH) is far from a grim experience. Colorful art and lush plants line the walls and floors, an exuberant staff welcomes you, many volunteers cheerfully work stuffing envelopes or delivering meals to in-house patients, and, on this day, Chelsea the therapy dog greets everyone with a big tail wag. This is a place of healing for the spirit that serves thousands of patients and their families in Clarke, Frederick, Shenandoah, Page, Warren, Loudoun Rappahannock, and Fauquier counties and the City of Winchester.

Over the 30-plus years the BRH has been serving the community, its staff, services, and demands have grown exponentially. Founded by Gail Rodgers and Helen Zebarth in 1981, the organization has evolved from a small group of community leaders and volunteers with a tiny budget to a staff of over 200 employees, 900 volunteers, and a long list of outreach services ranging from medical care to music therapy to bereavement counseling.

The perception of hospice has evolved as well. People in the United States—both the medical community and public at large—have long held a fearful, distant approach to death and the dying. Children are sheltered from it, families don’t talk about it, and doctors are sworn to prolong life with any and all measures. The presence of hospice and the services it offers have allowed for a more caring, comforting, and conscious experience with the inevitable.

“Sometimes, the simple willingness to knock on the door and walk in has made all the difference for a family,” says Eiland. “I cannot express to you the unbelievable sense of privilege sitting with somebody at their bedside or standing in the back of a room full of family, surrounding someone they love. Presence. Bearing witness.”

Since the introduction of hospice to the United States in the mid 1970s, the medical community has gradually embraced the many benefits hospice provides both patients and their families. “It’s always getting better,” BRH President Ernie Carnivale says of the relationship between the hospital and hospice. “It’s about continual education and defining who plays specific roles. Our palliative care program has helped with that, too.“

An affiliate of BRH, Palliative Medicine Consultants opened in Winchester in 2008 to further bridge the gap between the hospital and hospice. The not-for-profit practice, whose team includes a physician, nurse practitioner, and licensed clinical social worker, supports its patients by working with pain and symptom management, helping define care goals and make complex care decisions, and coordinating care from various specialists. In 2013, Palliative Medicine Consultants conducted 920 consults and visits and its services are available to anyone at any age suffering from a serious, chronic, or life-threatening illness.

Critical Care

The best known and most important aspect of BRH’s mission is to provide end-of-life care to terminally ill patients and offer support for their families. This typically takes place in the patient’s home and involves professional medical staff and volunteers to help ease the dying process and provide physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort.

“The care is driven by the patient’s goals and supported by a team of highly specialized professionals that provide coordinated, interdisciplinary care to patients and families with complex needs. These include physicians, nurses, social workers, music therapists, chaplains, and volunteers,” said Eiland. “I can’t think of another nursing career that allows for such a collaborative approach and includes the care of the whole person and their family.”

In the fall of 2004, BRH opened an in-patient unit adjacent to its offices in the former Winchester Memorial Hospital on Cork Street in Winchester. The facility offers eight beds in pleasant, homey rooms for patients requiring a more acute level of hospice care than can be delivered in the home. Carnivale counts this among his proudest accomplishments since he started leading the organization 14 years ago. Working with Pat Bishop, vice president of clinical services at the Loudoun Hospital Center, and the BRH Board, he fulfilled his wish to create a place that offers 24-hour care to patients most in need or for those without a caregiver.

Carnivale’s enthusiasm and commitment to the mission of hospice is readily apparent in his easy smile and energetic demeanor, and he repeatedly credits the staff, volunteers, and community for the organization’s success. “When people receive hospice care, they live longer and better. The extra care and attention makes a big difference,” he said.

Beyond Medicine

In addition to quality care from a team of medical professionals, patients and their families are availed of a number of other services from BRH. In fact, the services have extended beyond patients to the general community. “It is ingrained in our mission to serve the community,” Carnivale said.

The Bereavement Department offers individual and group counseling to anyone struggling with loss. Programs like Camp Hope and Jammin Away the Blues for children, Teen Talk for adolescents, Music for the Soul, support groups for caregivers, and immediate support for schools that have experienced a traumatic incident are all available to anyone at no charge.

John Reese is one of three full-time bereavement counselors with BRH who administers his services through a variety of programs and says he is humbled by the work he does. “My reward in working with others is being able to be present with them during a difficult and transitional time and provide whatever support I can.”

A recently established program called Broken Silence is specifically designed for family and friends who have lost someone due to suicide. “We saw a need, not only within the hospice family, but the community,” Reese said. In some programs, such as this one, pre-registration and assessment is required in order to determine the most appropriate approach to counseling. “Everyone processes grief and loss in their own ways,” Reese explains.

Music therapists play a significant role in both patient care and the bereavement team and provide a number of programs depending on the needs and age of the person. “After an initial assessment, a plan of care is implemented that addresses specific difficulties a patient is experiencing, such as quality of life. The music therapists visit patients at their homes, in facilities, or at the Intensive Care Center where music is utilized to decrease or extinguish the difficulties the patient is having,” explains Beth Rudy, the Director of the Bereavement Department.

Merritt Navazio is one of four music therapists on staff, playing guitar for both hospice patients and bereavement support groups. In addition to his 4-year degree in music therapy, he completed a six-month internship with BRH, accrued 1200 clinical hours, and passed the exam to be a board-certified music therapist, as all BRH music therapists must be. He typically has a caseload of 25 to 30 people and “goes wherever the patients are,” he says, including homes, offices, schools, and hospitals.

“We create a peaceful environment that often extends to the relationship between the patient and family,” Navazio says. With a patient in respiratory distress, he will tailor music to match the breathing and gradually slow it down. Dementia patients who can’t speak can still sing. Grieving kids completely come out of their shells when putting their own words to pop songs. “It is a great honor to help people in this difficult time. There are many little gifts and special moments,” Navazio said of his work.

Chelsea the Golden Labrador is one star of BRH’s pet therapy program. She and her jolly owner/handler, Mary DeMott, have paid more than 250 visits to patients and families since they began volunteering in 2007. After she retired in 2004, DeMott knew she had to volunteer in some capacity. “Chelsea was the inspiration. Every dog needs a job and by the time she was ten months old, I knew what her job had to be. She was always extremely gentle and loves to be around people,” DeMott said.

Therapy dogs must pass a number of obedience and behavioral tests to become certified through Therapy Dogs International, an organization dedicated to the regulation, testing, selection, and registration of qualified dogs and handlers. In addition to visiting hospice patients and their families, Chelsea and DeMott go to the library twice a month to help children having difficulty reading and participate in Paws for People, an organization that provides therapeutic visits to anyone who might benefit from interaction with a pet.

DeMott tears up when explaining the effects of the volunteer work she and Chelsea do. “When Chelsea comes in the room and a patient is very close to death, the family says ‘Here’s a dog!’ and everyone gets a few moments of relief. I think 50 percent of the help is to the patient and 50 percent to the family,” she says.

As with any nonprofit organization, funding for BRH’s multiple programs presents an ongoing challenge. To meet part of that need, the organization now has six area thrift shops open to the public, offering everything from books to bedroom suites. The first store opened in Purcellville in 2004 and it remains the largest, in donations, sales, and space. All donations are from the community and approximately 70% of the offerings are women’s clothing, but one can outfit not only him or her self but also their children and home with the diverse selection of items.

“We offer clean, attractive, quality merchandise,” said Jacki Munn, Regional Director of Thrift Shop Operations. ‘Discover the Difference with Every Treasure’ is the stores’ tag line and the constantly rotating merchandise and attractive displays demonstrate that. “When the economy shifted a few years ago, our customers shifted. Once they saw what we had to offer, they returned. We believe in value,” Munn said.

Proceeds from the stores make up about 5 percent of BRH’s annual income and many unsold items are sent on to other local nonprofits such as the Red Cross, Social Services, and the Laurel Center. “The benefits stay in the community and people know everything is going to good causes,” said Linda Roberts, the Blue Ridge Hospice Community Liaison and a Clarke County resident.

“We have about 200 volunteers throughout the six stores and could not do this without them,” said Munn. “Everyone is vested in the cause and here for the right reasons.”

Another effort of the thrift stores is their intensive recycling program, which also accounts for about half of their income. Unsold items at the stores are sold by the pound to vendors who then ship to Mexico, Texas, and Canada. “We can now utilize practically everything,” said Roberts. “We were tipping dumpsters almost every day (before the recycling program), now it’s just once or twice a week. We wanted to take recycling to the next level. It really is a win-win.”

There are two thrift shops in Winchester, and one each in Berryville, Front Royal, Stephens City, and Purcellville. They are open for shopping and donation acceptance from 10am to 4pm Monday through Saturday.

Ernie Carnivale says the support of the community—through memorial donations, special events, bequests, grants, corporate gifts, and in-kind donations—is critical to the ongoing operations of BRH. Due to the recent federal government sequestration, Medicare reimbursements were cut by 2 percent, resulting in a $250,000 income loss. Over 85 percent of BRH’s patients are covered under Medicare.

“We are building an endowment to support our programs by developing the Blue Ridge Hospice Foundation,” said Carnivale. As well, BRH’s Butterfly Club, established in 2008, provides community residents and groups the opportunity to commit to a regular schedule of giving. Club members are recognized on the “Wall of Honor” and host and participate in house parties, concerts, and social events that raise funds for hospice.

Last year, BRH volunteers provided a cost savings of $786,636 with the donation of their time and services, and, in turn, BRH provided nearly $500,000 in charity care to patients unable to pay or without insurance for their hospice services.

The reach of Blue Ridge Hospice extends far into the community and touches many, many lives in a myriad of ways. Death may not be an easy thing to think about and the loss of our loved ones is always difficult, but it is comforting to know that there is a vibrant organization of dedicated staff, volunteers, and supporters to help in the process.

Eiland advises to “begin the hard conversations about end of life care. If you knew your time was limited, what would you want? What is left undone? Talk about choices and advanced directives. Making these decisions in advance could be one of the greatest gifts you give to those that love you, who may need to speak on your behalf someday.”

“People just come over to thank me for what hospice does,” says Roberts. “They say ‘We wish we’d called earlier.’ In the case of a terminally ill or grieving person in need, you can’t call us too soon.”

Blue Ridge Hospice is located on the fourth floor at 333 West Cork Street in Winchester. Phone is 540-536-5210 or 800-238-5678. Visit their website at www.blueridgehospice.org. For information on hospice in general, visit www.nationalhospicefoundation.org.

It’s Morel Mushroom Time

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By Doug Pifer

Somewhere in an old orchard under a dead apple tree, grayish yellow mushrooms that look like sponges have popped out of the ground. It’s morel mushroom time.

I found my first morel in damp, rich woods where swamp violets and skunk cabbage grew. Poking up through wet leaves, it looked surprisingly like a small piece of dried sea sponge about five inches high. Pear-shaped, it had a short stem with a slightly granular surface.  When I picked it, it broke in half and was completely hollow, as if molded out of wax. I discovered several dozen more as I searched around among the dead leaves.

When I took them home, I studied several field guides and identified them as Morchella esculenta, the common, gray or yellow morel. The morel is related to the cup and bird-nest fungus, and its woodsy aroma reminds me of the dead tree roots on which it feeds. The cap of the morel generally has a honeycomb-like network of ridges surrounding deep pits. The tops of many of them take on a rusty or blackish tinge. But you know you have a morel mushroom when you split it open and the cap and stem are all in one piece and it is completely hollow inside.

The name esculenta means delicious.  Morels are among the choicest of all mushrooms. They belong to a group of fungi known informally as the foolproof four, along with giant puffball, sulfur shelf, and shaggy mane mushrooms. Supposedly these are the four most easily recognized edible mushrooms.

Morel mushrooms sometimes show up at farm markets. I once bought some at the Mount Airy Farm Market in Waterloo. They were delicious sautéed and served with buttered toast. It is always a good idea to split the morels in half and soak them in salt water for a minute or two. Virtually every morel mushroom has a resident population of springtails: tiny, soft insects so light colored they are nearly transparent. The salt water bath will destroy them all instantly.

In the Western States, morels grow by the hundreds in recently burned forested land. Harvesting them has become a big business there, and teams of professional pickers set up camps in the national forest lands in Washington, Oregon, and the Rocky Mountain states. There, licensed mushroom buyers sell them to gourmet stores and restaurants throughout the world.

Now here comes the wet blanket: I don’t recommend eating anything you pick from the woods unless you’re equally certain about what it is and what it isn’t. In other words, you should know what other species it might be, and how to tell the difference. The poisonous morel mushroom, Verpa bohemica, appears at about the same time as the edible morels. A poisonous morel resembles a brain more than a sponge, and its insides have a cotton-like texture. Still, it looks very similar and many folks have eaten it and have become really sick.

If you want to hunt and eat wild morels, remember there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters. But there are no old, bold mushroom hunters!