by Jonathan Doherty | Feb 24, 2021 | Lightning Update
Part of the “commons” – spaces that bring communities together, as Brett Glymph describes. Here, people gather for the restoration of a historic Black American cemetery. (Photo: Enrichmond Foundation) Today we’re checking in with one of the...
by Jonathan Doherty | Feb 17, 2021 | Lightning Update
How many birds are killed by vehicles along a single stretch of rural highway?(Photos: above — Janet Griffin/Shutterstock; below — Jay Falstad) From time to time, these updates share information that may not be the best of news, but does shed light on the...
by Jonathan Doherty | Feb 10, 2021 | Lightning Update
This writer has been away and is just catching up. So let’s use this update for a quick round up of a few worthwhile reads, gatherings, and listens directly related to our work. Act Today or Miss out — Taking Nature Black Conference: Later this month is the...
by Jonathan Doherty | Feb 4, 2021 | Lightning Update
A few of the 2.6 million visitors to Maryland’s Patapsco Valley State Park in 2020. (Photo: Will Parsons/Chesapeake Bay Program) For months we’ve been hearing about increases in park visitation during the pandemic. Now some remarkable statistics are in. Today,...
by Jonathan Doherty | Jan 27, 2021 | Lightning Update
Flags representing all states and territories during inaugural ceremonies on the National Mall. (Photo: Timothy Clary/AFP) Last week’s Lightning Update on Public Access and Democracy started a conversation about the importance of public spaces in bringing people...
by Jonathan Doherty | Jan 20, 2021 | Lightning Update
A note: Please take a moment at the end of this Lightning Update and share a quick story of your own! News and images of this week’s closures of the National Mall and its memorials, the U.S. Capitol, and public streets in Washington are arresting. And yet, there have...
by Jonathan Doherty | Jan 13, 2021 | Lightning Update
Under the U.S. Capitol dome. (All photos: J. Doherty; drawing: Architect of the Capitol) Many are still processing what happened to our nation last week and trying to understand what comes next. We are also. What is clear is the time for silence has passed, and so...
by Jonathan Doherty | Jan 5, 2021 | Lightning Update
As we start a new year — following one that was so many things, but above all eye-opening — it seems like a good time to think about how we make 2021 an improvement. Yes, new year resolutions can get tiresome, but they’re really just setting out some...
by Jonathan Doherty | Dec 16, 2020 | Lightning Update
It’s been a rough year. And we know the hard parts, living with them every day, many of us feeling them more acutely than others of us. In this month, sometimes called the “season of light,” let’s take a few moments to find some cheer in twenty pieces of good news...
by Jonathan Doherty | Dec 9, 2020 | Lightning Update
Senator Paul Sarbanes, second from left, launching the first Chesapeake Gateways in 2000. Paul S. Sarbanes, United States Senator from Maryland from 1977 to 2007, died on December 6. Much is already being written about this effective, kind, and unpretentious man and...
