“Libertarian Park” is a long-read article of mine that was published late last year in the literary journal Confrontation. It’s a Pittsburgh story with broader implications, I think; presented here in 2 parts. Chalfant Run seeps to the forest floor in a tangle of underbrush between blocks of planned housing in east Pittsburgh. […]
Read more "Libertarian Park Part 1"I managed to start a new project just this morning though I’ve been thinking it over and acquiring my gear for a while. I’ve spent many hours over the last couple of years wading around in the upper reaches of Pine Creek here near my Pittsburgh home and I’ve seen great potential in the […]
Read more "Privateering the Uncharted Waters"8:30 PM – It’s dark outside and darker here underground. This tunnel allows a tiny brook to flow under the freight yard down to the Allegheny River and allows me to reach the walleye, I can only hope. At least when your fishing begins with sloshing through a dark tunnel to a flooded river, […]
Read more "Walleye, the Steel City, and a Long, Cold Night"Where I live right now, while I’m not in the woods, is a paved place in general. There’s a lot of asphalt. McKnight road, one of the major high-speed and high noise conduits of Pittsburgh’s North Hills passes within sight, it’s roar permeating all till long after dark. Businesses have proliferated here and I can […]
Read more "Suburban Hunter-Gatherer"The chipmunks that live down the hill count on me to launch peanuts daily from the back porch. A bit further out I can see parking lots, a highway and a shopping center but there’s a strip of woods here and it’s home for an assortment of animals, great and small. Even my porch hosts […]
Read more "Quiet Little Places"In my book, The Dying Fish, I wandered through pristine and nearly pristine habitat about as far as you can get from roads and homes in the east, generally well off the beaten track. It was where I needed to go to discuss what was best for brook trout but few of us get to […]
Read more "Make the Best of it."Fish are always on the move. Fish move to optimize feeding, to spawn and to evade predators. Too often, fishermen don’t move, going back to favorite fishin’ holes time after time. What’s primary here is to learn to think like nature or like an animal, appreciating seasonal cycles and the import of erratic weather changes. […]
Read more "A Fishing Tip"Featured image for this post is the blacklite art of Malcolm Crittenden Malcolm’s exhibit runs through February at the Community Art Center, Johnstown, PA Thanks Malcolm and great show! Always wanting to explore new corners of our home state, Susan and I took advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures this last weekend and headed for […]
Read more "The Model Park"I’ve been back from an engagement at the Heartland Institute for nearly a week and haven’t found time to pen anything about it, until now. However imperfectly I might have rendered my presentation (I seem to be my own worst critic here) I went away happy and fulfilled. I guess that goes along with having […]
Read more "Heartland"Interstitial habitat has become a preoccupation of mine in recent years. “Interstitial habitat” is just how I describe the little strips of wooded or otherwise unpaved space here in the urban world. This might seem odd, coming from a man who’s just written a book about the wildest, most remote places but perhaps it required […]
Read more "Out My Back Door"
the dying fish 