Chris Schulz, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Milder Winters Pose Potential Problems For Local Food Producers

This past winter was unseasonably mild. That’s put some of the state’s fruit farmers in an unexpectedly precarious position as plants produce before the threat of frost is gone.

Garry Shanholtz has been growing apple, peach and cherry trees in his Hampshire County Orchard for close to 60 years, part of a rich agricultural tradition in the state.

“Most people don’t realize what history West Virginia has in the fruit business,” he said. “Of course, the Golden Delicious apple was found in Clay County, and it’s the most widely planted apple in the world. It’s cross bred with a lot of other apples.”

Garry said his father was also in agriculture, mostly timber and cattle, but bought land with a small orchard in the 1950s.

“I decided to go with the orchard because them trees go to sleep in the wintertime, and I take a vacation,” he said. “You don’t have to get up to feed the cattle and so on, so forth. But it’s been a great life.”

But that downtime is starting to get shorter as temperatures warm up. This past winter wasn’t the warmest on record, but according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, it did rank in the top 20 of all time. Garry’s son Kane, who helps him manage the orchard, said farmers are taking notice.

“I was at one of my farm meetings, and there was a guy there talking about the weather,” Kane said. “And he said, ‘It seems like it’s staying warmer later. And then it’s not staying as cool as long as it should, then it warms up.’ Then that’s what happens, everything pops out ahead.”

Almost three weeks ahead by the Shanholtz’s estimation.

During a visit to the orchard in mid April, the pink peach blossoms that would normally be peaking, had already come and gone. The apple orchards were wearing their white blooms, which used to not arrive until the first week of May.

“The Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester has always been the first weekend in May,” Garry said. “Well, the apple blossoms are almost gone.”

Apple trees in one of the Shanholtz orchards in full bloom, three weeks earlier than normal. *Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

A closeup on apple blossoms. *Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

In most lines of work, being ahead of schedule is usually a good thing. But for the Shanholtz and their orchard, early fruiting puts their production at risk. A freeze right now could mean a total write-off of their crop for the year.

“Right here are some peaches coming out of the shuck,” Kane said, indicating budding fruit on the branch. “So now they’re really vulnerable. If we don’t have a freeze, you know, we’re gonna have a good crop. I want it to stay warm to get through this bloom period on the apples in it, get it behind us.”

Threats from a changing climate don’t stop there. Beyond the threat of a freeze killing off early fruit, plants like peaches, apples and cherries – all of which the Shanholtz’s grow – need what are called “chill hours” to produce.

“The sap goes down in the fall of the year on peaches and apples and everything, and then everything stays asleep for a certain amount of hours,” Garry said. “It varies on different crops, different apples, different peaches, then once that time’s up if you get warm weather, that’s when sort of everything starts coming. And that’s been happening, everything has been coming a little sooner.”

Garry said even in a warm winter like the one we just had, West Virginia still gets plenty of chill hours to accommodate his plants, but it is starting to become a problem farther south.

“They actually plant peaches that take less hours, but we’re not close to that yet,” he said. “We’ve had enough cold weather for him to go into dormant back out. It’s just that they’re coming out of dormancy sooner.”

Dee Singh-Knights, an extension specialist of agribusiness economics and management with the WVU Extension Service, said that in economics, climate and weather fluctuations fall into the category of “wicked problems.”

“By wicked, what we mean is that it’s generally not well understood, because the data is still emerging,” she said. “It does pose significant economic burdens. We’re talking about food that is the underpinning of our society.”

The Extension Service aims to provide producers like the Shanholtz’s with both long and short-term solutions, but Singh-Knights said that has to happen on a case-by-case basis.

“I like to say, ‘When you’re seeing one farm in West Virginia, you’ve seen one farm in West Virginia,'” she said. “That simply means that our farm operators, in terms of the vulnerabilities, every single farm operation will have different vulnerabilities on a very individual level.”

That variety is its own sort of insurance, because Singh-Knights said food systems that will stand up to a changing environment will have to be varied in place and production.

“Whereas we do want to have a very resilient local food system, where our small farm families continue to be profitable, to be sustainable, resilience really is making sure that we’re not putting all our eggs in one basket,” Singh-Knights said.

Peach producers in warmer, southern regions can still provide fruit if a freeze knocks out a local crop, and vice versa if winters down south prove too mild for a good production.

“It’s about deliberate planning,” Singh-Knights said. “It’s about deliberately understanding what you’re doing in the face of climate change and making these changes so that you remain profitable.”

For now, however, Kane said all he can do is work with what’s in front of him.

“Years ago, we used to stress over the weather. But you know, when you’ve been in it as long as we have, it is what it is,” he said. “We can’t control it. So we got to take what Mother Nature gives us, and sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, you know?”

West Virginia Tattoo Expo Adds Second Weekend To Annual Event

Each summer for a decade, the West Virginia Tattoo Expo has brought artists and enthusiasts to Morgantown to celebrate body art. This year, the convention has added a second weekend which took place April 14 – April 16.

It’s just after noon at the Waterfront Marriott on the first day of the first annual West Virginia Spring Tattoo Expo. Each summer for a decade, the West Virginia Tattoo Expo has brought artists and enthusiasts to Morgantown to celebrate body art. This year, the convention added a second weekend which took place April 14 – April 16.

Artist Jacob Gordon is wasting no time in getting started on his client’s tattoo. His client today goes by the name of Bond.

“Yeah, like James Bond,” he said.

Bond is getting a jellyfish tattooed on his bicep, and although Gordon’s modern pneumatic tattoo machine makes no noise, the buzz of more traditional rotary and coil machines is already filling the air early in the day.

Gordon, a Morgantown-based tattoo artist, said he loves tattoo conventions for the opportunity to come together and learn from other artists, and would support having a tattoo convention every month if possible.

“All of it collectively kind of goes to pushing tattooing a little further in its journey, to maybe make it a little less taboo than it’s been in the past,” he said.

Rocco Cunningham, the convention’s event promoter and organizer, agrees. He said that the expo is not only an opportunity to network and see new friends, but more importantly to keep learning about the art and craft of tattooing.

“I was told by an older tattooer very early in my career that the day that you stop learning is the day that you need to just hang it up,” Cunningham said. “This gives the opportunity to see every facet of tattooing, every style of tattooing, and there’s always something to learn and take from every experience, from every expo.”

He attributed the event’s continued success, which has allowed it to expand into a second weekend, in no small part to Morgantown and the communal effort it takes to put on each expo. That includes help that comes from the city as well as the Monongalia County Health Department.

Cunningham also acknowledges that a drastic change in cultural attitudes towards tattoos in recent years plays a role in the event’s success.

“It’s changed quite a bit, and it’s been enjoyable to see that transformation,” he said. “Tattoos are so much more widely acceptable, and less taboo than they were 20-30 years ago.”

A row of presenters and artists at the Spring West Virginia Tattoo Expo, April 14, 2023. *Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Cunningham said the interest for the new convention date, which brought in artists from as far afield as Los Angeles and South America, was just as high as the annual August event.

“We have over 200 tattoo artists here this weekend, which is pretty similar to our August show. The majority of the tattooers want to do both events,” he said. “We have something special going on, we’ve built a family environment amongst the tattooers and the facility and the town, but everybody just loves coming back to Morgantown every year.”

Walking around and talking to artists, family is a word you hear repeated. Artist Amy Lefebvre from Maryland said she had been on a waiting list for the West Virginia Tattoo Expo for years because of the event’s reputation amongst artists.

“I’ve always heard it’s a really good convention. I’ve heard it’s very hard to get into. I felt very lucky to be invited,” she said. “Everybody’s really chill and very nice, and it feels like family and not so competitive.”

Lefebvre said the setting doesn’t hurt either, neither for herself nor for prospective clients.

“I think it’s beautiful out here,” she said. “Also for a client, coming into a convention could almost be less intimidating than walking into a tattoo shop. They can learn and see, I think for a lot of people the unknown is the scary part.”

Client Devin Jones said she couldn’t agree more. The criminology major at West Virginia University said she came to the convention to take advantage of the variety on offer.

“This chance to come here and see all the artists from all over the place was really unique,” Jones said. “You got to see a little bit of everyone’s tattoo styles. The guy that just tattooed me, he’s from Philly. I also talked to a guy that was from North Carolina. It’s really cool to just see everyone come together here.”

Jones said she is already planning a return in August.

“Even if I’m not coming to get a tattoo, it’s still really cool to walk around,” she said.

Students Protest Anti-Abortion Display At WVU

Students at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown are protesting an anti-abortion display on campus.

The anti-abortion group Center for Bio-Ethical Reform staged a demonstration Wednesday and Thursday in WVU’s free speech zone in front of the Mountainlair student union.

The organization displayed images that purported to show aborted fetuses alongside victims of lynching and the Holocaust, comparing abortion to genocide.

Jacinta Robin is a media liaison for Center for Bio-Ethical Reform events. She said the organization brought the display — titled the “Genocide Awareness Project” (GAP) — to WVU because the university’s “plethora of students with diverse ideas” made it a good place for public discourse.

“We seek public universities for the reason of there being a public discourse on their campus in some capacity, that we should be allowed to use as a taxpayer in this country,” Robin said. “But we still abide by the university’s protocol every time.”

She said the organization aims to sway public opinion and that their images represent the organization’s beliefs.

“Many people believe that abortion is the process of eliminating blood and tissue,” Robin said. “We’re reversing that narrative that abortion decapitates and dismembers a tiny human child.”

Returning student Adrienne Dering called the information on the signs ”factually incorrect.”

“This is an institution of education, and people deserve to be educated,” Dering said.

“Abortion doesn’t look like D&Cs [dilation and curettage] anymore,” she continued. “Ninety-seven percent of abortions in this country are in the first trimester, and the vast majority of them are medical abortions where women have a safe, medically monitored miscarriage in the comfort of their own home and the blood clot is the size of an olive.”

Dering said she was also protesting because the information being presented, which included comparisons of gender transitioning to genital mutilation, was potentially harmful.

“The information on that hurts people, and we need to protest against anything that is divisive and hurtful to people of all gender assignments and to human beings,” she said.

Counter-protestors started their action as early as 7 a.m. Thursday, which included handing out contraceptives as well as information about safe sex and reproductive health resources.

Students like freshman Leah Coleman blocked the view of the display with oversized signs painted on tarps and bed sheets reading “Protect Trans Folks” and “Abortion is Healthcare.”

“By putting it in front of the Mountainlair, it’s making it look like, ‘Oh, this is WVU’s message. This is what WVU supports,’” Coleman said. “But obviously, this is not what the student body supports, or we wouldn’t be here.”

A similar display and counterprotest took place at Marshall University earlier this week.

Many of the students at the counterprotest said they have written to the university expressing their concern and confusion at the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform’s presence on campus. Some have asked for the group’s removal.

The organization is considering returning Friday. Students plan to continue their protest if they do.

Legislators Hear Reports On Teacher Training, Career Technical Education

Legislators are looking at the burden extra training for state educators creates, as well as the successes of the state’s Career and Technical Education programs.

Legislators are looking at the burden extra training for state educators creates.

At the start of the Joint Standing Committee on Education Tuesday, Deputy State Superintendent Michele Blatt provided legislators with a roundup of the 24 trainings required for educators and support staff.

Some trainings are annual, while others need only be completed once every few years and range from topics like CPR to acceptable use of technology. Many lawmakers questioned the burden the trainings create for teachers and work staff, as well as their effectiveness.

“We would be happy to discuss and have further meetings of how maybe we can streamline some of these trainings and make it more user friendly for our staff and then also free up some time so that we could focus on professional learning around academic achievement,” Blatt said.

Blatt stated that many of the trainings are required by law, both state and federal.

The rest of the meeting was spent on an update on career and technical education, as well as presentations about CTE and STEM education products.

Adam Canter, director of Career and Technical Education Innovation for the Department of Education, told lawmakers that over 50,000 students participated in some type of CTE course last year.

“We have a wide range of students that are being served and we just continue to expand that,” he said. “We believe it’s very important for all students to have a chance to not only have a simulated workplace environment in the classroom, but to have an actual experience on the job. The new push for CTE is classroom to career. We’re trying to give those students opportunities to move out of the classroom and into a career.”

Canter credited various pieces of legislation passed over the years for putting the state’s CTE programming in an advantageous position.

Local Band Returns To Music After Almost Two Decades

West Virginia has a rich musical history, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Morgantown-based band The Argument was a proud part of that tradition. Now, after close to 20 years of inactivity and most of the members moving away from the state, The Argument is releasing new music.

West Virginia has a rich musical history, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Morgantown-based band The Argument was a proud part of that tradition. But after almost a decade of touring and a few appearances on Mountain Stage, the band went their separate ways.

Now, after close to 20 years of inactivity and most of the members moving away from the state, The Argument is releasing new music.

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with The Argument’s Chris Russell and Scott Simons to discuss collaborating online and Morgantown’s enduring impact on their music.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: So Chris, first off, can you tell me what is The Argument?

Russell: The Argument started playing 1997 in Morgantown. Had a really nice run of 10 years of touring the country back and forth and recording music. Scott, you want to take over from there?

Simons: We were like 19, 20, 21 and we just started playing. We didn’t have a plan, we had no idea what we were doing, and then I don’t know, it just ended up lasting 10 years. We really had no idea what we were doing. It just kind of kept, in a good way, snowballing and we just sort of followed it and tried to keep up.

Schulz: And how exactly would you categorize the band’s sound?

Simons: We’ve kind of fallen into power-pop, I guess, would be the genre, somewhere like in the pop-rock world. Then by the time we broke up we were kind of, admittedly maybe chasing trends of the mid-2000s. We had certain elements to our songwriting that we liked, but the sound changed a lot over time. I’d say now, we’ve kind of just gone back to what we liked doing the most, which was the power-pop stuff, the second record.

Schulz: Chris, do you have anything to add to that?

Russell: I really enjoy making music now. I kind of feel like with the first few releases and songs that we really got to put out and finish, I kind of felt like we pressed pause, and for a really long time, and then just unpaused it. These next couple are just sort of the fun of revisiting, the fun of those days of being together.

Schulz: Tell me a little bit more about how you all ended up coming back together, what the motivation was there.

Simons: Maybe we didn’t realize it at the time or fully realize that at the time, but we were so lucky that our 20s were spent in a van for five days a week with three of our best friends. I think we’ve also seen other bands that we’d love to hear again, and not have a chance, the bands that we came up with.

With the way technology is and the pandemic forced us into a way of using technology that maybe we didn’t know what we were capable of. It just felt like a perfect storm of, if we have the songs, why don’t we just do it? Let’s just figure it out.

Schulz: Chris, what’s in it for you? What made you want to start making music with the band again?

Russell: Scott has been the main songwriter for The Argument since the beginning, and has always been really good about bringing it in and putting our little spin on stuff. He brought in songs that just fit. It immediately got us talking again. The chat messages, four way messages going off 50 in a row because somebody’s excited about stuff. Getting back together was a no-brainer if we could make it work. It’s always been an issue, 17 years of moving sometimes further apart. But with technology, it’s been really great being able to demo some songs and things like that.

Schulz: Scott, what about you?

Simons: What Chris said. It really comes down to songs. And there was such a specific way of writing when we were together that I guess was hard to find again. You know it’s different when you’re writing stuff when you’re 26, now I’m 46. It was trying to figure out, “What did we used to do and how do we just do that and have fun?” I think the biggest difference between the two things is now we just want to be together. We want to write fun music. We want to tell good stories, and we love just seeing people online have that nostalgia for the sound.

Schulz: What role does Morgantown and West Virginia continue to play in your music, despite the fact that a few of you have moved on?

Russell: We left Morgantown two years ago for North Carolina, but Morgantown for us, for me, has been since the ’90s my home. It’s been, even though I’m from another place in West Virginia, I consider it home. And it’s so awesome to go back to a place where you had so many roots put down for so many years, and still see a lot of the same people and then their kids.

Simons: There was no other town that we could have done what we did. We got to be in this vibrant college town in the middle of nowhere in the middle of everything at the same time. We could get to New York City in one trip in six hours and we could get to Charlotte in six or seven hours. We could get to Chicago in eight to 10 hours and we could get to Nashville in 10 hours. We were in the middle of everything with low overhead, teaching lessons and being involved in the community. We got to educate kids there at the time through private lessons, some of us in schools. Now those kids are killing it, and so we get to see that happen, which is incredible.

We took pride at the time being from Morgantown and being from West Virginia and busting stereotypes. Now for us, all our memories and everything emotional about the band centers around our time being in Morgantown. You can’t, I mean, there’s no way to separate The Argument from Morgantown, even if the members move out. That’s part of who we are.

Schulz: Before you moved away Chris, you started a local music school here in Morgantown called Pop Shop. And between that and the band, I was curious to know what you think about your legacy locally.

Russell: In The Argument, we started Pop Shop. Can we teach the younger generation, high school students about vocal blending? Or can we talk about songwriting or the business of what we do and how we stay on the road? It’s amazing to see the bands that have come from that program, and how they’re sort of populating a lot of the bands around there. The word I hear over and over again is, “I wish this was around when I was young.”

Simons: I wish it was around when I was young.

Russell: Same. You know, I really do but you know, we found our own way somehow, and then we can help others to find a way. And the people that we employ in Pop Shop are musicians.

Simons: I’m really proud of the legacy we left with our music and our community involvement. And I’m really happy that we get to somehow still touch that nerve and exercise those muscles and do it again.

——

The Argument’s single “Drag” is out now with more music on the way.

Potential Policy Revisions Add New Pathways To Teaching

The teacher shortage was one of the first items on the agenda during the April legislative interim meetings, just a month after the end of the regular session.

The Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability heard about revisions to the state’s licensure requirements for public school education personnel in West Virginia Board of Education Policy 5202.

The revisions add temporary teaching certificates to the categories of licenses. This allows individuals who do not meet the requirements for a professional teaching certificate, but who have been hired by a public school, to receive a temporary certificate.

Robert Hagerman, director of the Office of Certification for the West Virginia Department of Education said the revisions aim to address the state’s teacher shortage.

“The changes that we have incorporated in the policy open certain flexibilities for all areas because in West Virginia, across the state, depending on the county, those shortages could be in any particular subject,” Hagerman said.

A temporary renewable teaching certificate for applicants with an expired, out-of-state certificate is also included in the revisions, as is a temporary teaching certificate for program completers.

The latter certificate can only be issued one time for an individual who has completed an approved preparation program, but failed to meet the necessary Praxis exam score twice.

Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, asked if the addition of the temporary certificates did not lower the standards for educators.

Hagerman replied that the standards are not being lowered, and instead a new layer of licensing is being included.

“Instead of being so prescriptive that you can only meet the standard in one particular way, we’ll give you about three or four other options to meet that standard,” Hagerman said. “But all of those are within a minimum threshold quality supported by the district, supported by the particular school and supported by the West Virginia Department of Education.”

Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, asked about revisions to early childhood classroom assistant teacher authorizations. The changes allow assistant teachers already authorized for grade levels pre-K and Kindergarten to add grades one through three to their authorization.

“What we have done is provided an avenue for those who are already certified to Grade K to come back and while they’re employed take a couple of modules for literacy, numeracy and all the things required up to third grade to be able to transition into those positions,” Hagerman said.
Public comment on the changes is open until May 15.