Constantz, George
Biologist and naturalist George Constantz founded Pine Cabin Run Ecological Laboratory, a nonprofit organization "dedicated to preserving Appalachian rivers through science and education. He spent part of his childhood in Barranquilla, Columbia, and Chihuahua, Mexico. He received a B.A. in biology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Ph.D. in zoology from Arizona State University. He has worked as a park naturalist, a teacher, a fish ecologist, a researcher, a writer, and coordinator of the West Virginia Watershed and Conservation and Management Program.
Appalachia's beauty is dynamic and every walk unique. Autumn colors, wing prints in snow, spring wildflowers, and a stream of tiger swallowtails punctuate my year. Hollows, Peepers, and Highlanders, 1994.A habitat's antiquity also promotes biological diversity. Old areas have been available for colonization by immigrating species for a longer time than new sites, and more species evolve over a vast stretch of time than over a short period. Ibid.
As you wander Appalachia's hills and hollows, turn over a rock or a log - you never know what strange and wonderful thing might be waiting for you. Ibid.
The first colt's foot, eastern phoebe, garter snake - all help us chart the arrival of spring. Although I pay polite attention to these and other harbingers, a chorus of spring peepers is my personal watershed. Ibid.
Frog song can signal either a mad sexual scramble or meticulous courtship. Among frogs, both get the love job done. Ibid.
That first waft of warm spring air, the pale green brush to a hillside, the first warbler singing in a treetop - all excite our senses and push aside the day's problems. Ibid.
Most of today's Appalachian forest is an archipelago of second-growth woodlots in an ocean of pasture. Ibid.
Forest fragmentation reduces effective population size by limiting each organism's ability to move among subpopulations. One remedy is to connect habitat islands, as currently advocated by the greenways movement. Ibid.
Philosophically, I view biosphere reserves as another step in our ethical education - they affirm our commitment to the future of living things. Ibid.
Land-use planning allows local communities to develop a regional strategy that defines the types of changes that we may visit upon the land. Ibid.