About Hollow & Headwater

Hollow & Headwater is an online journal about the natural world close to home: the creek at the bottom of the road, the air on a hazy July afternoon, the warblers that pour through in May, the trail you walk on Saturday mornings and the furnace in your basement. We write for readers who are curious about how these things work and want straight, practical answers without a sermon attached.

The name comes from two kinds of places we keep going back to. A hollow is a narrow valley folded between ridges, where the road follows the creek and fog hangs on until mid-morning. A headwater is where a stream begins, often as a seep or a spring trickle that most people step over without a glance. Both are small and easy to overlook, and both are connected to everything downstream. That is roughly how we think about environmental writing.

Who writes here

Five writers share the work. Each has a beat, though we read, question and now and then argue over one another's drafts.

Maren Holt covers streams, rivers, water quality and fish. She trained in freshwater ecology and spent years on field sampling for a university lab, which left her with a soft spot for the insects that live under creek rocks and a habit of checking her units twice.

Calvin Odom writes about air, weather, climate and the air inside our homes. He ran air-sampling instruments for a university atmospheric-chemistry group and enjoys taking an intimidating number apart until it makes plain sense.

Ruth Ann Sizemore handles wildflowers, birds, amphibians and habitat. A lifelong amateur naturalist and former schoolteacher, she writes the way she used to lead field walks: slowly, with a hand lens in her pocket and a story for nearly every plant.

Theo Barrientos covers hiking, paddling, trail towns and outdoor safety. A trail runner and whitewater paddler who has written trail guides, he is the one who will remind you to check the gauge before you drive two hours to a river.

Nadia Kowalczyk writes about home energy, waste, gardening and everyday green living. She renovated an old farmhouse on a tight budget and is frank about what things cost, what works, and where the marketing runs ahead of the results.

Several of us know the ridges and hollows of Appalachia well, and it shows. The questions we cover come up everywhere, though, so our examples travel: salmon streams in the Pacific Northwest, lake-effect snow around the Great Lakes, smoke drifting over the Plains, sinkholes in the Ozarks.

How we check our work

• We go to primary sources. When a piece leans on data, published guidance or research, we look for the original: a stream gauge record, an agency's published standard, a peer-reviewed paper, a university extension bulletin. Where it helps, we link to it so you can read it yourself.
• We don't invent numbers. If a figure varies from place to place, we say so in plain words instead of reaching for false precision. If we can't confirm it, it stays out.
• No made-up voices. We don't publish invented quotes, composite characters or unnamed "experts".
• Two sets of eyes. Every article is read by at least one other writer before it goes up, with extra care for anything touching safety, health or money.
• Dates matter. Each article carries the date it was written. Guidance changes, so for anything that affects your safety or your legal obligations, check the current version at the source.

Corrections

We get things wrong sometimes. When we do, we fix the article and add a short note at the end saying what changed and when. We don't quietly scrub mistakes away. If you spot an error, tell us through the contact form with the article title and what you believe is wrong; a link to a source helps a great deal.

Money and independence

Nothing on Hollow & Headwater is paid placement dressed up as editorial. We don't take money to write about a product, a place or a company, and we don't run sponsored posts presented as our own work. When we mention a product or a piece of gear, it's because we have a reason to, and we tell you what the reason is.

Independent and unofficial

Hollow & Headwater is an independent publication. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or part of any government agency – federal, state or local – and nothing on this site is official guidance. For permits, regulations or emergencies, contact the relevant public authority directly.

When we describe what a public agency publishes, such as an air quality category or a recommended action level, we are explaining it and pointing you to the source, not issuing guidance of our own. This web address once belonged to an unrelated organization; Hollow & Headwater is a new and entirely separate publication.

Get in touch

The best way to reach us is the contact form. We read everything that comes in: story ideas, corrections, and questions about something odd you turned up in your backyard creek. We can't answer every message, and we can't give advice about a specific property or a health problem, but a good question has a way of turning into an article.