Ask Chip

Ohio Cooperative Living editor Jeff McCallister asked me to look into this next bit of wildlife news, which, unfortunately, is not as encouraging as that of the nesting piping plovers.

In the June 2024 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living print magazine, I wrote my monthly Woods, Waters, & Wildlife outdoors column about pesky poison ivy in a story titled “Leaves of three, let it be!” In the July 2024 issue, I described my custom-made hiking staff in a column called “Walking-stick work of art.” It wasn’t long before I heard from Bertille Mayberry, commenting on both stories. 

Terry O’Dell, Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative

Antoinette Franke, Consolidated Cooperative

Stacy Cowdery, South Central Power Company

After he read my May 2020 “Woods, Waters & Wildlife” monthly column about state-endangered timber rattlesnakes in the print version of Ohio Cooperative Living magazine, Pete Zoretic, a member of South Central Power Company cooperative, sent me several photos of a snake he discovered on his property in Highland County. He believed it just might be a timber rattlesnake because of its behavior: “… the snake was coiling and shaking its tail,” said Zoretic. 

Antoinette Franke, Consolidated Cooperative

Does anyone take the time to write and snail-mail an actual full-length letter anymore? Yep, 95-years-young, Jean Rutan sent me just such a letter recently, commenting about my “Who Was Grandma Gatewood?” story in the October 2021 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.