Friday, July 04, 2008
Taylor earns awards for outdoors coverage
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
Roanoke Times outdoors reporter Mark Taylor received five awards in the Outdoor Writers Association of America annual Excellence in Craft contest.
The Roanoke Times' weekly Outdoors page was named the nation's best for the second consecutive year. Taylor coordinates the page and produces most of its content, while Andrew Svec handles the design.
Taylor earned a second-place award for humor writing for his column "Hunting has a language all its own," and a second place in the fishing category for his story "Learning on the fly" about a fly-fishing class at Hollins.
Taylor's story "Taking aim successfully," a feature about a high school girl who is a champion air rifle shooter, was second in the shooting sports contest. In the Backcountry Sportsman category his "Mountain jewels" story about brook trout fishing in a remote mountain stream earned a third-place honor.
The contest is open to writers from all newspapers, regardless of circulation. Taylor was one of the top three award winners in the newspaper division, along with the writers from the Salt Lake Tribune and the Portland Oregonian, each of whom had seven awards.
The awards were presented during the OWAA's recent four-day conference in Bismarck, N.D. At the conference, Taylor also began serving a three-year term as an elected member of the OWAA's board of directors.
Family camping seminars planned for park
Shenandoah National Park is offering a special event for families who are eager to get out in nature but who are unsure about the ways to the wild.
The park will host Basics of Family Camping seminars July 19-20 and Aug. 2-3, each giving aspiring campers a chance to learn by experience.
Subjects to be covered during the overnight camp include the basics of camp cooking, setting up a tent and using Leave No Trace techniques. Park rangers and volunteer camping experts will be on hand to offer guidance.
A fee of $50 covers one adult and one child, with $10 added for each additional family member. Tents, cooking equipment and food will be provided, but participants will need to provide some gear, such as sleeping bags.
For more information, call the park's Education Office at (540) 999-3489 or visit www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/index.htm. Registrations are required and can be made through the Web site.
