Fall Orvis Days is back at the shop in the Short Pump Town Center. Tomorrow and Oct. 17, Orvis will host numerous seminars on fishing and hunting. Everything from “How to Fit a Shotgun” to “Duck and Goose Calling” to “Surf Fishing North Carolina’s Outer Banks and Virginia’s Eastern Shore” and more will be covered. To learn more and view the entire lineup of seminars, go to http://www.Orvis.com and click on Fall Orvis Days 2009. - Andy Thompson

As societal ills go, littering might not be up there with violent crime, political corruption or purse snatching, but there is something particularly galling about it. Really, how hard is it not to litter? Don’t flick your cigarette butt out the car window. Is that too much to ask? At least actuarial tables suggest smokers won’t be around as long to cover the streets with their refuse.

Funny the images that stay with you from childhood. Any time someone mentions the Civil War, there’s this snapshot that flits across my brain of being in my parents’ TV room watching the Ken Burns documentary on the subject. It’s nothing more specific than that, but I remember my whole family being glued to the TV for days. I was 12 when “The Civil War” came out. Four years later, Burns had us fixated again with his nine-part series on the history of baseball. He’s done much since then, including an acclaimed history of jazz, but nothing that really pushed the Thompson family buttons. That is, until this past week when “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” came to PBS.

Castaway Sporting Goods (804 706-9100) reports the following bluecat catches: Tim Jefferson (Richmond) 30, Donnie Conley (Richmond) 52-8. People are beginning to buy small and medium minnows as crappie fishing heats up in ponds, lakes and the James River. Bass fishing also is good. Big, nice spot are rolling on the saltwater side. A lot of freshwater fishermen are loading up on spot while they can.

A bill by Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, to monitor cleanup efforts in the Chesapeake Bay passed the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 418-1. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was the sole dissenting vote. Wittman, a Republican from Montross, said the bill would provide for the monitoring and coordination of bay-restoration efforts among 10 federal agencies, six states, the District of Columbia and more than 1,000 localities.

In the room where I sit to write, a second-story makeshift office at home, there are two windows. One looks out over a road and the neighbor’s house, bracketed by two large silver maples. As long as I’ve lived in this house, these two trees have offered the first intimations of autumn. They always turn before any others in the neighborhood. It’s no different this year. In just a handful of places—the tips of a few branches—the one on the corner is turning bright red. Behind the house, the other maple has just started transitioning to brilliant yellows and oranges.

When I asked Matt Balazik about the gill nets he uses to catch prehistoric fish in the James River, he explained in his typically enthusiastic way about water temperatures and dissolved oxygen and how the ancient beasts he’s spent years trying to net and study can’t stay entangled too long—two hours at most. Balazik, a fish biologist working on his Ph.D. at VCU, has the kind of passion for his subject that is infectious. But his voice trailed off contemplating the idea that one of his nets could be responsible for the death of even one example of this giant and rare species.

Castaway Sporting Goods (804 706-9100) reports Keith Pearson (Manassas) caught a 41-pound bluecat. Striper season starts Oct. 4. Crappie are starting to pick up on the freshwater side. More minnows being bought, which indicates crappie fishing is on the rise. Results from the Castaway Classic last weekend at Osbourne Landing, 89 boats. Total of 332 fish caught and released with no dead fish recorded: 1. Ray Hogge-Johnny Ronky 5 fish, 15.85 pounds; 2. Adam La tham-Robert Latham ; 3. Jerry Taylor 14.02; 4. Bo Boltz- Mitchell Anderson 13.80; 5. James Ashton-Burley Lan gford Jr. 13.50; big fish: John Guzik-Michael Guzik 5.45. The top 50 in points will compete in the last tournament of the year Oct. 3 at Osbourne Landing.

I’ll talk until I’m hoarse about Richmond’s trails. For years, I’ve extolled their virtues to anyone who’d listen. The variety, the amount, the way they bring so many different kinds of users downtown while still maintaining a sense of wilderness. I’ve always argued that this re source is truly special. But then I’m a Richmonder. I’m biased. Now, however, you don’t just have to take my word for it.

CYPRESS BRIDGE In a slough off the Nottoway River south of Courtland lies an orgy of the gothic and grotesque. Few find it by accident, and those who do rarely know what they’ve stumbled upon. Until 2005, the Lost For est wasn’t on any map. They say true places never are. Only briefly every year can anyone explore Virginia’s most bizarre and wonderful 37 acres on foot. Today, though, is one of those times, and I’m lucky enough to have a guide, Emporia resident Kevin Kessler. He, in turn, is lucky enough to have as his guide Byron Carmean, the man who first “discovered” and named the Lost Forest. That is to say Carmean was the first person to recognize the matchless value of this grove of ancient cypress and water tupelo and call attention to it.

On Sept. 26, organizations across the nation will participate in the first national Wild Horse Adoption Day. Uniting with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be other wild horse and animal advocacy groups. One of the numerous wild horse adoption sites planned for that day will be in Lorton in Northern Virginia at the BLM’s Meadowood recreation site.

Castaway Sporting Goods (804 706-9100) reports the following blue cat catches: Thomas Hickman (Manassas) 55 pounds, 8 ounces, 31-2; Pat Hood (Manassas) 36-12. The saltwater side is flying high. For the past two weeks, anglers have been catching some big croaker on shrimp and squid. Anglers also are stocking up on spot using bloodworms.

Pollution, coupled with humankind’s compulsion to tinker with nature, has drastically changed the makeup of the James’ inhabitants.

I’ve never understood how they compute the odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery game. On every billboard announcing the jackpot in small print it says, “Odds of winning 1 in 172 million.“ Yet there’s no guarantee someone will have the winning numbers each time. Whatever. Math has never been my strong suit. It makes my brain ache a little every time I think about problems like that.

The Times-Dispatch recently convened a panel of experts to hear their ideas on dealing with Virginia’s top environmental challenges. Here are excerpts.