South Central

Fall is finally here in parts of the South!  Trees are beginning to change color, hunters are getting ready for the season, nights are finally getting cooler, and campers and homeowners are thinking about enjoying those nice, cool evenings with a fire in the fireplace or chimenea. But, those beautiful colors and evenings could be destroyed by a deadly pest that might be hiding in your firewood: the Emerald Ash Borer.

Eric Rutkow’s "American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation" focuses on trees, weaving a fascinating history of our nation through the foundation of our American relationship to trees. By seeing the historical lens of American formation through trees, Rutkow’s breadth includes a conservation, historical, and philosophical focus on trees as the foundation of our communities, laws, and civic virtues and vices. Rutkow writes, “How easy it is to forget that much of American history has been defined by trees.”

Guest writer: Becky McPeake, Extension Wildlife, UA Division of Agriculture.

Do your woods look like a plow has run through it? Are you having problems with something damaging your tree seedlings, and it’s not deer? Are there mud holes along your waterways? These are indications you’ve got feral hogs.

To understand what inspires me you have to understand my background. I am a city girl. I try to deny it, but I spent my early life in large cities: Dallas and Tulsa.

You can learn much more about agroforestry and how it might work for you.

There are several online and local resources available for finding a respected forester you can hire to help meet your land management goals. Read on for details.