ANR
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According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States has 45 million “birders” over the age of 16. If you’ve traveled at least one mile from home to watch birds, or if you’ve spent time trying to identify birds around your home, you qualify as a birder. Eighty-seven percent of birdwatchers fall into…
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Wednesday morning, the outside temperature was 23 degrees Fahrenheit. The furnace at my house stopped working on Sunday, so the inside temperature was 56 degrees. This was an unpleasant reminder that it’s time to do all the winterizing tasks that help keep our homes comfortable during cold weather and potential winter storms. Task 1 –…
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Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday. Family, favorite foods, fall weather, football, and a fridge full of leftovers – other than a nap on the sofa, what more do you need? Answer: a plan for safe food preparation and handling. Every year, one in six Americans comes down with a case of foodborne illness,…
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Crape myrtles are popular ornamental trees throughout Georgia. Properly pruned, they’re elegant flowering trees with relatively few pests. In our highly mobile society, however, pests get opportunities to spread across natural barriers, like oceans. Such is the case with crape myrtle bark scale (Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae), an insect native to Asia that has invaded several southern…
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At the end of October, bats get a week of recognition. The timing coincides with Halloween, but we should really celebrate bats all year long. Why? Because bats are very cool, very unique, and very important to ecosystems around the world. With more than 1,300 species of bats, there’s a lot of diversity, but the…
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Believe it or not, most households have vampires greedily drinking energy and driving up electric bills. They may look small and harmless, like that little light on the cordless tool battery recharger or the idling computer waiting to be stirred to life. But collectively, energy vampires can increase monthly household electric bills by a monstrous…
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Dark mornings and evenings and colder temperatures at night let us know that winter is on the way. It may seem paradoxical, but October to December is the time to plant spring-flowering bulbs. That’s because most types of spring-flowering bulbs need 3-4 months of cold to stimulate those cheerful flowers to bloom. Where to plant…
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Floating row covers and low hoop houses can extend the gardening season later into the fall and can help gardeners get a head start on early spring plantings. They work by capturing ground heat and keeping it around the plants under the covering. These temporary structures can increase the temperature inside the hoop house by…
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Some recent headlines caught my attention, and as September is National Preparedness Month, I thought I would revisit them in the context of emergency preparedness and prevention. Sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Preparedness Month is a campaign to raise awareness of potential emergencies and disasters and encourage people to take actions…
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What makes a tree hazardous? In forest and natural environments, dying trees drop limbs, fall or collapse, and continue to contribute to the ecosystem. In settings where people are present, however, falling limbs and trees can cause injury, death, damage, and economic loss. If a failing tree or part of that tree is likely fall…
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