Everyone knows the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), which is usually somewhere in your lawn unless herbicides are heavily used. This European import is probably enemy number one on the lawn weed list, but it is still an interesting study, being both an edible and medicinal.

In our area Spring seems to be a crap shoot with all the cold snaps in between warm ups. And when I looked into it, I found that there is more than one opinion of when Spring begins, and so here is a rundown of the possibilities.

These days it’s easy to get on an environmental guilt trip. Drive your car to work, you pollute the air. Buy a box of crackers, you end up with a box and wax paper to add to the landfill problem. Run your heat pump, add carbon dioxide and support global warming. But, in honor of March being Arbor Month in Tennessee (April for Kentucky and Virginia), let me suggest doing something to feel good about, one with numerous pluses: plant a tree. Why so good? Let me enumerate

Trees provide thousands of products we use every day and they are a great blessing to our society. Some tree products are even addictive and consumed in large amounts. Take chewing gum for instance. A few decades ago the chewy part of gum was obtained from a tree called the Sapodilla that grows in Central America. The sap from the tree is called chicle and was the mainstay of the chewing gum industry until after World War II, when synthetic gums largely replaced it. Gum chewing is a common habit and some folks are never without it.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

When I was a kid in the 1970s, seeing a deer was a rare thing, so much so that when I did see one it was like I was witnessing wilderness— ‘feeling wildness’ as I call it. These days, deer populations are so high that I see them almost daily on the farm, so that special feeling has faded into commonplace. But it still comes out when I see, or more likely, hear, owls. I get chill bumps every time, and it’s a very satisfying feeling.

I don’t know the stats for our area, but on a national level Americans are overstressed, which long term is unhealthy. The causes are familiar: fast pace of lifestyle, multi-tasking, you know the sound bites. I’ve written about studies that show that immersing yourself in natural settings can reduce stress, so I revisited the topic and found some new twists on natural stress reduction. Here are some recommendations that surfaced.

If you look up on a clear day you will likely see man-made clouds somewhere in the sky, trailing behind jet aircraft high up in the atmosphere. Contrails, short for condensation trails, are formed from the water vapor in aircraft exhaust as a byproduct of fuel combustion. Natural clouds form the same process of water vapor condensing in cool air as it rises, so technically contrails are clouds, just from an unnatural source.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Eastern White pine is a very handsome tree widely used for landscaping, windbreaks, and visual barriers. It can be hard to find in natural stands here locally, and most of what you see has been planted. There is also a species west of the Mississippi called western white pine.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Our winter has delt us with some single digit temperatures recently, so perhaps you don’t really want to hear any more about cold. But stay with me on this one and perhaps you won’t be so down on our own winter weather.

By Steve Roark
As a forester, I often get asked tree health questions, and one involves flat blotches stuff growing on well-established yard trees. It’s often blue-green but can come in other colors. These are Lichens, of which there are many species, have found a niche where they can grow off the ground and away from competing plants. They are perfectly happy living in the high-rise apartment provided by tree trunks, especially in deep shade areas. Most older trees in our area have at least one small colony of lichen growing somewhere.