The North Carolina Arboretum invites everyone to join in the reawakening of a new season with Spring Into the Arb. Now in its second year, this series of plant shows and sales, science and nature activities and music and art is a wonderful way to reemerge and reconnect with nature. 

This past Sunday at church, someone quoted the old Greek proverb, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.” As the speaker continued to make a connection with the proverb and the future of our church, I quietly sat with the words and let them wash over me. 

With spikes on his shoes, a helmet on his head, a rope on his harness and a chainsaw on his belt, Ken Gragg starts to climb. He moves easily up the red maple tree, pausing as he reaches a Y in the trunk. Balancing on his spikes, he assesses his surroundings, draws his chainsaw and cuts away the smaller half of the Y. It falls to the ground with a crackle and a thump, and Gragg continues climbing. 

The Forest Service released its final decision on the Crossover Project, which seeks to restore and strengthen native hardwood forests on more than 1,900 acres of the Nantahala National Forest throughout the Snowbird Mountains near Topton.

Work on the Crossover Project started in 2017 with the goal of making the area healthier and more enjoyable for visitors.

The Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site in Johnson City, Tennessee  will host its 23rd Annual Maple Syrup Festival and pancake breakfast from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14.

Come out to Tipton-Haynes to discover the history, lore and method of making maple syrup.

Winter has come to Southern Appalachia; the forests are mostly dormant, sleeping and saving energy for springtime and the return of growth and vitality. While it may appear that everything is slowed and in decline, just below the surface, life still flourishes. This quote from the mystic Iranian Sufi poet Rumi captures the flourish: “And don't think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It's quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” 

Gardeners perhaps haven’t started planning yet, but N.C. State Extension Master Gardener volunteers are available to answer questions about lawns, vegetables, flowers, trees and ornamental plants; disease, insect, weed or wildlife problems; soils (including soil test results) and fertilizers; freeze and frost damage; and cultural and chemical solutions to pest problems. 

The Roadless Rule Recission is genuinely so unpopular to have perhaps been inspired by a claim that Trump couldn’t possibly do anything more universally hated than gutting National Park funding, to which the president said, “Oh yeah? Hold my beer.” 

A man who lives up Caney Fork once told me he didn’t split red oak for firewood because its sap smelled like urine. He called it “piss oak.” His remark came back to me one day in September while I stood in my woodlot filling my lungs with the odor from a ton of freshly bucked-up red oak waiting to be split, and all I can say is that one man’s stench is another’s sweet aroma. 

Growing up in Swain County, Nathan Dee Greene ate a lot of apples. The family had several trees of their own, but every fall, they bought bushels from the nearby orchard on Laurel Branch, across the Tuckasegee River from Great Smoky Mountains National Park.