Leaves in absence? Get cold clues, hot tips

winter trees for GB“Identifying trees without leaves can be a real challenge,” says CFAES’s Kathy Smith, who will show you how to meet that challenge on March 28 in Chardon. Why bother? Telling trees apart in winter can help you plan for spring, she says. Work such as planting, pruning and thinning, for example, depends on knowing just what you’ve got growing.

Why you may want to grow crops like this one

garden vetchA March 17 workshop hosted by the All Ohio Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society will look at how farmers can reduce the off-site movement of soluble nutrients such as phosphorus. One way involves growing cover crops, such as the vetch shown here, which benefit the soil. Four of the speakers will be from CFAES. (Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org.)

Climate change, carbon storage, and the future of Great Lakes forests

peter curtisOhio State’s Peter Curtis presents “Predicting Carbon Storage of Great Lakes Forests in the Year 2050” in a free webinar from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27. Curtis is an ecology professor and directs the Forest Carbon Cycle Research Program at the University of Michigan Biological Station in Michigan’s Northern Lower Peninsula. His talk is part of a series sponsored by Ohio State’s Climate Change Outreach Team. Get details and register.

Climate change, science and moving past partisan politics

inglis-web-photoFormer six-term U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis presents “Using Science to Overcome Partisanship: The Climate Change Example” March 18 at Ohio State. Inglis lost his bid for re-election in 2010 possibly because of his support for a carbon tax aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2013 Politico interview. He’s now the executive director of George Mason University’s Energy and Enterprise Initiative, which promotes conservative solutions to America’s climate and energy challenges. (Photo: E&EI.)

Agroforestry and birds in the Andes (and some that come to Ohio)

cerulean warblerMolly McDermott, Ph.D. candidate in CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, presents “The Role of Tropical Agroforestry in the Ecology and Conservation of Flocking Andean Birds” at 4 p.m. today, Feb. 20. Details. Some birds that nest in Ohio in summer, such as the beleaguered cerulean warbler, shown here, also spend winter in the Andes. (Photo: Dendroica cerulea by Mdf licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.)