Mulch is organic material placed on the soil’s surface around trees and plants to enhance their growing conditions. Mulch helps maintain soil temperature and moisture, reduce water loss from soil, reduce weed competition, improve soil structure, and give landscapes a clean appearance. Often overlooked, spreading mulch around your trees is one of the easiest and most beneficial techniques that can have great impact on the health and vitality of your trees.

The Georgia Forestry Commission has begun the 15th year of its campaign to fight the exotic, invasive weed known as cogongrass. Forty three new detections have been confirmed from January 1, 2021 through March 17, 2021 in Georgia, bringing the statewide cumulative total to 1,501 cogongrass spots. This number is moderately higher than the 31 detections made during this same time period in 2020.

The National Weather Service (NWS) determined an EF-4 tornado crossed Heard, Coweta, and Fayette Counties in the late hours of March 25, 2021 and into the early hours of March 26, 2021. The tornado touched down at approximately 11:37 PM EDT, west of Franklin, Georgia, ending at approximately 12:30 AM EDT just north of Peachtree City, Georgia

Georgia Forestry Commission Forest Health experts say moving firewood has been linked to the spread of destructive, non-native insects and diseases to forest ecosystems. While these pests can’t move far on their own, they can travel hundreds of miles when people move firewood, logs, chips, and mulch. Forest pests can kill our native trees and be very expensive, if not impossible, to control.

In 2021, Irwin, Jones, and Pierce Counties were the only counties reporting cogongrass for the first time. There were 156 detections in 2021, bringing the number of known cogongrass spots in the state to 1621, scattered across 72 counties.

Chinese (Ligustrum sinense), European (Ligustrum vulgare) and Japanese (Ligustrum japonicum) privets are all listed as invasive-exotic species that threaten native South Carolina forests. These are semi-evergreen, multi-stemmed shrubs or small trees that can grow up to a height of 20 feet. Ligustrum sp. are native to China, parts of Europe and Japan, and were first introduced into the United States around 1909 for ornamental use as shrub borders, erosion control plantings and wildlife forage. Characteristic flowers of Ligustrum species are showy, panicles of tiny, creamy-white flowers that are very fragrant and abundant in late spring through summer. Fruit produced are small, rounded dark-purple berries that persist throughout the winter, especially favored by birds.

Vibrant cities cultivate urban forests that support public health, safety, sustainability, and economic growth.