News Stories - Page 280

While bee populations have been declining for the past several decades, urban beekeeping and public awareness of pollinators are on the rise. CAES News
Small changes can make a big difference in the lives of urban pollinators
News of the startling decline in bee and pollinator populations covers newspapers and gardening magazines, but they often don’t offer much advice on how people can reverse this trend. Stop using pesticides around the home and garden? Install beehives where the swing set used to be?
An early morning golfer stops to inspect the pollinator habitat at the University of Georgia Golf Course. This patch near the course's first hole is filled with a mix of wildflowers that will bloom from March to September. It's the first of seven to eight acres of pollinator habitat slated for the golf course. CAES News
UGA Golf Course steps up pollinator protection with its first habitat
Golf courses are some of the most heavily managed urban landscapes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have room for wildlife. At the University of Georgia, golf course superintendent Scott Griffith is making sure pollinators have the flowers and space they need to thrive.
Wildflowers grow on a hillside at the University of Georgia Research and Education Garden in Griffin, Ga. CAES News
Once established, wildflowers add to landscape, feed beneficial pollinators
Whether you plant wildflowers in huge swaths along roadsides or in tiny pocket gardens in the backyard, the vibrant colors and rich mixtures these hardy plants bring are sure to please any flower-lover’s eye and attract beneficial pollinating insects
Professional foresters have long relied on the 135-page Service Forester's Handbook for on-the-go access to the formulas, facts and figures they need. The pocket-sized weather-resistant field-guide helps foresters convert figures, calculate volumes and dozens of other key calculations.  
This spring UGA Extension and Southern Regional Forestry Extension have released the first electronic and interactive version of the field guide. CAES News
UGA Extension and Southern Regional Extension Forestry create new mobile app for professional foresters
Professional foresters have long relied on the 135-page Service Forester’s Handbook for on-the-go access to the formulas, facts and figures they need. The pocket-sized weather-resistant field-guide helps foresters convert figures, calculate volumes and dozens of other key calculations.
Alex Csinos, a University of Georgia scientist based in Tifton, holds up a pair of tobacco plants during a tobacco tour on the UGA Tifton Campus on June 10, 2014. Csinos shows nematode damage on a tobacco plant. CAES News
Nematode populations a major concern for Georgia tobacco farmers
Microscopic worms called nematodes may seem harmless, but they can devastate a tobacco field, reducing yields, stunting plant growth and cutting into farmer profits. A University of Georgia plant pathologist is studying different management systems in hopes of reducing the nematode’s impact on Georgia agriculture.
Georgia's Master Gardener Extension Volunteers were invited to the University of Georgia's campus in Griffin on June 5 for a 35th Anniversary celebration. In true form, the volunteers spent the day learning from UGA experts so they can continue to help educate the public on the latest research-based information. CAES News
UGA Extension volunteer program celebrates 35th anniversary
For the past 100 years, Georgia gardeners have relied on their local University of Georgia Extension agents for advice on everything from how to treat for Japanese beetles to which tomato variety makes for the best ‘mater sandwich. But answering all of those gardening questions could be a little overwhelming if it weren’t for a group of dedicated trained volunteers.
Ambrosia beetle damage on a fig tree. CAES News
Ambrosia beetles boring holes in freeze damaged fig trees
Backyard fig gardeners may be seeing toothpick-like spines protruding from their beloved fig trees. This is a sign that ambrosia beetles are boring into the tree’s stems.
A crowd browses the Trial Gardens at UGA at an industry open house earlier this summer. The gardens are expected to be in full bloom for the public open house on July 9. CAES News
The Trial Gardens at UGA host 32nd annual open house
Over the last three decades the Trial Gardens at UGA have introduced home gardeners and landscape designers to thousands of new plant varieties. The public will have the chance to get a first look at this year’s new varieties and some tried and true Georgia favorites at the gardens’ annual public house on July 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A common bean plant sits in the middle of a variety of dried beans. CAES News
UGA scientists collaborate to sequence common bean's genome
Beans are a staple crop and primary protein source for millions of people around the world, but very little has been known about their domestication or nitrogen-fixing properties until now.