Browse Environment Stories - Page 44

With a record-setting cold snap and snow-snarled highways in north Georgia, January 2014 went into the record books as one bone-chilling month.

Last summer’s rain combined with this winter’s frigid temperatures have left cattle suffering and Georgia cattlemen seeking answers.

Georgia cattlemen are struggling to feed their herds and fighting the affects of poor quality forages. With calf prices at a high, selling off stock may be the best option, says one University of Georgia expert.

A strong winter storm will throw a double punch of extreme conditions across northeast Georgia this week - Tuesday through Thursday. The first part of the storm is expected to move into northern Georgia Monday night and Tuesday morning with the potential for sleet, freezing rain and snow up to several inches in the higher elevations. The second, stronger part of the storm will move in around Tuesday evening and is expected to bring widespread freezing rain to most of northern and eastern Georgia.

When we think of invasive species we usually think of insects, plants and animals that have been shipped to Georgia from another part of the world, but it’s a two-way street. Georgia’s native plants and insects can be just as devastating overseas if they take root in a foreign ecosystem

Become a citizen scientist Saturday, Feb. 15 and help Rock Eagle 4-H Center take an inventory of its wild bird population. Expert and beginner birders alike are invited to walk the 4-H center’s property and scout for waterfowl, songbirds, woodpeckers, raptors and other birds. The bird-scouting event is part of The Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual four-day event set for Feb. 14 through Feb. 17.

Auto-steer technology, variable rate irrigation, smart-phone apps — these are all precision farming techniques that University of Georgia professor George Vellidis believes farmers should be using in their day-to-day operations.

A hard freeze sure can make landscapes look bad. The best advice for now is the “wait and see approach.” Give the plants time to recover, oh let’s say, until spring. No good will be done from pruning away what you think is dead; it may still be alive.

Waste from most Georgia homes is managed through centralized sewage treatment plants. But 36.8 percent of Georgia homes, and 25 percent of homes in the United States, use septic systems. A University of Georgia soil scientist is studying how on-site home septic systems affect the quality and quantity of water in Georgia’s rivers and streams.

With 65 inches of rain observed statewide, conditions in Georgia were much wetter than usual in 2013. The state as a whole received its third largest annual total precipitation since state records began in 1895.