May 18, 2021 - By Meghan Mulroy-Goldman, DOF Community Forester Ever wonder where the fruit in the grocery store comes from? In today’s supermarkets, you can find fruit and nuts from across the country and globe. You might find bananas from Guatemala, almonds from California, and apples from New York. Many familiar foods grow on trees and can be grown right in your backyard, in city parks, or even on street trees! While growing... Read More
May 12, 2021 - By Katlin DeWitt, DOF Forest Health Specialist Spring is a welcome season for many living things, signaling the end of cold weather and resurgence of color through plants blooming and leafing out. This period of awakening also means that insects emerge and utilize tender foliage for their own development. Forests support many insects throughout their life cycle, but some Lepidopteran species (butterflies and moths) are called early season defoliators, meaning... Read More
May 7, 2021 - By Ellen Powell, DOF Conservation Education Coordinator There’s a lot going on underfoot in Virginia’s forests, from wild to wonderful to just plain weird. Some of our strangest plants break all the rules we learned back in elementary school. They aren’t green, they don’t photosynthesize, and they don’t even look like plants. At first glance, these odd growths emerging from the leaf litter appear to be mushrooms. A closer look... Read More
May 4, 2021 - By Molly O’Liddy, DOF Community Forestry Partnership Coordinator Despite these uncertain times, communities across the Commonwealth have continued to celebrate their love of trees in Arbor Day celebrations. In Virginia, Arbor Day is annually recognized as the last Friday in April. Traditionally, cities and towns have held parades, concerts and festivals that bring the whole community together. During the first Arbor Day, held in Nebraska in 1872, one million trees... Read More
May 4, 2021 - April 30 is the last day of Virginia’s spring fire season, and it typically goes out like a lamb. Not this year. DOF personnel were on high alert all day last Friday, after the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning, meaning low humidity and high winds would create conditions ripe for wildfires. In fact, on Friday and Saturday, DOF personnel responded to eighteen fires which burned more than... Read More
May 1, 2021 - May 1, 2021 is Wildfire Community Preparedness Day and the entire month of May is considered National Wildfire Awareness Month. The Virginia Department of Forestry is joining in to dedicate May to prevention and preparedness. Prevention and suppression of wildfires is a key part of the Virginia Department of Forestry’s (DOF) mission; the agency achieves this through education, as well as responding to and suppressing wildfires. DOF responders suppress more... Read More
April 28, 2021 - By Ellen Powell, DOF Conservation Education Coordinator As a botany enthusiast, I spend a lot of spring hikes looking down, seeking out flashes of white and pops of color from early spring wildflowers. Fortunately, when I get tired of staring at the forest floor, there are blooms to be seen at eye level and above, thanks to our spring-blooming native trees and shrubs. I should first note that all of... Read More
April 26, 2021 - By Scott Bachman, DOF Senior Area Forester, Blackwater team Now that it’s April I will declare that spring is officially here in southeastern Virginia! Earlier this month, I was traveling a back road in Southampton County when ahead I saw a line of small objects on the highway. As I got closer, I could see they were birds. The lead bird was larger than the four that followed. My first thought was... Read More
April 23, 2021 - By Lori Chamberlin, DOF Forest Health Manager Hemlock trees have been under attack since the introduction of the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that was first discovered in eastern North America in the 1950s. These small insects settle at the base of hemlock needles, feed on plant sap, and surround themselves in soft, white ovisacs that resemble cotton balls. They may look harmless, but the hemlock woolly adelgid has... Read More
April 20, 2021 - By Todd Groh, DOF Forest Resource Management Program Manager The Reforestation of Timberlands (RT) Program is turning fifty years old this year. This program, managed by the Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF), is a good example of what can be done when people come together for a common goal. More than fifty years ago, Virginia looked a lot different than it does today. Although forests were still prevalent across the state,... Read More
