tree planting

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• Local foods in the news this week

Many of Alaska’s newspapers had articles about local foods this week. Here is a sampling of some of the offerings.

Click here to read an article called “Beware of wild things in the blueberry patch” from the Capital City Weekly, about slugs, bugs and bears.

Click here to read an update on the Second Annual Juneau Farmers Market and Local Foods Festival from the Capital City Weekly. This event is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

Click here to read an item in Capital City Weekly about a tree planting and pruning workshop here in Sitka on Monday, Aug. 24, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Click here to read an article and photo package from Fran Durner’s “Talk Dirt To Me” gardening blog in the Anchorage Daily News about Dan Bilyeu of Nikiski, who grows and sells gourmet oyster mushrooms.

Click here to read a “Berries of the Kenai Peninsula” feature from the 2009 Peninsula Clarion Recreation and Tourist Guide.

It’s not from an Alaska publication, but the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has a story (click here to read it) about new research into phytochemicals and other healthy plant compounds in potatoes.

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• Alaska Division of Forestry hosts tree planting, pruning class Aug. 24

Sitka residents are invited to learn how to select the right tree for the right place — and how to plant, maintain and prune it — at an all-day class on Monday, Aug. 24, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

The class is taught by urban forester and arborist Jim Flott. He has 25 years of experience in urban forestry and the nursery and landscape industry to offer to participants. He teaches tree workshops nationwide.

Chief among the topics the class will cover is how trees function as complex systems and how to use this information when selecting, siting, planting, pruning and maintaining landscape trees. A classroom presentation will be followed by a demonstration in the field and hands-on experience in pruning and planting.

The class is sponsored by the Alaska Division of Forestry Community Forestry Program and the Alaska Community Forest Council, with financial support from the U.S. Forest Service.

For more information, go to the Alaska Division of Forestry Web site at http://www.forestry.alaska.gov/community/, or the Kettleson Memorial Library, or contact Lisa Moore in Sitka at 747-5534 or moorelisa@aol.com. The registration fee is $35.