In August, “From the Woods Today” is going to explore hummingbirds, vultures, water quality and much more. The University of Kentucky Forestry and Natural Resources Extension’s weekly webcast is a spinoff from the original radio program, “From the Woods KY” that recently won the Gold Award for Podcast or Radio Program from the Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals. The webcast offers relevant and interesting information about woodlands and wildlife each Wednesday at 11 a.m. EDT. 

The program streams on Zoom, Facebook Live and where podcasts are available. Hosts Billy Thomas and Reneé Williams, UK extension forester and information specialist, respectively, welcome UK specialists who share their knowledge of Kentucky’s forests and the creatures, plants and fungi that call them home. 

August’s episodes include: 

Aug. 4: John Pollpeter, lead naturalist for the woodlands nature section of Friends of Land Between the Lakes will lead the session on hummingbirds and the hummingbird festival. UK tree improvement specialist Laura DeWald, whose research focus is on white oak genetics, will talk about collecting acorns for the White Oak Improvement Project, and Laurie Thomas, UK extension forester, will discuss the master naturalist program. 

Aug. 11: This week begins with a water quality update from UK water quality specialist Amanda Gumbert. UK assistant extension professor of forest health Ellen Crocker will give answers in the “What’s Bugging my Tree?” segment. UK forest health technician Megan Burland will highlight a mushroom species.  

Aug. 18: UK senior forestry extension associate Darren Morris will talk about the White Oak Initiative, and Joyce Bender, head of the Kentucky Invasive Plant Council, will discuss the ecoregions of Kentucky.  

Aug. 25: Matt Springer, UK assistant extension professor of wildlife management, will talk about vultures. DeWald will discuss tree seedling, and UK extension forester Billy Thomas will give an update on upcoming programs.  

UK extension forester Laurie Thomas will introduce the Tree of the Week during each episode except for Aug. 4. 

The link to the Zoom sessions, a list of topics and archived episodes are available at http://www.FromTheWoodsToday.com. Participants will receive a prompt to install Zoom, if they haven’t already done it. When asked for an identification number, sign in as a guest. Anyone can join a session, regardless of their location. The episodes are also available on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/ForestryExtension/.