Friday forest fire update. Moderate to strong winds will prevail with temperatures at or slightly below seasonal values as the colder northern air mass pushes southeastwards. Never leave your fire unattended and make sure it is completely extinguished before leaving. Cloudy skies with showers will remain over most of the region. Please use caution with outdoor fires. Sudbury 46 and Sault Ste Marie 13 are both under control. For more information please visit www.ontario. The risk of...

Most of the fruit production is from grafted trees so planting a peach pit (seed) could produce a peach tree but the fruit might not be the same as the original fruit. Muscadine grape varieties have three different flower types: perfect flowers with functional stamens and pistils that produce fruit without cross pollination; female flowers that must have pollination from another plant with perfect or male flowers; and male flowers. The outer coating on a peach seed is very hard so it would...

Thanks to a wonderful donation of over 500 trees and lilac bushes, the City of Shelby and the middle school and high school kids turned their community service day into a tree planting day. This year approximately 150 kids got involved in the tree planting, making this year another productive community service day. Every year, Lawyer Nursery gathers trees and bushes they would normally discard and finds a place to donate them instead of trashing them. The city provided the potting soil and...

The Russian decision to apply export duties on timber have so far had no impact on the timber market since the first increase will not enter into force until 1 July 2007. The forecast at the beginning of the year was that commercial felling in private forests would amount to about 47 million m3. Because last winter provided bad felling conditions due to warm weather, there is now a lively trade in standing timber suitable for being harvested in summer time. However, the present outlook is...

Forest Service reached an agreement to scale back a timber sale in northern Wisconsin to protect nearly 1,500 acres of forest that provide habitat for some threatened red-shouldered hawks, authorities said Monday. Deb Kidd, a specialist in forest planning and environmental analysis for Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest, said the settlement should be signed this week, allowing the agency to solicit bids for the logging. The logging work provides money for local economies and furthers the...